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Little Known Black History Fact: Sapelo Island
Nov 1, 2013 By Erica L. Taylor, The Tom Joyner Morning Show |
The Gullah-Geechee people of Sapelo Island are in a battle for the land of their ancestors. The local government for the area near Savannah, Georgia is requesting nearly a 600% increase in property taxes. Sapelo Island is the final community left of the Gullah-Geechee people in the United States. With the new land values placed on Sapelo, taxes have gone from $600 to $2,300 for one resident. This is a significant increase for a population that is limited by mainland work that must end by the last ferry ride at 5 p.m.
According to the state of Georgia, the properties have been deeply undervalued and have to be assessed at the right level. There are also requests for vacation homes on the island. The state owns nearly all of the land, with the exception of a small section called Hog Hammock where the residents live. There is no retail on Sapelo, only a gas station that’s open two days a week. There is no emergency response system or trash collection on Sapelo.
The lands of Sapelo Island have been home to generations of the Gullah-Geechee people, dating back to the mid-1800’s when their descendants were brought from Africa. Nine generations of relatives from one family have died and lived on the Sapelo lands that many residents are refusing to sell.
According to the state of Georgia, the properties have been deeply undervalued and have to be assessed at the right level. There are also requests for vacation homes on the island. The state owns nearly all of the land, with the exception of a small section called Hog Hammock where the residents live. There is no retail on Sapelo, only a gas station that’s open two days a week. There is no emergency response system or trash collection on Sapelo.
The lands of Sapelo Island have been home to generations of the Gullah-Geechee people, dating back to the mid-1800’s when their descendants were brought from Africa. Nine generations of relatives from one family have died and lived on the Sapelo lands that many residents are refusing to sell.
Leid Stories – 10/04/13
In Georgia, Descendants of Slaves Battle to Hold On to Their Land;
A small Gullah community of about 30 families living on Sapelo Island, off the Georgia coast, are in a fierce battle with the county government and local land developers to hold on to their ancestral land. The direct descendants of freed slaves who bought their land and settled on the pristine island, they say the county is trying to force them out by hiking their property taxes, even though they receive no county services and are protected by federal law against any land-value increases “that could force removal of the indigenous population.”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
In Georgia, Descendants of Slaves Battle to Hold On to Their Land;
A small Gullah community of about 30 families living on Sapelo Island, off the Georgia coast, are in a fierce battle with the county government and local land developers to hold on to their ancestral land. The direct descendants of freed slaves who bought their land and settled on the pristine island, they say the county is trying to force them out by hiking their property taxes, even though they receive no county services and are protected by federal law against any land-value increases “that could force removal of the indigenous population.”
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Mrs. Sarah Francis Drayton - Gullah Geechee Elder/Sapelo Island Resident
DARIEN, Ga. (AP) — Residents of one of the few remaining Gullah-Geechee communities on the Southeast coast opened new appeals Monday against soaring property values that brought them big tax hikes, fearful they could be forced off lands their families have owned since their ancestors were freed from slavery.
The African-American residents of the tiny Hog Hammock community on Georgia's Sapelo Island got sticker shock last year when steep increases in their property values saddled them with whopping tax bills.
Skyrocketing appraisals and tax bills come amid pressure from affluent mainland buyers driving up land values while seeking property along or near the Atlantic coast. But critics say the increasing tax burden violates protections enacted to help preserve the island's indigenous inhabitants.
Made up of slave descendants long isolated from the U.S. mainland, the Gullah-Geechee culture has clung to its African roots and traditions more than any other in America. Hog Hammock — with fewer than 50 residents — is one of the last such communities from North Carolina to Florida.
Julius and Cornelia Bailey saw the appraised value of the single acre on which they have a home, a convenience store and a small inn shoot from $220,285 in 2011 to $327,063 last year. Appraisers in Georgia's McIntosh County held firm on the new value after being ordered to take a second look in January by local authorities.
The Baileys and more than 40 of their neighbors appealed anew Monday after seeing little relief from the new appraisals.
Cornelia Bailey said her tax bill shot from about $800 to $3,000, though she and other island residents receive virtually no county services. They have no schools, no trash pickup, no police station and only one paved road.
