Join the Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston and the Charleston Area Branch Association for the Study of African American Life and History on June 8th, 2024 for the 27th Annual Charleston Middle Passage Remembrance Commemoration Ceremony! This event is free and open to the public. The Commemoration will take place in-person from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Fort Moultrie and Sullivan’s Island while simultaneous ceremonies occur across the U.S. and designated international locations. For more details, see the flyer above or click on the link below!
The Social Justice Committee of CSSC hosted the start of the May 9 Gullah Society procession on the C of C campus, in Barnet Courtyard.
Cards were inscribed with messages that were then buried with the ancestors.
C of C faculty in academic regalia joined city officials, Gullah society members, schoolchildren, and other community members in a procession down George Street to the Gaillard Complex.
Gullah Society President and founder Ade Ofunniyin, walking with the Mayor of Charleston, escorted the coffins to their final resting place. Dr. Ofuniyyin teaches African and African American studies at the College of Charleston.
Charleston Mayor John Tecklenberg and CofC’s Dr. Ade Ofunniyin escorting the coffins
The program was designed by Ms. Joanna Gilmore, a Gullah Society staff member who also teaches at C of C. It included an essay by C of C professor of architectural history Dr. Nathaniel Walker and another essay by CSSC director and emeritus history professor Dr. Bernard Powers. Among the speakers during the ceremony was Dr. Kameelah Martin, chair of C of C’s African American Studies department and a member of CSSC’s Executive Board.
The cover of the program booklet for the reburial ceremony.
This op-ed reflects on the significance of the May 9 event honoring those ancestors whose labor contributed so much to Charleston. Written by Julia Eichelberger, CSSC Executive Board member and director of the Program in Southern Studies.
On Feb. 27, 2019, CSSC took part in the Gullah Society’s “Rise Up” event at the Cannon Street Art Center, where numerous Charleston residents received the results of the analysis of their DNA conducted by the same research team that has been analyzing the remains of African and African-descended people in a burial ground discovered under the Gaillard Auditorium complex.
Community members were thrilled to receive their DNA test results suggesting who their ancestors were and what parts of the world they came from.
After the remains of 36 African and African-descended people were discovered near the Gaillard Auditorium during renovations in 2013, The Gullah Society worked with city officials to study the remains and decide how they should be honorably reinterred.
DNA and isotope analysis established that these individuals were all of African descent. This research, conducted with scientists from the University of Pennsylvania and C of C student Yemi Udowole, was supported by a National Geographic Society grant.
Students in Nathaniel Walker’s Architecture of Memory course imagined designs for a memorial honoring the individuals in this burial ground.
The Center for the Study of Slavery was honored to support and participate in events in which research was discussed with community members and the students’ proposed designs were displayed. One event, “Rise Up,” was held on campus in Randolph Hall on November 7, 2018.
More from The Post & Courier. https://www.postandcourier.com/news/what-sort-of-monument-would-best-honor-african-americans-buried/article_c6a2ff54-f70b-11e8-a587-bf4780d4f3ac.html
The Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World (CLAW) program hosted a three-part film series exploring links between Gullah people and the country of Sierra Leone, Africa. Simon Lewis, CSSC Executive Board member and director of the CLAW program, organized the series and the discussions that followed, including one with author Edward Ball (Slaves in the Family) and Thomalinda Polite, whose film “Priscilla’s Legacy” documents her reconnecting with her ancestors in Sierra Leone. Priscilla is the name of a child Edward Ball encountered in his research for Slaves in the Family, and he managed to identify some of her living descendants, including Polite.
