Georgia's Gullah-Geechee community seeks path forward after deadly dock collapse

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — The partial collapse of a ferry dock that claimed the lives of seven people attending a cultural festival has left a historic Black community in Georgia struggling with how to move forward.

The Gullah-Geechee residents of Sapelo Island were already facing a number of stressors: gentrification, tax hikes and an ongoing exodus of islanders to the mainland where there are schools and doctors, more plentiful jobs and greater conveniences.

The annual Cultural Day festival, held last weekend, was supposed to be a moment to forget their troubles and celebrate the history and culture of a community founded by formerly enslaved Black people. Before a metal walkway on the state-owned dock collapsed, sending people tumbling into the ocean, there were demonstrations of centuries-old traditions such as basket weaving, fish net casting and rice cultivation. A special music by the Gullah Geechee Ring Shouters filled the air.

Now, still stunned by the tragedy, residents of Sapelo's Hogg Hummock community are riding a rollercoaster of emotions, worried that their formerly tranquil island life will be forever disrupted.

“Of course, they’re traumatized by the entire situation,” said Marquetta Goodwine, also known as Queen Quet, leader of the Gullah-Geechee nation. “Also, people are angry about something that was preventable.”

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing relatives of three of the dead, has said he wants federal investigators, not officials from Georgia's Department of Natural Resources, to lead the investigation.

In the meantime Reginald Hall, a Hogg Hummock resident and descendant of the island's founders, can’t help but wonder if the deaths will tarnish Sapelo as a tourism destination.

“They came to the island to celebrate and they left off the island in body bags,” Hall said in an interview Sunday. “That speaks volumes and is going to tell people that our tourism industry is not safe.”

Roger Lotson, the only Black commissioner of McIntosh County, which includes Sapelo Island, is concerned about psychological trauma the residents might be feeling.

“Those that work on Sapelo, those that live on Sapelo, they have to constantly walk across a similar gangway as the one that collapsed. And I can’t help but think that that’s going to be in the back of some of their minds. But they have no choice.”

Small communities descended from enslaved island populations in the South — known as Gullah, or Geechee in Georgia — are scattered along the coastline from North Carolina to Florida. Scholars say their separation from the mainland is what helped them retain much of their African heritage, from their unique dialect to specialized skills and crafts.

The Gullah-Geechee’s distinct language was a result of slaves from various parts of west Africa wanting to be able to communicate with each other, said Anne C. Bailey, a professor of history at Binghamton University and author of “The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History."

They also don’t often get credit for their contributions to the South’s culinary heritage, according to Bailey, who added that the Gullah-Geechee's knowledge of how to cultivate rice ended up mainly benefiting slaveholders and slave traders who were also rice planters.

“They helped to develop the country and they helped to make these titans very rich,” Bailey said. “They received nothing.”

After the Civil War and Emancipation, some Gullah-Geechee were able to scrimp and save enough to buy land. Researchers estimate there are fewer than 30 incorporated historic Black towns left in the United States, a fraction of the more than 1,200 that existed from the 1880s to 1915. Some were decimated decades ago by white supremacists in attacks such as the Tulsa Race Massacre in 1921 and the Rosewood, Florida, massacre in 1923.

The biggest challenges to Sapelo now are development, political changes and increasing property tax rates that are pricing lower-income residents off their land.

In October 2023, Sapelo residents filed a lawsuit to stop a zoning law that would double the size of houses allowed from 1,500 to 3,000 square feet (139 to 279 square meters). There is a fear that wealthy outsiders will come in and drive natives out. Residents attempted last month to stop it via a referendum but a judge ordered a halt to the special election. Lotson is among the opponents of the rezoning.

“Even with me sitting on the board, they still don’t have much of a voice. ... Fighting only gives us a slim chance of winning, but if we did not fight, we have no chance of winning,” Lotson said.

It's hard to find examples of where infrastructure was improved or expanded without losing the Gullah-Geechee footprint. Bailey points to Georgia's St. Simons Island, which used to be predominantly Black. Now it's mostly a tourist draw with wealthy, non-Black residents, a more up-to-date pier and other amenities.

Goodwine questioned what good comes from gaining resources if it means having to give up land and heritage.

“What you have done is essentially given away your soul,” Goodwine said.

The best way for outsiders to support community members is to show up for the Gullah-Geechee people, Goodwine said. She runs a Gullah-Geechee website listing events and native-owned businesses and announcing petitions to sign.

“It is that love, it is that sincere giving to a community instead of just coming to see what you can extract out and then leave with it,” she said.

Tang reported from Phoenix.

