Tag Archives: Beaufort County
Gullah/Geechee Nation Coastal Challenge Update
On the South Carolina Coast: A Tree Saved, a Cultural Overlay Challenged, and Data Centers Given a Path Forward
Monday, September 14, 2026 brought a flood of consequential local-government action along the South Carolina coast. The outcomes were not as simple as “win” or “loss.” The Beaufort County Council did not vote on St. Helena Island’s Cultural Protection Overlay, but the latest Pine Island challenge is moving toward the Planning Commission. In Charleston County, a redesign kept the Sol Legare witness tree standing, but the approved driveway will still enter its critical root zone. In Colleton County, Council did not approve construction of a particular data center; it adopted the comprehensive-plan, zoning-text, and zoning-map changes that make future data centers much easier to permit.
Here is what happened, what did not happen, and what you can do next.
HEADS UP! Protect the Gullah/Geechee Nation’s Coast!
Two counties. Two critical meetings. One coast to defend.
Monday, September 14, 2026, is a critical day for the future of the Gullah/Geechee Nation’s coast!
While Beaufort County Council prepares to discuss yet another attempt to remove Pine Island from the Cultural Protection Overlay District protecting St. Helena Island, Colleton County Council will consider regulations that could determine whether massive data centers gain a foothold in the rural ACE Basin.
These meetings overlap. Therefore, we need the Gullah/Geechee famlee, environmental justice advocates, landowners, preservationists and everyone who values the South Carolina Lowcountry to divide forces and fill both council chambers.
We cannot sit silently while destructioneers repeatedly attempt to wear down the laws that protect our land, water, culture and quality of life.
Honoring the Peaceful Rest of Our Gullah/Geechee Ancestors: Queen Quet Leads the Gullah/Geechee Sacred Site Protection Project
Approximately 3,200 individuals have now been identified within 50 of the 52 known burial sites on St. Helena and Warsaw Islands. Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, is undertaking the enormous work of researching these individuals through the “Gullah/Geechee Sacred Site Protection Project,” a collaboration between the Beaufort County Planning Department and the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition.
This is far more than a cemetery survey. It is an act of remembrance, cultural preservation, historical restoration and sacred responsibility.
Living Water, Living Legacy and Living Resistance: September in the Gullah/Geechee Nation
September begins with prayer, but prayer must move our feet, strengthen our voices and guide our hands into action. Throughout this month, the Gullah/Geechee Nation will be filled with opportunities to worship, celebrate, learn, remember, organize and defend the sacred Sea Island homeland.
Gullah/Geechee Famlee Weekend 2026 Brings the Global Gullah/Geechee Family Home to Historic St. Helena Island, SC
Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation, invites the community to gather at Penn Center for a powerful weekend of cultural reconnection, creativity, rhythm, foodways, art, ancestral legacy, and Gullah/Geechee family unity The Gullah/Geechee Nation invites the world to the epicenter of Gullah/Geechee culture—historic St. Helena Island, South Carolina—for Gullah/Geechee Famlee Weekend 2026, a two-day …
Gullah/Geechee and SCELP Fighting Racial Discrimination Case to Protect Cultural Protection Overlay District
Queen Quet continued, “I have reviewed the complaint brought by the Plaintiffs in this case and recognize that they seek to destroy and invalidate the CPO so that their “destructionment” can move forward. The lawsuit is being made under the guise of claiming that the CPO is a race-based law. This is inaccurate and a misrepresentation. That accusation is legally unsound, historically inaccurate, and sociologically reductive. It collapses Gullah/Geechee culture into race and thereby erases the very heritage, land-use traditions, spiritual practices, language, kinship structures, ecological knowledge, and settlement patterns that the CPO was designed to protect. No one of any race or culture can violate the CPO law! We have the right to protect the environment and to continue to peacefully exist as native Gullah/Geechees and anyone that has come to St. Helena Island to live benefits from the healthy environment of our beloved island. We binya and ain gwine nowhey!”
HEADS UP! Help Protect Gullah/Geechee Epicenter St. Helena Island ONCE AGAIN!
Join us Monday, December 8th before 6 pm at the Beaufort County Council Meeting at 100 Ribaut Road in Beaufort, SC to make sure that the Beaufort County Council continues to uphold their vote to protect the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Protection Overlay District of St. Helena Island, SC in the Gullah/Geechee Nation! We binya! We ain gwne nowhey!
Gullah/Geechee Ancestral Voices Speak to Protect St. Helena Island from Destructionment
For three years running, the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, our attorneys from the South Carolina Environmental Law Center, the Coastal Conservation League, Penn Center and a cadre of additional partners have continued to stand up to Protect St. Helena Island. This year, two of our fighters that understood that we are warring against spiritual wickedness in high and low places crossed over in the realm of the ancestors. The first one that made his crossing was Rev. Kenneth Hodges of the “Gullah/Geechee Visitors Center” who pastored Tabernacle Baptist Church in Beaufort, SC where we unveiled the Harriet Tubman Monument. We stood together many times on each of these things and in each of these places. His words live on as he speaks from the grave concerning the St. Helena Island Cultural Protection Overlay District…
STAND UP to Protect Gullah/Geechee Cultural Protection Overlay District!
Join us in the continued fight to protect the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Protection Overlay District of St. Helena Island, SC!
A Demonstration to Protect St. Helena
before Special Beaufort County Council Meeting Wednesday Aug. 20th at 12 pm at 104 Ribaut Rd in Beaufort, SC.
STAND UP for the CPO! Protecting the Gullah/Geechee Epicenter
HEADS UP! STAND UP! Protect the CPO! The repackaged plans to remove Pine Island/St. Helenaville from St. Helena’s CPO and enter into a development agreement with the County to build a gated golf resort on the Pine Island/St. Helenaville property in violation of the CPO go before the Planning Commission TONIGHT 5/5 at 6pm at 100 Clearwater Way in Beaufort, SC.