They all face east because that's the way Bilali faced when he prayed. They grew African red peas, okra, and yams, cooking them with rice, seafoods and wild game into spicy gumbos. Because of their long isolation, the Gullah-Geechee people have kept more of their African cultural roots than any other group of blacks in the United States, according to William S. Pollitzer, professor emeritus of anatomy and anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Their language is also unique. But for how much longer, no one is sure.
Causeways now arch across the marches to several sea islands.
New highways crisscross once-rural coastal counties as the population migration continues to Sun Belt states. As property values skyrocket, so do taxes. Ironically, the success of the civil rights movement prompted many Gullah-Geechees to leave the small communities where they once scratched out a living. As they began moving into the wider world during the 1960s, some became ashamed of their old ways. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, born in the tiny marshfront community of Pin Point near Savannah, says that when he was 16 and the only black student in his class, he was self-conscious about his speech.