The Gullah Geechee community is made up of over 1 million people along the coast.
The Gullah Geechee community, which is spread between Jacksonville, North Carolina, and Jacksonville, Florida, is at risk of losing its ancestral homeland due to water pollution, increased storm surge, and disruptive climate impacts.
The community, one of the oldest Black-indigenous groups in the United States, has over one million people along the 400-mile stretch of coast. The group has occupied the Gullah Geechee corridor since its enslaved West African ancestors arrived there nearly 400 years ago. The Gullah Geechee people have since preserved their unique African traditions, but they are now under threat due to the climate crisis.
In 2019, the elected Chieftess of the Gullah Geechee Nation, Queen Quet, told Congress, “We knew Gullah Geechee culture would not continue to thrive or survive if we get displaced from the Sea Islands.”
“It’s a very unique community that has its dialect and maintained a certain type of connection to nature, the land, and the water.” The resiliency manager at the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor and descendent of the ancestral Gullah Geechee lineage, Erica Xavier-Beauvior, added, “There is a lot of spirituality that is embedded into this community that isn’t found in mainstream ways of society.”