J-Mester, South Carolina Study Tour: Understanding the Gullah Geechee Roots of Social Justice and Resistance
In the Spring of 2023, a group of Morehouse and Spelman students traveled to South Carolina and Barbados to learn more about these connections, with support from the Mellon Movement, Memory and Justice Project led by Drs. Corrie Claiborne and Samuel Livingston. This January, Dr. Sinead Younge taught a January J-Mester Course entitled, Understanding the Gullah Geechee Roots of Social Justice and Resistance. The course explored the connection between South Carolina and Barbados using health as a lens to explore history, culture, food, and behavior. This unique opportunity brought together students and faculty from Morehouse College, the University of the West Indies (UWI) - Cave Hill, and R2ISE to Recovery, a non-profit organization, to explore the connections between Gullah Geechee and Barbadian cultural traditions, as well as contemporary social justice issues such as climate justice, health inequities, and reparations. Five students from the University of the West Indies - Cave Hill participated in this course along with Ms. Alison Johnson and Dr. Yanique Hume, head of the Department of Cultural Studies at UWI. Ten students from Morehouse College participated in the course and community partner, Ms. Alexia Jones of R2ISE to Recovery, taught a session exploring art and wellness in the Black community.
The students in the J-Mester Course and Study Tour visited important sites in Atlanta including the Martin Luther King historic site, the Center for Civil and Human Rights, and the High Museum. The class traveled to Charleston and participated in a Gullah Tour of Charleston led by Mr. Alphonso Brown. The group visited Charles Towne Landing State Historic site and met Ms. Rhoda Green of the Barbados Carolinas Connection. The group was led on a tour of the McLeod Plantation by Toby Smith and visited the International African American Museum where they met Dr. Charles Norton of Coastal Carolina University and alumnus, Tendaji Bailey, a son of the Gullah Geechee region. The class and the tour were transformative and left an indelible mark on all who participated. This opportunity was made possible with funding from the Julian Grace Foundation, the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Faculty of Culture, Creative and Performing Arts, and the West Indian Group of University Teachers.
University of West Indies, Cave Hill student, Kemal Marshall, and Morehouse College student, Jahrik Browner, of Macon, Georgia, sat down to discuss their experiences taking the Understanding the Gullah Geechee Roots of Social Justice and Resistance J-mester Course.
