A Black Georgia community uprooted in 1942 still fights to go home

"A once thriving Black community along the Georgia coast called Harris Neck is now covered with greenery. During its heyday in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the area boasted a school house, general store, firehouse and seafood processing plants, and supported 75 Black households on 2,687 acres. The inhabitants were Gullah Geechee people, the descendants of formerly enslaved west Africans, who remained on the Sea Islands along the south-east US where they retained their distinct creole language and culture following the civil war."

"In 1942, though, the community was leveled to the ground when the federal government kicked the families off of the land using eminent domain to build an army airfield. For nearly 50 years, the descendants of the Harris Neck community have fought to regain their ancestral land through peaceful protests and lobbying local and federal governments to no avail. Tyrone Timmons' great grandfather's oyster factory on more than 300 acres of land was one of the casualties during the government takeover."

"It was a profound experience for 52-year-old Timmons, to be able to just walk on that property, Timmons told the Guardian, to just be able to feel that sense of being home, feeling complete. Now, as the president of the advocacy group the Direct Descendants of Harris Neck Community (DDHNC), Timmons has continued his family's legacy of watching over the grounds, even if he doesn't live on them himself."

Harris Neck, once a thriving Black community on the Georgia coast, supported 75 Gullah Geechee households across 2,687 acres with a schoolhouse, general store, firehouse and seafood processing plants. In 1942 the federal government used eminent domain to remove families and build an army airfield, leveling the community. Descendants have pursued decades of peaceful protests and lobbying to regain ancestral land. Tyrone Timmons' great-grandfather lost an oyster factory on over 300 acres; Timmons later visited the former grounds and felt a profound sense of being home. Timmons leads the Direct Descendants of Harris Neck Community (DDHNC). The Harris Neck Land Trust (2005) and DDHNC (2019) educate the public and petition the government to return the land.

Read at www.theguardian.com