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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Melissa Hellmann with photographs by Joshua Parks

‘A double-edged sword’: The Gullah Geechee people in a complex struggle over land

The Brick Baptist Church at the Penn Center on St Helena Island.
The Brick Baptist Church at the Penn Center on St Helena Island. Photograph: Joshua Parks/The Guardian

The Beaufort county council meeting was packed with residents eager to speak about a potential golf course on St Helena Island, South Carolina on 8 April. At stake was the future of a 500-acre property known as Pine Island Plantation/St Helenaville, where a developer had plans of building a golf course.

Those who were against the development of the property cited “backroom shenanigans”, a reference to alleged deals that the developer made with elected officials in a nearby town to garner their support for his plan, and the need to protect the local community. “We’re asking that you listen to the 20,000 people who signed a petition saying that we don’t want this,” Marque Fireall, a St Helena Island resident said.

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