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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Russ Bynum

How slave descendants are fighting to protect their land from property developers

Cathleen Hillary, 93, the oldest resident of Sapelo Island leaves a church service with her great granddaughter Milaika Ellison - (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Voters in a coastal Georgia county are set to decide on Tuesday whether to permit the construction of large homes on the remote Sapelo Island, a move that Black landowners fear could lead to unaffordable property taxes within one of the South's last remaining Gullah-Geechee communities, founded by freed slaves.

This referendum, initiated by island residents, aims to overturn a 2023 decision by McIntosh County commissioners.

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