Help Save Gullah Geechee Land Campaign

157-YEARS AGO, SOME FREEDMEN FAMILIES GOT 40-ACRES AND A MULE BECAUSE BLACK MINISTERS IN SAVANNAH, GA LOBBIED LEGENDARY UNION ARMY GEN. WILLIAM T. SHERMAN TO GET IT: The above popular historical marker in Savannah, GA's Madison Square reminds us how formerly enslaved Africans--even before the Civil War ended--recognized that land ownership was essential to their survival as free people for generations to come. Other hardworking freedmen purchased property that their former masters had owned through delinquent tax sales, etc. But today their descendants are desperately fighting to hold on to the beloved land their ancestors acquired during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. And they need your help to do it!

In July 2015, Beaufort, SC Gullah resident Michelle Lewis received $5,523.11 from PAFEN to help save her lifelong home, which was sold at the 2014 Beaufort County Delinquent Tax Sale. She paid only $300 of the total $5,823.11 redemption cost. It remained our largest redemption until 2017. As of October 26, 2022, our largest redemption of a single Gullah Geechee-owned property is $23,875.48.

By Theresa White, Founder & CEO

The Pan-African Family Empowerment & Land Preservation Network, Inc. (PAFEN)

Michelle Lewis' hand-written poster above speaks for the dozens of rich-land, but cash-poor Gullah Geechee families whose homes, land, businesses, and churches have been saved by the generosity of PAFEN donors concerned about them either becoming homeless, or permanently displaced due to losing their property through county delinquent tax sales.

Since March 2015, PAFEN'S HELP SAVE GULLAH GEECHEE LAND CAMPAIGN has saved beloved ancestral and other property with an assessed value of more than $17-million, according to county tax records in both Georgia and South Carolina.

Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Florida are the four states recognized as the home of the culturally-unique Gullah Geechees, who're descendants of West Africans formerly enslaved on sea island and coastal plantations there. Once laughed at because of their often misunderstood speech and habits, today Gullah Geechees are internationally celebrated for the strong African cultural retentions that survive in their speech, cuisine, folklore, burial practices, hairstyles, arts and crafts, and housing patterns.

The historic Gullah Geechee properties being saved by our small non-profit were primarily purchased by the first and second generations of the Africans freed from slavery during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, and have been passed down through the original owners' families for generations. Often, the property has been passed from one generation to the next without a will, which has resulted in complex heirs' property ownership issues.

PAFEN's HELP SAVE GULLAH GEECHEE LAND CAMPAIGN has prevented properties from being lost due to property taxes and other issues, ranging from Myrtle Beach, SC to the tiny Hog Hammock Community on remote Sapelo Island, GA. With just 28 full-time Geechee residents--five of whom are children--Hog Hammock is the most endangered historically Geechee Community in the federally-recognized Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor.

FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL

Like my paternal grandfather--who was born to enslaved parents in the 1850s and later acquired farmland that he would be cheated out of and forced into sharecropping because he couldn't read--today's Gullah Geechees face significant challenges to sustaining ownership of their ancestral homes and land.

Neighboring farms, resorts, and businesses try to encroach on their land. Greedy developers covet their large tracts of land, and/or waterfront property for upscale housing developments, resorts, golf courses, and shopping venues, and pit relatives against each other in bitter land disputes of heirs property. Local zoning regulations often block them from using their land for economic development that could pay skyrocketing taxes. And the instability of heirs' property ownership causes many to lose the only homes they're ever known; while rising seas, too, threaten to disrupt their way of life.

STAND4LAND TAXPAYER EMPOWERMENT WORKSHOPS

Realizing that just bailing out families about to lose their property through delinquent tax sales isn't enough alone, in 2017 held its first STAND4LAND TAXPAYER EMPOWERMENT WORKSHOP in partnership with St. John's Lutheran Church in Beaufort, SC. Our 2018 workshop was held in partnership with the Hilton Head Island Chapter of the National Action Network, and the Native Island Business & Community Affairs Association (NIBCAA). And our 2022 workshop is being co-sponsored by the Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce. (Here's a link to attend on Oct. 29th, if you're interested.)

Each workshop brings in the Beaufort County Assessor, Auditor, Treasurer and/or Tax Collector to explain property tax appraisal, and how to navigate the property tax billing and payment system to avoid losing property through delinquent tax sales, and how to use exemptions to reduce or eliminate property taxes, etc.

Additional training and resources for homeowners, families, farmers, and potential business owners are provided by other non-profits and government agencies. Among them are the Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce; SC Legal Services; the Center for Heirs' Property Preservation; the SC Forestry Commission; PAFEN; World Financial Group; SC Lowcountry SCORE; "Lucy's Kids and Money" author Lucille Tyler Baldwin; and the USDA Rural Development & USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

YOUR DONATIONS MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE

PAFEN is a 501c3 tax exempt organization, so all your donations and in-kind contributions are tax deductible.

You can rest assured that all your donations will both much-appreciated and used wisely to help stablize Gullah Geechee property ownership, and other programs and support services offered by PAFEN.

Please give generously, if possible to help PAFEN prevent any further loss of cherished Gullah Geechee homes and land. You'll be answering the prayers of families stressed out from worrying about losing the roof over the heads, the land under their feet, and the only source of family wealth that they've ever had. Your donation will truly make a difference!

Thanks in advance for your support.

Peace and Blessings,

Theresa @ PAFEN