Slave Descendants in Georgia Fight to Overturn County Zoning Decision

Residents in Mcintosh County, Georgia, are pushing back against zoning changes they say threaten one of the South’s last Gullah-Geechee communities. According to an Associated Press article published by Fox 5 Atlanta the Black residents of Hogg Hummock, located on Sapelo Island, filed a petition seeking a referendum on the county commissioners’ decision last fall to double the size of houses allowed in the community, which residents say “will lead to property tax increases that they won’t be able to afford, possibly forcing them to sell land their families have held for generations.”

Hog Hammock is home to a community of 30 to 50 Gullah-Geechee people, descendants of West and Central Africans who were enslaved and brought to the coastal lands and barrier islands of the southeastern coast of the United States, where they lived in relative isolation, allowing them to retain their African culture, heritage, and traditions.

“Hogg Hummock residents and their supporters submitted a petition on July 9 with more than 2,300 signatures at the McIntosh County courthouse,” writes Russ Bynum for the Associated Press,” which is more than required to put the zoning issue before county voters. But an attorney representing the McIntosh County commissioners submitted a letter to the probate judge, arguing that, “Though Georgia’s state constitution allows citizens to force special elections on some decisions by county governments, it doesn’t give them the power to overturn county zoning decisions.”

“Georgia gives 60 days for a probate judge to review a petition and decide if it meets the requirements for a special election,” Russ reports. If the probate judge sides with the petitioners, the issue could go before voters in September or October.