Gullah Geechee History

CULTURE AND LAND KEEPERS:

Gullah Geechee Heritage in Brunswick County

By Wendy Kaplar

Enslaved Africans knowledgeable in rice farming were brought to the Southeast coast in the 18th and 19th centuries. Slaves from the “Rice Coast” or “Windward Coast” were preferred because they had been cultivating rice for 3,000 years.

After the abolition of slavery, American descendants of those Africans—the Gullah Geechee people—settled in remote villages along the southern coastal swath, where, because of their relative isolation, they formed a unique culture that has endured. They created a culture with deep African roots, with distinctive arts, crafts, foodways, music, and language.

Beatty and the Rice Festival

Community leader George Beatty is passionate about keeping the living history of rice culture alive. He is chairman of the North Carolina Rice Festival, scheduled for March 2-4, 2023.

Historic and cultural preservation is at the core of Beatty’s mission. He is working to restore, celebrate, and teach the story of Brunswick County’s African American culture, whose roots are intertwined with the Gullah Geechee people of the coastal areas and Sea Islands.

Rice crops played a central economic and social role within the coastal town of Navassa, where Beatty grew up and took a boat to attend school.

“I’m very proud of my education,” Beatty says. A North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University graduate in electrical engineering who worked on nuclear energy projects in conjunction with NASA, he attributes his education and achievements to his cultural upbringing, in which one had to be creative, innovative, and industrious with the tools given.

“You couldn’t just run to a store if something was broken or needed a part. You had to be thoughtful about how to fi x or repair an item around the farm,” Beatty says.

Preserving Reaves Chapel

George Beatty, along with his brother Alfonso Beatty, actively advocates for preserving Reaves Chapel, a 100-year-old African American church in Navassa. They aim to collect a barn, Rosenwald School, juke joint, and shotgun houses around the site, so educators, students, and the public can explore and learn fi rsthand about Gullah Geechee and African American rice culture.

Jesica Blake is stewardship and community conservation director for the Coastal Land Trust and guides the monitoring and development of conservation properties. Blake says, “On a personal

NORTH CAROLINA RICE FESTIVAL EVENTS

March 2: “Ancestor Reveal” Event in conjunction with AfricanAncestry.com March 3: Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Gala Leland Cultural Arts Center, 6-10 p.m. March 4: IndoorOutdoor Rice Festival Events 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. Free to public Brunswicktown/Fort Anderson Historic Site, Winnabow Learn more at northcarolinaricefestival.org/

level, the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust and I feel deeply honored to partner with Cedar Hill/West Bank Heritage Foundation and the Orton Foundation in the renovation and continuing preservation of Reaves Chapel.”

Mayor Willis Leads Navassa

Town of Navassa’s Mayor Eulis Willis understands that his role as an advocate and community leader is best performed with a boots-on-the-ground approach. He meets and talks with residents daily about their concerns.

Willis wants to ensure that the current living culture of the people of Navassa is not pushed aside in the wake of new economic development

“Residents must be supported and provided with the opportunities to fl ourish and thrive economically via jobs and new housing developments,” he says.

Keep Rosenwald Schools Standing

Rosenwald schools were built between 1912 and 1932 by African American communities, including in Brunswick County. These schools for African American students were funded by grants from Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears & Roebuck. Claudia Stack documents the history of these schools by learning from the people who lived them.

“As an educator and fi lmmaker, the Rosenwald schools represent something teachers, students, and the public should know. Our African American students have an incredible educational heritage. Their families sacrifi ced to establish educational institutions, and they were building schools before, during, and after the Rosenwald School movement.”

Through her fi lm documentary research for “Under the Kudzu,” which traces the history of two Rosenwald schools in Pender County, Stack learned of at least four other African American schools in eastern North Carolina whose stories have yet to be told.

Map courtesy the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission The Gullah Geechee Heritage Corrider aims to preserve this unique culture along the Southeast coast, including in Brunswick County.

Throughout her research, she heard stories of families who lived through desegregation and witnessed county education offi cials going to their old schools and dumping academic records and trophies out with the trash. “Literally and fi guratively, as a society, we have neglected and even thrown out this history that deserves recognition.” Stack says.

Donations to the North Carolina Rice Festival can be made online at https://www.northcarolinaricefestival.org/ contact-contribute or by check mailed to North Carolina Rice Festival P.O. Box 674, Leland, NC 28451

Donations to the Reaves Chapel restoration can be made online at coastallandtrust.org/reaves or by check mailed to Cedar Hill/West Bank Heritage Foundation, P.O. Box 7253, Navassa, NC 28051.

To learn more about Claudia Stack’s research and documentary work, visit https://stackstories.com/.