Coastal Carolina University has partnered with the Association for the Betterment of Bucksport to create a traveling exhibit and accompanying educational material about the Gullah Geechee community of Bucksport in Horry County. The exhibit will open to the public at the James R. Frazier Community Center on Saturday, April 29, 2023. SC Humanities supported this project with a Mini Grant.
The Bucksport community is unique as a Gullah-Geechee community with a rich history in river transportation, lumber, and ship building that is now facing issues like gentrification and heirs’ property. Many of today’s Bucksport residents descend from formerly enslaved people who worked on nearby rice and lumber plantations and settled on land close to the plantations after the Civil War.
Coastal Carolina University students and faculty are working with citizens of Bucksport to gather ethnographic narratives, historical archives, photographs, and artifacts. The traveling exhibit will consist of retractable vinyl banners and portable artifact display cases. The completed exhibit will be available to travel to other Bucksport community events and groups, and a virtual exhibit will be prepared with supplemental lesson plans.
Project Directors Dr. Jennifer Mokos and Dr. Jaime McCauley, professors at Coastal Carolina University, said, “The exhibit will contribute to efforts within Bucksport to increase the public’s awareness and knowledge of the Bucksport community and Gullah Geechee culture.”
The “Bucksport, SC: Building a Beloved Community” exhibit will have its grand openon on Saturday, April 29th, 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., at the James Frazier Community Center (1370 Bucksport Rd, Bucksport, SC 29527). The opening will be part of a larger event called “Celebrate Bucksport” designed to build and strengthen community relationships.
The mission of SC Humanities is to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians. Established in 1973, this 501(c) 3 organization is governed by a volunteer 20-member Board of Directors comprised of community leaders from throughout the state. It presents and/or supports literary initiatives, lectures, exhibits, festivals, publications, oral history projects, videos and other humanities-based experiences that directly or indirectly reach more than 250,000 citizens annually. South Carolina Humanities receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as corporate, foundation and individual donors. The National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.
Image: By Pollinator at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60568937
