The Gullah Geechee Movement : black identity politics and intersectional struggles for justice in contemporary United States

Abstract

The focus of this thesis are the intersectional struggles for justice among a culturally distinct African American population called Gullah Geechee. Gullah Geechee are the descendants of enslaved people who have been able to pass down knowledge and practices of their ancestors to a higher degree than most other African Americans. The group has for long been stigmatized by mainstream society along the lines of race, culture, and class as “poor” and “backwards” countryfolk. However, in recent years there has been a growing political organization among Gullah Geechee. It is one of the central arguments of this thesis that this development has to be read as the formation and consolidation of a social movement. More specifically, and contrary to other studies, I argue that what I refer to as the Gullah Geechee Movement represents not merely a case of cultural revitalization but a multidimensional challenge to cultural, socio-economic, and political-legal dynamics of marginalization.