Gullah Geechee people set out to keep their family land. Unclear titles and surging taxes are pushing them out

Posted on May 10, 2026 by Admin

Property disputes, predatory developers and surging sea levels are putting the historic Black community at risk

On Arthur Champen’s half-acre property in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, a thicket of southern live oaks, palmettos and pine trees muffle the roar of cars on nearby highway 278. His haint blue house, lightened by the sun, sits on stilts to protect it from flooding that comes with the high tide. During the spring, it is common for the marshland adjacent to his land to turn into a muddy soup. “Other than the cars,” Champen, 81, said, “you hear how peaceful it is?”

About a decade ago, Champen’s family nearly lost the grassy marshland next door that their family bought several generations ago.

Georgia dock collapse: witness says gangway buckled from ‘too much weight’

Posted on October 22, 2024 by Admin

Daisy Hicks, 84, observed victims waiting for ferry using walkers and wheelchairs before plummeting into water

A woman who says she witnessed a dock collapse in Georgia that killed seven people says she noticed many were using walkers and wheelchairs before the gangway failed and sent them plummeting into the water.

“I can still see those people bobbling around in that water,” 84-year-old Daisy Hicks said in remarks published by the Florida Times-Union and obtained by its reporting partner First Coast News. Saying she was left traumatized by what she witnessed, she added: “I can still hear people screaming. I can still see [a] lady that was [subsequently] going around asking for blankets” to carry before the arrival of rescue equipment.

‘It’s devastating’: seven dead identified in Georgia dock gangway collapse

Posted on October 21, 2024 by Admin

The dead, in their 70s and one woman in her 90s, were on Sapelo Island to celebrate the Gullah Geechee culture

New details have emerged in the catastrophic collapse of a dock gangway on a small island in Georgia over the weekend that killed seven people and injured many more.

The collapse, which caused at least 20 people to plunge into the water, occurred after the Cultural Day festival on Sapelo Island in honor of Gullah Geechee culture. Officials say that up to 40 people were standing on the dock gangway to board a ferry back to the mainland when the structure gave way.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

Dock collapse on Georgia’s Sapelo Island leaves as least seven dead

Posted on October 19, 2024 by Admin

Accident occurred as crowds gathered on the island for a celebration of the Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants

At least seven people were killed after part of a ferry dock collapsed on Georgia’s Sapelo Island, authorities said.

Multiple people were taken to hospitals, and crews from the US coast guard, the McIntosh County Fire Department, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and others were searching the water, according to spokesperson Tyler Jones of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which operates the dock.