"So what are we paying taxes for?" Bailey said after the board shot down her appeal and at least nine others Monday. "We're just paying for privilege of living on Sapelo Island. We don't want to be crybabies, but it seems like we're being treated unfairly."
Sapelo Island is separated from the mainland and reachable only by boat. Since 1976, the state of Georgia has owned most of its 30 square miles, largely unspoiled wilderness, while the tiny Hog Hammock community sits on less than a square mile of modest homes amid dirt roads.
The Gullah, referred to as Geechee in Georgia, are scattered in island communities over 425 miles of Atlantic coast where they've endured after their slave ancestors who worked island plantations were freed by the Civil War.
Scholars say these people long separated from the mainland retained much of their African heritage — from unique dialect to skills and crafts such as cast-net fishing and weaving baskets. But isolation also caused Gullah communities to shrink.
Since 2010, a handful of Hog Hammock landowners have sold their properties for as much as $165,500 a half-acre to mainland buyers wanting to build houses near the water. County appraisers insist they have valued homes according to market demands and land sale prices in the community.
"The values that we placed on their properties, we feel they still hold," said property appraiser Blair McLinn. "Nothing, we felt, has changed."
In at least one case the resulting property value increase was extreme. William and Maggie Banks saw a single acre of undeveloped land they own vault from an appraised value of $10,000 two years ago to a whopping $181,250. The appeals board upheld that higher value Monday.
Reed Colfax is a Washington-based attorney for 28 Hog Hammock landowners who have a separate housing discrimination complaint pending against McIntosh County with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
He said the higher appraisals fly in the face of a 1994 county ordinance that designates Hog Hammock a special zoning district intended to prevent "land value increases which could force removal of the indigenous population."
"They can't afford it," Colfax said. "They're going to be forced off the island in direct contradiction to the ordinance."
Attorneys for Hog Hammock residents argued Monday that county appraisers unfairly valued properties based on land sales between corporations and developers that were artificially high and dealt with properties never listed on the open market. They also said newer homes that have driven up property values are larger than allowed under zoning ordinances.
Robert Hudley, chairman of McIntosh County's Board of Equalization that hears appeals of property values, said his board was powerless to deal with zoning violations. He urged Hog Hammock residents to keep up their fight as the board upheld most of the higher appraisals. Its decisions can be appealed to Superior Court.
"I agree with what you're saying," Hudley told the group. "I'm saying go to a higher court. This doesn't need to stop here. It needs to go further."
read more...
The African-American residents of the tiny Hog Hammock community on Georgia's Sapelo Island got sticker shock last year when steep increases in their property values saddled them with whopping tax bills.
Skyrocketing appraisals and tax bills come amid pressure from affluent mainland buyers driving up land values while seeking property along or near the Atlantic coast. But critics say the increasing tax burden violates protections enacted to help preserve the island's indigenous inhabitants.
Made up of slave descendants long isolated from the U.S. mainland, the Gullah-Geechee culture has clung to its African roots and traditions more than any other in America. Hog Hammock — with fewer than 50 residents — is one of the last such communities from North Carolina to Florida.
Julius and Cornelia Bailey saw the appraised value of the single acre on which they have a home, a convenience store and a small inn shoot from $220,285 in 2011 to $327,063 last year. Appraisers in Georgia's McIntosh County held firm on the new value after being ordered to take a second look in January by local authorities.
The Baileys and more than 40 of their neighbors appealed anew Monday after seeing little relief from the new appraisals.
Cornelia Bailey said her tax bill shot from about $800 to $3,000, though she and other island residents receive virtually no county services. They have no schools, no trash pickup, no police station and only one paved road.
"So what are we paying taxes for?" Bailey said after the board shot down her appeal and at least nine others Monday. "We're just paying for privilege of living on Sapelo Island. We don't want to be crybabies, but it seems like we're being treated unfairly."
Sapelo Island is separated from the mainland and reachable only by boat. Since 1976, the state of Georgia has owned most of its 30 square miles, largely unspoiled wilderness, while the tiny Hog Hammock community sits on less than a square mile of modest homes amid dirt roads.
