鈥楤lack History Trail鈥� launches for Tybee Island visitors
For many, Tybee Island near Savannah is the go-to spot to spend a hot summer day on the beach. Every year, the long beachline attracts tourists from around the country to the sands.
However, there鈥檚 history sprinkled around the island that is now easier to find than ever before.
For the past few years, a team of researchers at 秋葵视频 has been collecting the stories and historic layout of the island. Specifically, landmarks from slavery and up to the Civil Rights Movement.
As a final product, the team launched a ; from the Lazaretto Creek quarantine station for enslaved people, to the Brown Cement Factory and other important sites on the island.
Georgia Southern鈥檚 Amy Potter, Ph.D., associate professor of geography, said the idea is for Tybee visitors as well as Savannah and Tybee residents to learn about this historically thriving population not often associated with the island, many of whom were also Gullah Geechee people.
鈥淭his is so important to our regional history,鈥� said Potter. 鈥淲e鈥檙e talking about those histories that were not that long ago. We were also thinking a bit more about what this community historically looked like and meant to the people who lived and worked here.鈥�
The trail, which consists of 13 stops, features countless stories that bring these locations to life. Many of these stories were uncovered through personal interviews conducted by Potter and her then-student researcher Joyah Mitchell.
Before graduating in 2022 with a bachelor鈥檚 in geography, Mitchell helped Potter and the Tybee MLK Human Rights Organization interview descendants and build the trail map.
Mitchell said it was difficult to know when to stop the interviews, because there鈥檚 always more to learn about any given site. Additionally, she said there were hurdles in finding the next source of information.
鈥淭his project was supposed to be informed by African-American residents, but it was kind of hard to find those people,鈥� said Mitchell. 鈥淢any of the former residents left during the recession because they couldn’t afford to stay there anymore. So we were finding a lot of non-Black perspectives, which is great, but we don’t want to whitewash the story that’s being told.鈥�
It wasn鈥檛 just informational hurdles Mitchell had to overcome to put the pieces of this puzzle together. In order to find the information, there was a lot of cold-calling, door-knocking and asking questions on difficult topics.
鈥淚’m extremely shy and reserved,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t’s something I’m having to warm up to, especially given the realm of the career field I’m going into. I can do it.鈥�
The Ellenwood, Georgia, native credits her passion for this field and the topic at hand for helping her overcome this shyness. As a result, she helped build a map of societies from the past. Now, she鈥檚 looking to build maps for societies of the future.
Today, Mitchell is an intern for the city of Douglasville, Georgia. While she helps run the office before heading off to graduate school, she takes in whatever she can as she begins her life in city planning.
