Tag Archives: Pine Island
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.
Gullah/Geechee Fighting Against Golf, Gates and Genocide
This on-going battle to protect historic St. Helena Island, South Carolina from succumbing to the fate of numerous Black communities in which the people are displaced for the purpose of others’ recreation and plots and plans of genocidal gentrification should stand as an example of what came be done when people not only respect the law but when they respect the cultural heritage communities that they come into.
Gullah/Geechee Cultural Protection Overlay District Supporters File Court Motions
On August 3, 2023 during “Gullah/Geechee Nation Appreciation Week,” four groups filed independent motions to intervene to defend Beaufort County’s denial of plans for three (3) 6-hole golf courses on St. Helena Island in the appeal initiated by Pine Island Property Holdings, LLC. The Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition (filed by the South Carolina Environmental Law Project), The Penn Center (represented by Jack Smith of Nelson Mullins), Coastal Conservation League (represented by Ross Appel of McCullough Khan Appel), and individual landowners Leon and Joan Heyward and Robert New are fighting to uphold the Cultural Protection Overlay District zoning law.
Protecting St. Helena Island’s Gullah/Geechee Serenity by Queen Quet
With the coming of this destructionment there is not only environmental degradation, but higher land taxes and cultural degradation and erasure. I went before the world in 1999 to sound the alarm about this attempted genocide of native Gullah/Geechees and I have not stopped going to the world to keep them aware of our on-going need for their support to protect our cultural heritage and continue our cultural traditions in our homeland. I knew that my living was not in vain and that people had heard and continue to hear us when I saw the outpouring of the crowd that were Gullah/Geechee and non-Gullah/Geechee that showed up at at the Protect St. Helena Rally to help us fight to keep the St. Helena Island Cultural Protection Overlay District zoning law in place and to strengthen it so that it will continue to exist for centuries to come as will Gullah/Geechee culture.
Protect the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Protection Overlay for St. Helena Island
We are calling on you to stand with the Gullah/Geechees of St. Helena Island to protect our cultural heritage and the sustainability of our island! Tell Beaufort County to keep the St. Helena Island Cultural Protection Overlay District in tact as it is! DO NOT provided any text changes to the CPO! DO NOT allow any map amendments to the CPO District! DO NOT allow any building on Pine Island! Stop the destructionment of historic St. Helena and Pine Islands in the Gullah/Geechee Nation and continue to protect the human and environmental rights of native Gullah/Geechees!
Sign the petition: https://www.change.org/GullahGeecheeCulturalProtectionOverlay