The Gullah, referred to as Geechee in Georgia, are scattered in island communities over 425 miles of Atlantic coast where they've endured after their slave ancestors who worked island plantations were freed by the Civil War.
Scholars say these people long separated from the mainland retained much of their African heritage — from unique dialect to skills and crafts such as cast-net fishing and weaving baskets. But isolation also caused Gullah communities to shrink.
Since 2010, a handful of Hog Hammock landowners have sold their properties for as much as $165,500 a half-acre to mainland buyers wanting to build houses near the water. County appraisers insist they have valued homes according to market demands and land sale prices in the community.
"The values that we placed on their properties, we feel they still hold," said property appraiser Blair McLinn. "Nothing, we felt, has changed."
In at least one case the resulting property value increase was extreme. William and Maggie Banks saw a single acre of undeveloped land they own vault from an appraised value of $10,000 two years ago to a whopping $181,250. The appeals board upheld that higher value Monday.
Reed Colfax is a Washington-based attorney for 28 Hog Hammock landowners who have a separate housing discrimination complaint pending against McIntosh County with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
He said the higher appraisals fly in the face of a 1994 county ordinance that designates Hog Hammock a special zoning district intended to prevent "land value increases which could force removal of the indigenous population."
"They can't afford it," Colfax said. "They're going to be forced off the island in direct contradiction to the ordinance."
Attorneys for Hog Hammock residents argued Monday that county appraisers unfairly valued properties based on land sales between corporations and developers that were artificially high and dealt with properties never listed on the open market. They also said newer homes that have driven up property values are larger than allowed under zoning ordinances.
Robert Hudley, chairman of McIntosh County's Board of Equalization that hears appeals of property values, said his board was powerless to deal with zoning violations. He urged Hog Hammock residents to keep up their fight as the board upheld most of the higher appraisals. Its decisions can be appealed to Superior Court.
"I agree with what you're saying," Hudley told the group. "I'm saying go to a higher court. This doesn't need to stop here. It needs to go further."
read more...
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TONY ARRUZA/© TONY ARRUZA/CORBIS
African-American residents of the Hog Hammock community on Georgia's Sapelo Island have lived there since their ancestors were freed from slavery. Residents say tax hikes are endangering their homes.
DARIEN, Ga. - Residents of one of the few remaining Gullah-Geechee communities on the Southeast coast opened new appeals Monday against soaring property values that brought them big tax hikes, fearful they could be forced off lands their families have owned since their ancestors were freed from slavery.
The African-American residents of the tiny Hog Hammock community on Georgia's Sapelo Island got sticker shock last year when steep increases in their property values saddled them with whopping tax bills.
Skyrocketing appraisals and tax bills come amid pressure from affluent mainland buyers driving up land values while seeking property along or near the Atlantic coast. But critics say the increasing tax burden violates protections enacted to help preserve the island's indigenous inhabitants.
African-American residents of the Hog Hammock community on Georgia's Sapelo Island have lived there since their ancestors were freed from slavery. Residents say tax hikes are endangering their homes.
DARIEN, Ga. - Residents of one of the few remaining Gullah-Geechee communities on the Southeast coast opened new appeals Monday against soaring property values that brought them big tax hikes, fearful they could be forced off lands their families have owned since their ancestors were freed from slavery.
The African-American residents of the tiny Hog Hammock community on Georgia's Sapelo Island got sticker shock last year when steep increases in their property values saddled them with whopping tax bills.
Skyrocketing appraisals and tax bills come amid pressure from affluent mainland buyers driving up land values while seeking property along or near the Atlantic coast. But critics say the increasing tax burden violates protections enacted to help preserve the island's indigenous inhabitants.
DAVID GOLDMAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Stephen Wilson, 68, walks onto the front porch of his home that his father built in Hog Hammock. "Dad built this house with his labor. Every time I put the key in the door, I remember coming home as a child saying, 'Hi, papa. Hi, mama.' It has a lot of remembrance," Wilson said.
Made up of slave descendants long isolated from the U.S. mainland, the Gullah-Geechee culture has clung to its African roots and traditions more than any other in America. Hog Hammock — with fewer than 50 residents — is one of the last such communities from North Carolina to Florida.
