Jacksonville\u2019s Gullah Geechee Heritage<\/p>\n
The Jaxson is pleased to announce that one of our co-owners and editors is publishing a new book. Jacksonville\u2019s Gullah Geechee Heritage, a collaboration between local urban planners and historians Ennis Davis and Adrienne Burke, will be released by Arcadia Publishing on April 28, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jacksonville, Florida\u2019s Gullah Geechee heritage is an integral part of the city\u2019s story. Gullah Geechee people, descendants of West and Central African people forcibly brought to the Southeastern coast of the United States, have retained many of their indigenous African traditions through architecture, food, culture, religion, and occupations. This legacy, combined with Northeast Florida\u2019s unique blend of Indigenous, French, Spanish, and English colonial history, has contributed to the African American journey in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n
Today Jacksonville is the largest city in the federally designated Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, which stretches from Wilmington, NC to St. Augustine, FL. This book highlights the Gullah Geechee experience and its influence on life in the city\u2019s development and culture. An introduction is provided by Saundra Morene with the Jacksonville Gullah\/Geechee Nation Community Development Corporation.<\/p>\n
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What Are They Saying?<\/p>\n
Gullah Geechee is a foundational culture for the United States influencing everything from our foodways and music
\nto the way we speak. It has a descendant community that numbers in the hundreds of thousands internationally.
Many of them contributed greatly to the economic engine that has fueled Jacksonville\u2019s growing metroplex since
\nReconstruction. However, there are no universities or colleges in Florida (or elsewhere in the Gullah Geechee Corridor)
\nthat consistently offer courses in Gullah Geechee studies and none that provide a major or degree in the field.<\/p>\n
Works of public history like Davis and Burke\u2019s \u201cJacksonville\u2019s Gullah Geechee Culture\u201d that successfully mine Florida\u2019s
\n public archives, government records, oral histories and scholarly publications demonstrate that a foundation for a
\nteachable canon and generative scholarship about the centuries-long history of the Gullah Geechee people of Northeast
\nFlorida exists \u2014 and should be endowed.<\/p>\n
Heather L. Hodges \u2022 Heather L. Hodges, Former Executive Director, Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor (2017-2020)<\/p>\n
This book honors the voices, traditions, and contributions of Jacksonville\u2019s Gullah Geechee community that too
\noften go unnoticed and untold. Through thoughtful interpretation, Ennis Davis affirms that our legacy deserves
\nrespect and attention. He reminds us that culture lives through people, place, and memory. Releasing this work
\non Emancipation Day makes it timely, intentional, and meaningful.<\/p>\n
Ju\u2019Coby Pittman \u2022 Ju\u2019Coby Pittman, CEO\/President of Clara White Mission and City Councilwoman, District 10<\/p>\n
This book spectacularly details how Gullah Geechee\u2019s culture has intertwined with Jacksonville\u2019s history.
\nIt also details the ways the Gullah Geechee culture has shaped modern Jacksonville. Anyone who wants to learn
\nabout how Jacksonville was formed should add this book to their library and use it as a reference.<\/p>\n
Will Brown \u2022 WJCT Public Media<\/p>\n