Yet the development of coastal South Carolina has affected more than the native wildlife; it has affected its longtime residents. For generations, African Americans descended from the original slave communities that formed the Gullah / Geechee Nation have lived on ancestral lands. Now, some find themselves kicked off the land that every generation since their great-great-grandparents has called home.
“This is the place that everyone in the world seems to want to live on or want to come and visit and hang out on the beaches and enjoy the shoreline,” says Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah / Geechee Nation. The result has been a marked increase in property taxes; many poor African Americans are forced to either sell their land to developers or, in some cases, pack up and leave when they can no longer afford to live there. 
Listen to Queen Quet explain the emotional impact on displaced families.The already small Gullah / Geechee community is fracturing.
Fading Away
Losing the People