FILE - The sun rises over Sapelo Island, Ga., a Gullah-Geechee community, on June 10, 2013. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

FILE - Gullah Geechee fisherman Ricky Wright casts his line as he fishes for bass in a marsh waterway with eroded banks on St. Helena Island, S.C., Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

FILE - Sapelo Island, Ga., descendant and land owner Reginald Hall speaks at a news conference outside federal court, Dec. 9, 2015, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

FILE - Marquetta Goodwine, a local community leader who is also known as "Queen Quet", speaks to Associated Press journalists about Gullah Geechee history, at the ruins of the Chapel of Ease, where plantation owning families would attend church services, on St. Helena Island, S.C., on Oct. 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

Festival goers who attended a Gullah Geechee festival on Sapelo Island leave the Elm Grove Church where they were taken to reunite with loved ones on Sapelo Island, Ga in McIntosh county, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis M. Levine)

FILE - In this May 16, 2013, file photo, a utility pole stands in the middle of a marsh at sunset on Sapelo Island, Ga., a Gullah-Geechee community. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is holding steadier, thanks in part to a surge for Tesla’s stock. The S&P 500 was 0.2% higher in early trading Thursday and on track to break its first three-day losing streak since early September. The Nasdaq composite was up 0.4%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 80 points, or 0.2%. Tesla led the way with a gain of 14.3% after the electric-vehicle maker reported better profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. UPS jumped 9% after likewise topping analysts’ forecasts for profit. Treasury yields eased in the bond market.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

Coming off a third straight losing session, trading on Wall Street was mixed in the early going as major U.S. companies continued to report their most recent financial results.

Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.5% before the bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.1%.

Tesla was the big winner overnight, gaining nearly 14% after it reported a jump in third-quarter profit on stronger electric vehicle sales. CEO Elon Musk predicted 20% to 30% sales growth next year, even as the broader EV sector continues to face headwinds.

Package delivery company UPS climbed 7.5% after it handily beat Wall Street's sales and profit targets heading into its busiest stretch of the year. Competitor FedEx also rose, but a more modest 2.8%.

Shares in Southwest Airlines were unchanged after the Dallas carrier posted record third-quarter revenue that topped forecasts. Profit fell nearly two-thirds, to $67 million, on higher costs for labor and other expenses, though it also beat analysts' targets.

Southwest said it would speed up repurchase of $250 million worth of its stock, under a $2.5 billion share-buyback plan it announced last month.

American Airlines fell 1.8% after it posted a third-quarter loss.

Boeing gave back 3.9% after factory workers voted against the company’s latest contract offer. The worker remain on the picket lines six weeks into a strike that has stopped production of the troubled aerospace giant’s bestselling jetliners.

In Europe at midday, Germany's DAX climbed 0.8%, the CAC 40 in Paris gained 0.7%, and Britain's FTSE 100 was up 0.6%.

In Asian trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 shed larger early gains, ending 0.1% higher at 38,143.29 as purchasing manager indexes showed worsening conditions in Japan for both manufacturing and services. The overall composite PMI compiled by au Jibun Bank fell to a two-year low.

“Japan's private sector fell into contraction territory at the start of the fourth quarter of the year,” Usamah Bhatti, an economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said in a commentary. “Confidence about business activity growth in the next 12 months softened in October and was the least pronounced since August 2020.”

Chinese markets declined, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng losing 1.3% to 20,489.62, while the Shanghai Composite index shed 0.7% to 3,280.26.

In Seoul, the Kospi gave up 0.7% to 2,581.03 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 edged 0.1% lower to 8,206.30.

Taiwan's Taiex lost 0.6% and the Sensex in India edged 0.1% lower. Bangkok's SET declined 0.2%.

“A cocktail of worries about China’s economic outlook and a contentious U.S. presidential election weighed heavily on market sentiment,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management wrote in a commentary.

Stocks have sagged this week under rising pressure from Treasury yields. Higher yields can make investors reluctant to pay high prices for stocks, which critics say already look too expensive after they rose faster than corporate profits.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell early Thursday to 4.19% from 4.25% late Wednesday, finally giving stocks some breathing room.

Treasury yields have been climbing after a raft of reports have shown the U.S. economy remains stronger than expected. That’s good news for Wall Street, because it bolsters hopes that the economy can escape from the worst inflation in generations without the painful recession that many had worried was inevitable.

In other dealings early Thursday, U.S. benchmark crude oil gained 42 cents to $71.19 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Brent crude, the international standard, rose 43 cents to $75.39 per barrel.

The dollar slipped to 152.02 Japanese yen after surging above 153 yen on Wednesday. The euro rose to $1.0795 from $1.0783.

FILE - The Fearless Girl statue, with a flower draped on the shoulder, stands outside the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

A train arrives at the Wall Street subway station in New York's Financial District on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

An electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm is seen near a pedestrian crossing Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

A person stands near an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)