Two weeks after local officials weakened restrictions that for decades protected a tiny Georgia island community populated by slaves' descendants, its Black residents hope to force a referendum that would give them the chance to override the zoning changes.
Hogg Hummock, a group of modest homes along dirt roads on largely unspoiled Sapelo Island, is one of the South's few surviving Gullah-Geechee communities. Residents vowed to fight after McIntosh County commissioners Sept. 12 doubled the size of homes allowed in the community, stoking fears that wealthy buyers would build large houses that would cause taxes to rise and force Black landowners to sell.