Julius and Cornelia Bailey saw the appraised value of the single acre on which they have a home, a convenience store and a small inn shoot from $220,285 in 2011 to $327,063 last year. Appraisers in Georgia's McIntosh County held firm on the new value after being ordered to take a second look in January by local authorities.
The Baileys and more than 40 of their neighbors appealed anew Monday after seeing little relief from the new appraisals.
Stephen Wilson, 68, walks onto the front porch of his home that his father built in Hog Hammock. "Dad built this house with his labor. Every time I put the key in the door, I remember coming home as a child saying, 'Hi, papa. Hi, mama.' It has a lot of remembrance," Wilson said.
Made up of slave descendants long isolated from the U.S. mainland, the Gullah-Geechee culture has clung to its African roots and traditions more than any other in America. Hog Hammock — with fewer than 50 residents — is one of the last such communities from North Carolina to Florida.
Julius and Cornelia Bailey saw the appraised value of the single acre on which they have a home, a convenience store and a small inn shoot from $220,285 in 2011 to $327,063 last year. Appraisers in Georgia's McIntosh County held firm on the new value after being ordered to take a second look in January by local authorities.
The Baileys and more than 40 of their neighbors appealed anew Monday after seeing little relief from the new appraisals.
TONY ARRUZA/© TONY ARRUZA/CORBIS
Hog Hammock residents, known as Geechee, are descendants of West African slaves brought to work plantations along coastal Georgia in the early 1800s.
Cornelia Bailey said her tax bill shot from about $800 to $3,000, though she and other island residents receive virtually no county services. They have no schools, no trash pickup, no police station and only one paved road.
"So what are we paying taxes for?" Bailey said after the board shot down her appeal and at least nine others Monday. "We're just paying for privilege of living on Sapelo Island. We don't want to be crybabies, but it seems like we're being treated unfairly."
Sapelo Island is separated from the mainland and reachable only by boat.
Hog Hammock residents, known as Geechee, are descendants of West African slaves brought to work plantations along coastal Georgia in the early 1800s.
Cornelia Bailey said her tax bill shot from about $800 to $3,000, though she and other island residents receive virtually no county services. They have no schools, no trash pickup, no police station and only one paved road.
"So what are we paying taxes for?" Bailey said after the board shot down her appeal and at least nine others Monday. "We're just paying for privilege of living on Sapelo Island. We don't want to be crybabies, but it seems like we're being treated unfairly."
Sapelo Island is separated from the mainland and reachable only by boat.
DAVID GOLDMAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wilson, 68, walks through the forest on his property. Skyrocketing appraisals and tax bills come amid pressure from affluent mainland buyers driving up land values while seeking property along or near the Atlantic coast.
Since 1976, the state of Georgia has owned most of its 30 square miles, largely unspoiled wilderness, while the tiny Hog Hammock community sits on less than a square mile of modest homes amid dirt roads.
The Gullah, referred to as Geechee in Georgia, are scattered in island communities over 425 miles of Atlantic coast where they've endured after their slave ancestors who worked island plantations were freed by the Civil War.
Wilson, 68, walks through the forest on his property. Skyrocketing appraisals and tax bills come amid pressure from affluent mainland buyers driving up land values while seeking property along or near the Atlantic coast.
Since 1976, the state of Georgia has owned most of its 30 square miles, largely unspoiled wilderness, while the tiny Hog Hammock community sits on less than a square mile of modest homes amid dirt roads.
The Gullah, referred to as Geechee in Georgia, are scattered in island communities over 425 miles of Atlantic coast where they've endured after their slave ancestors who worked island plantations were freed by the Civil War.
DAVID GOLDMAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Richard Dixon, 70, center, on a visit to his native Sapelo Island from Los Angeles, sits with Sapelo residents Julius Bailey, left, and Herman Dixon, right, after a church service. "Everyone feels like family here," Dixon said. "I'll fight along with everyone else because this will always be my home."
Scholars say these people long separated from the mainland retained much of their African heritage — from unique dialect to skills and crafts such as cast-net fishing and weaving baskets. But isolation also caused Gullah communities to shrink.
