Georgia State University Receives $500,000 Grant To Preserve Gullah Geechee Heritage

A $500,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation will enable Georgia State University (GSU) to launch the Gullah Geechee Sacred Land Project (GGSLP), a major initiative focused on the preservation of African American burial grounds and the protection of Gullah Geechee heritage in Georgia and South Carolina. The project will support historical, cultural, and genealogical research while helping safeguard the ancestral lands and traditions of Gullah Geechee communities, who are the descendants of formerly enslaved West Africans along the southern U.S. coast.

According to GSU, the GGSLP will be “dedicated to maintaining African American burial grounds by recovering communities’ spiritual, genealogical and spatial lineages and safeguarding the places where those communities interred their ancestors.” These sacred sites are increasingly under threat due to climate change, gentrification, and outside development—forces that have contributed to ongoing land loss across the Gullah Geechee corridor, which stretches from North Carolina to Florida. The preservation of these lands remains a pressing issue, especially as legal battles, such as one currently before the Georgia Supreme Court, may determine the fate of one of the last intact Gullah Geechee communities.

Professors Ras Michael Brown and Tiffany A. Player will lead the project, which also creates hands-on opportunities for students through new curricula and community engagement. GSU will offer four new undergraduate and graduate courses centered on oral traditions, folklore, and immersive service learning. The initiative also includes an interdisciplinary GGSLP lab and a cultural resource management certificate for graduate students, overseen by co-investigator Chad Keller.

“The Mellon Foundation’s funding allows us to strengthen our relationships with Gullah/Geechee communities and support their ongoing efforts to honor their ancestors and the legacies they left for descendants,” said Brown. GSU President M. Brian Blake added, “This partnership with the Mellon Foundation will enable students to conduct and access groundbreaking research and meaningfully connect with the people and histories that make up one of the most innovative learning environments in the country.” The grant not only bolsters academic inquiry but deepens institutional commitment to the preservation and celebration of Gullah Geechee culture.

Link: The Guardian