Gullah Heritage Trail Tours

06/12/2025

06/12/2025

We’re proud to sponsor The Okra Soup Foundation’s Annual Cook-Off — happening Saturday, June 14th in Awendaw!

It’s a full day of family fun, flavor, and Gullah Geechee culture — all to uplift the next generation. 🎶🍲✨

✅ Live music
✅ Kid’s Zone with jump castles & activities
✅ Cultural sessions on preserving foodways and historic settlement communities
✅ And, of course… plenty of okra soup! 😋

🎓 Proceeds support scholarships for Gullah Geechee youth!

Grab your tickets: https://tinyurl.com/okrasoupcookoff25

06/12/2025

Week three of our 2025 IAAM Summer Camp is all about food ways, storytelling, and taste. From the Lowcountry to your table: Campers will be cooking up culture with flavor and pride. Week three kicks off on July 7th!

Claim your child’s seat at the cultural table — register your child OR sponsor a child here: https://campscui.active.com/orgs/InternationalAfricanAmericanMuseum?e4q=7e1dfea0-eb0d-4b14-8902-5b103bb059aa&e4p=3c49a339-9b90-4918-894a-e0968b99fdfd&e4ts=1748134280&e4c=active&e4e=snlvcmpscui00001load&e4rt=Safetynet&e4h=25e97afa1ae505fcf54f1ea68321a4fa #/selectSessions/3597632

06/02/2025

One of the great things about Hilton Head Island is the legacy of the past — a rich Gullah culture that continues to coexist with the evolving community we see today. Few people embody that legacy more than Thomas Barnwell.

A preservationist, storyteller, advocate, and trailblazer, Mr. Barnwell has spent decades ensuring that the island’s Gullah roots are honored, protected, and passed on. From civil rights activism to historic preservation, his impact on the Lowcountry is profound and lasting.

Today, we celebrate his 90th birthday with gratitude and admiration. Happy Birthday, Mr. Barnwell — thank you for your wisdom, your leadership, and your unwavering dedication to Hilton Head Island.

Hear his story in our Chamber Channel podcast: https://bit.ly/3KuQGB9

📸: Amiri Farris

06/01/2025

Nine bronze busts unveiled at Allen University honor victims of the 2015 Mother Emanuel AME Church shooting, nearly 10 years after the Charleston tragedy.

06/01/2025

06/01/2025

In 1921, the thriving Black community known as was burned down, hundreds were killed, and wealth was stolen.

No justice was served.

The was a deliberate attack on Black success. We remember the lives lost, honor the survivors, and keep fighting for justice today.

05/26/2025

05/26/2025

The origin of Memorial Day trace back to 1865 when freed slaves started a tradition to honor fallen Union soldiers and to celebrate emancipation and commemorate those who died for that cause.

In 1865, black people in Charleston, South Carolina, held a series of memorials & rituals to honor unnamed fallen Union soldiers and celebrate the struggle against slavery. One of the largest memorial took place on May 1st 1865.

As the civil war ended, confederates had converted the city’s Washington Race Course & Jockey Club into an outdoor prison. Union captives were kept in horrid conditions and at least 257 died of disease and were quickly buried in a mass grave behind the grandstand.

After the Confederate evacuation of Charleston, black workmen went to the mass grave site, reburied the Union dead properly & built a high fence around the cemetery.

They whitewashed the fence and built an archway over an entrance on which they inscribed the words, “Martyrs of the Race Course.”

The freed black people, who then, in cooperation with white missionaries and teachers, staged a parade of 10,000 on the track. The procession was led by 3,000 black schoolchildren carrying armloads of roses and singing the Union marching song “John Brown’s Body.”

Several hundreds of black women followed with baskets of flowers, wreaths & crosses. Then came black men marching in, followed by contingents of Union infantrymen.
Within the cemetery black children’s choir sang before a series of black ministers read from the Bible.

After the dedication, the crowd dispersed into the infield and did what many of us do on Memorial Day: enjoyed picnics, listened to speeches and watched soldiers drill.

Among the full brigade of Union infantrymen participating were the famous 54th Massachusetts and the 34th and 104th United States Colored Troops, who performed a special double-columned march around the gravesite.

🖊️ for anyone who wants to support the page i have a page that you can donate to: www.ko-fi.com/africanarchives (link In BIO) no obligation whatsoever. thanks for the support (Or just follow the ko-fi page for articles/posts roundup)

05/26/2025

By David W. Blight Posted at the Zinn Education Project website with permission of the author from The First Decoration Day. http://zinnedproject.org/materials/the-first-decoration-day/ Americans understand that Memorial Day, or “Decoration Day,” as my parents called it, has something to do with...