The Gullah/Geechee,

Even when policymakers pursue a racial equity view, practical research continues to overlook indigenous communities of color. Of particular concern within this lacuna are rural minority communities sitting at the intersection of racialized and isolated places. We argue that researchers should carefully attend to the experiences of rural indigenous groups such as the Gullah/Geechee, whose interests and obstacles are only partly captured in the federal rural policy framework. The Gullah/Geechee people, indigenous to the communities stretching along the coast of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Northeastern Florida, are direct descendants of enslaved Africans. Theirs is a unique culture with deep ties to West African heritage and distinctly defined by a long history of tenacious landownership. 

Despite their strong sense of identity, the Gullah/Geechee community is experiencing many of the challenges facing other rural communities across the nation, including economic fragility, troubling social trends, and the impact of climate change. Compounding those struggles is the reality that these communities are often overlooked because policymakers have a very narrow picture of what “rural America” looks like, a consequence of relying on stereotypes as well as abstract quantitative data that fails to sufficiently describe the breadth of rural America’s tremendous diversity. By overlooking or discounting that diversity, policymakers disregard the unique experiences of rural minority communities like the Gullah people who sit at the intersection of racialized and isolated places. This lack of attentiveness flattens our view of these communities—resulting in their further devaluation and marginalization from broader economic and political systems.