Since 2010, a handful of Hog Hammock landowners have sold their properties for as much as $165,500 a half-acre to mainland buyers wanting to build houses near the water. County appraisers insist they have valued homes according to market demands and land sale prices in the community.
"The values that we placed on their properties, we feel they still hold," said property appraiser Blair McLinn. "Nothing, we felt, has changed."
Richard Dixon, 70, center, on a visit to his native Sapelo Island from Los Angeles, sits with Sapelo residents Julius Bailey, left, and Herman Dixon, right, after a church service. "Everyone feels like family here," Dixon said. "I'll fight along with everyone else because this will always be my home."
Scholars say these people long separated from the mainland retained much of their African heritage — from unique dialect to skills and crafts such as cast-net fishing and weaving baskets. But isolation also caused Gullah communities to shrink.
Since 2010, a handful of Hog Hammock landowners have sold their properties for as much as $165,500 a half-acre to mainland buyers wanting to build houses near the water. County appraisers insist they have valued homes according to market demands and land sale prices in the community.
"The values that we placed on their properties, we feel they still hold," said property appraiser Blair McLinn. "Nothing, we felt, has changed."
ROBERT STEPHENS/AP
Members of the Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters performing at the Sapelo Island Cultural Day Festival in October 2012. Members of the Gullah-Geechee culture, who dot communities from North Carolina to Florida, have clung to their African roots and traditions more than any other in America.
In at least one case the resulting property value increase was extreme. William and Maggie Banks saw a single acre of undeveloped land they own vault from an appraised value of $10,000 two years ago to a whopping $181,250.
The appeals board upheld that higher value Monday.
Reed Colfax is a Washington-based attorney for 28 Hog Hammock landowners who have a separate housing discrimination complaint pending against McIntosh County with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Members of the Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters performing at the Sapelo Island Cultural Day Festival in October 2012. Members of the Gullah-Geechee culture, who dot communities from North Carolina to Florida, have clung to their African roots and traditions more than any other in America.
In at least one case the resulting property value increase was extreme. William and Maggie Banks saw a single acre of undeveloped land they own vault from an appraised value of $10,000 two years ago to a whopping $181,250.
The appeals board upheld that higher value Monday.
Reed Colfax is a Washington-based attorney for 28 Hog Hammock landowners who have a separate housing discrimination complaint pending against McIntosh County with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.
DAVID GOLDMAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
J.J. Wilson 9, is one of eight students take a bus then ride a ferry to school on the mainland from their homes in Hog Hammock. The last school on the island closed in 1978.
He said the higher appraisals fly in the face of a 1994 county ordinance that designates Hog Hammock a special zoning district intended to prevent "land value increases which could force removal of the indigenous population."
"They can't afford it," Colfax said. "They're going to be forced off the island in direct contradiction to the ordinance."
Attorneys for Hog Hammock residents argued Monday that county appraisers unfairly valued properties based on land sales between corporations and developers that were artificially high and dealt with properties never listed on the open market.
They also said newer homes that have driven up property values are larger than allowed under zoning ordinances.
Robert Hudley, chairman of McIntosh County's Board of Equalization that hears appeals of property values, said his board was powerless to deal with zoning violations. He urged Hog Hammock residents to keep up their fight as the board upheld most of the higher appraisals. Its decisions can be appealed to Superior Court.
"I agree with what you're saying," Hudley told the group. "I'm saying go to a higher court. This doesn't need to stop here. It needs to go further."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/slave-descendants-georgia-fight-tax-hikes-ancestral-homes-article-1.1472517#ixzz2gm8470FE
J.J. Wilson 9, is one of eight students take a bus then ride a ferry to school on the mainland from their homes in Hog Hammock. The last school on the island closed in 1978.
He said the higher appraisals fly in the face of a 1994 county ordinance that designates Hog Hammock a special zoning district intended to prevent "land value increases which could force removal of the indigenous population."
"They can't afford it," Colfax said. "They're going to be forced off the island in direct contradiction to the ordinance."
