‘Keep Sapelo Geechee’: Voters Strike Down Rezoning Laws Threatening Gullah Geechee Land

It's a victory for the Gullah Geechee residents living in the Hogg Hammock community of Sapelo Island.

Voters in coastal Georgia rejected an ordinance that would have allowed the construction of larger homes on Sapelo Island, one of the few remaining communities founded by the Gullah Geechee people—descendants of enslaved Africans living along the coasts of the Carolinas, Georgia, and northern Florida.

The Jan. 20 vote on a referendum organized by Sapelo Island residents successfully reversed McIntosh County commissioners’ 2023 decision to double the size of homes allowed in Sapelo Island’s predominantly Black Hogg Hummock community.

Supporters of the referendum argued that letting wealthy outsiders build large vacation homes could raise property taxes, making them unaffordable for local residents and possibly forcing them off their land.

Island residents said they were blindsided in 2023 when commissioners attempted to weaken a special zoning ordinance enacted 30 years earlier to protect Hogg Hummock landowners from significant tax increases. The commissioners voted to increase the maximum size of homes in Hogg Hummock from 1,400 to 3,000 square feet (130 to 278 square meters). They said the changes would allow more living space for families and claimed they had no intention of displacing Black landowners.

Gullah Geechee residents mobilized voters through a petition with 2,300 signatures and challenged commissioners in the Georgia Supreme Court to secure a special election. Unofficial returns showed that roughly 85 percent of voters who cast ballots supported the referendum, according to WTOC News. According to reports, only about 19 percent of the island’s registered voters took part in the special election.

Located about an hour’s drive south of Savannah, the state of Georgia owns most of Sapelo Island’s 30 square miles, and there are no roads connecting the island to the mainland. Hogg Hummock, also known as Hog Hammock, encompasses approximately one square mile. About 30 to 50 Gullah Geechee residents still live in homes along dirt roads in the community.

In 1966, Hogg Hummock was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the official list of treasured U.S. historic sites. But efforts to preserve the community ultimately depend on the local government in McIntosh County, where white residents make up 65% of the county’s population.

“People worked hard to get this land on Sapelo, and they worked hard to preserve who they are,” Maurice Bailey, a Sapelo Island native, told the Associated Press.

“Without this land, all of our descendants lose their connection,” added Bailey, the founder of Save Our Legacy Ourselves (SOLO), which aims to preserve Gullah Geechee history and culture through farming, told the outlet.