Attorneys for Hog Hammock residents argued Monday that county appraisers unfairly valued properties based on land sales between corporations and developers that were artificially high and dealt with properties never listed on the open market.
They also said newer homes that have driven up property values are larger than allowed under zoning ordinances.
Robert Hudley, chairman of McIntosh County's Board of Equalization that hears appeals of property values, said his board was powerless to deal with zoning violations. He urged Hog Hammock residents to keep up their fight as the board upheld most of the higher appraisals. Its decisions can be appealed to Superior Court.
"I agree with what you're saying," Hudley told the group. "I'm saying go to a higher court. This doesn't need to stop here. It needs to go further."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/slave-descendants-georgia-fight-tax-hikes-ancestral-homes-article-1.1472517#ixzz2gm8470FE
Real-life 'Gullah Gullah Island' in dangerThe real life residents of former Nickelodeon television series, 'Gullah Gullah Island' are in danger of losing their island to developers, presenting a rare opportunity for families to connect childhood memories with current events.
By Lisa Suhay, Correspondent / October 2, 2013
Parents who worry about their kids watching television can harness it for good by recognizing when things that influence their kids on the screen tie-in to real life news items. Exhibit A: the plight of the real residents of the bygone Nickelodeon show 'Gullah Gullah Island,' (the actual place is Georgia's Sapelo Island) slave descendants, in danger of losing the island homes to developers.
It’s ironic that on Day 2 of Gullah Geechee Heritage month I almost missed the Associated Press report on how residents of one of the few remaining Gullah-Geechee communities on the Southeast US coast are appealing the tax hikes due to skyrocketing property values. The story would have sailed by me if the word “Gullah” hadn’t set off a theme song in my head.
For a few moments my mind was filled with the memory of a hot day on Goodland Island in Florida when my son Zoltan was three (he’s now 19) and we sang, “Come and let's play together in the bright, sunny weather. Lets all go to Gullah, Gullah Island.”
We were living on a sailboat and he’d seen the Nickelodeons show on a television at the marina (we didn’t have one on the boat). The song stuck because all we did was sail to islands back then.
The funny part is that Zoltan was so young then he doesn’t remember much, but as a parent that memory is golden. It’s worth saving and by extension so is this real world Gullah Island community. Granted, the Nickelodeon show was filmed on the more touristy Fripp Island, Ga., but the cultural base for the show was all Sapelo.
Cornelia Bailey said that her tax bill shot from about $800 to $3,000, though she and other island residents receive virtually no county services. They have no schools, no trash pickup, no police station and only one paved road.
“What’s really sad is that because there’s no school on the island kids growing up there have to move to the mainland to go to school and participate in sports,” the lawyer for the residents told me in an interview. Kansas City Chief Allen Bailey grew up on the island but had to commute and eventually move off-island to get into school and sports.
This is happening because wealthy mainland buyers are driving up land values and defenders of the island say “the increasing tax burden violates protections enacted to help preserve the island's indigenous inhabitants,” according to the AP.
“Made up of slave descendants long isolated from the US mainland, the Gullah-Geechee culture has clung to its African roots and traditions more than any other in America. Hog Hammock – with fewer than 50 residents – is one of the last such communities from North Carolina to Florida,” the AP reports.
This is one more great reason to read the paper and discuss the news with kids because it gives us opportunities to demonstrate how TV shows can transition into real world actions for good.
Call it interactive viewing if you like.
Parents can take spent TV time and make it into something proactive and productive. Find the TV in the news and then find a way to take a positive action.
Granted, the Gullah Gullah Island show is long gone, having run from 1994-1997, but the lessons it taught our kids on healthy eating, telling the truth, and problem solving are worth revisiting today.
We can use this news item as an opportunity to talk to our kids about problem solving and how the real life residents on this island may need help solving this problem.
Reading the news I realized that every day the news gives us a chance to work a “flash challenge” with our kids.
This item in particular is a great chance to take a news item, relate it to a cool educational show, and engage our kids by asking how they would solve this problem.
Kids and parents could write a letter, draw a picture, make a video singing the Gullah Gullah theme song in support of the islanders and post it (with parental guidance) on Facebook or other social media.
Watching educational TV can only do so much. Parents need to reinforce the lessons in the real world at various stages in our child’s development.
So come and let's work together in the bright, sunny weather. Lets all go help Gullah Gullah Island.
By Lisa Suhay, Correspondent / October 2, 2013
Parents who worry about their kids watching television can harness it for good by recognizing when things that influence their kids on the screen tie-in to real life news items. Exhibit A: the plight of the real residents of the bygone Nickelodeon show 'Gullah Gullah Island,' (the actual place is Georgia's Sapelo Island) slave descendants, in danger of losing the island homes to developers.
It’s ironic that on Day 2 of Gullah Geechee Heritage month I almost missed the Associated Press report on how residents of one of the few remaining Gullah-Geechee communities on the Southeast US coast are appealing the tax hikes due to skyrocketing property values. The story would have sailed by me if the word “Gullah” hadn’t set off a theme song in my head.
For a few moments my mind was filled with the memory of a hot day on Goodland Island in Florida when my son Zoltan was three (he’s now 19) and we sang, “Come and let's play together in the bright, sunny weather. Lets all go to Gullah, Gullah Island.”
We were living on a sailboat and he’d seen the Nickelodeons show on a television at the marina (we didn’t have one on the boat). The song stuck because all we did was sail to islands back then.
The funny part is that Zoltan was so young then he doesn’t remember much, but as a parent that memory is golden. It’s worth saving and by extension so is this real world Gullah Island community. Granted, the Nickelodeon show was filmed on the more touristy Fripp Island, Ga., but the cultural base for the show was all Sapelo.
Cornelia Bailey said that her tax bill shot from about $800 to $3,000, though she and other island residents receive virtually no county services. They have no schools, no trash pickup, no police station and only one paved road.
“What’s really sad is that because there’s no school on the island kids growing up there have to move to the mainland to go to school and participate in sports,” the lawyer for the residents told me in an interview. Kansas City Chief Allen Bailey grew up on the island but had to commute and eventually move off-island to get into school and sports.
This is happening because wealthy mainland buyers are driving up land values and defenders of the island say “the increasing tax burden violates protections enacted to help preserve the island's indigenous inhabitants,” according to the AP.
“Made up of slave descendants long isolated from the US mainland, the Gullah-Geechee culture has clung to its African roots and traditions more than any other in America. Hog Hammock – with fewer than 50 residents – is one of the last such communities from North Carolina to Florida,” the AP reports.
This is one more great reason to read the paper and discuss the news with kids because it gives us opportunities to demonstrate how TV shows can transition into real world actions for good.
Call it interactive viewing if you like.
Parents can take spent TV time and make it into something proactive and productive. Find the TV in the news and then find a way to take a positive action.
Granted, the Gullah Gullah Island show is long gone, having run from 1994-1997, but the lessons it taught our kids on healthy eating, telling the truth, and problem solving are worth revisiting today.
We can use this news item as an opportunity to talk to our kids about problem solving and how the real life residents on this island may need help solving this problem.
Reading the news I realized that every day the news gives us a chance to work a “flash challenge” with our kids.
This item in particular is a great chance to take a news item, relate it to a cool educational show, and engage our kids by asking how they would solve this problem.
Kids and parents could write a letter, draw a picture, make a video singing the Gullah Gullah theme song in support of the islanders and post it (with parental guidance) on Facebook or other social media.
Watching educational TV can only do so much. Parents need to reinforce the lessons in the real world at various stages in our child’s development.
So come and let's work together in the bright, sunny weather. Lets all go help Gullah Gullah Island.
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Parents who worry about their kids watching television can harness it for good by recognizing when things that influence their kids on the screen tie-in to real life news items. Exhibit A: the plight of the real residents of the bygone Nickelodeon show 'Gullah Gullah Island,' slave descendants, in danger of losing the island homes to developers.
Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/Modern-Parenthood/2013/1002/Real-life-Gullah-Gullah-Island-in-danger#ixzz2gm3xbw6M
Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/Modern-Parenthood/2013/1002/Real-life-Gullah-Gullah-Island-in-danger#ixzz2gm3xbw6M
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