A.G. GancarskiCould a Gullah Geechee museum be coming to Jacksonville? A public-private partnership may make it so, in what was formerly the settlement of Cosmo.
In the phrasing of the National Park Service, “the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor extends from Wilmington, North Carolina in the north to Jacksonville, Florida in the south. It is home to one of America’s most unique cultures, a tradition first shaped by captive Africans brought to the southern United States from West Africa and continued in later generations by their descendents.”
The Gullah people and their language are also referred to as Geechee. Honoring that cultural tradition on a larger cultural level has been a long time in coming. Yet it is coming.
Jacksonville has a Gullah Geechee Community Development Corporation as well as a Cosmo Historical Preservation Foundation, which is spearheading the push for a Gullah Geechee museum in what was the town of Cosmo, located around the current intersection of Fort Caroline and McCormick in the Arlington area, between Old Arlington and Mayport.
Councilman Al Ferraro, who grew up in the area and represents it, noted that “I grew up around a lot of descendants of these folks.”
Ferraro also noted that Gate Petroleum has been willing to cede land in the area to the city, and that this museum would be a worthwhile purpose.
The term Gullah-Geechee is one that has come into favor in recent decades, with academic admissibility coming from a 1964 study. In 2006, on his fourth attempt, South Carolina U.S. Rep. James Clyburn got an act of Congress authorizing a Gullah Geechee Commission.
Jacksonville, it was said in the meeting, has the greatest number of descendants from this lineage in the country.
In total, it is estimated that there are 3.2 million people of this heritage, and the plan among advocates is that each state has an information center, focusing on the language (which contains elements of West African and English languages, similar to patois), and the culture.
In Cosmo, the lifestyle was largely agrarian and independent, with fishing, shrimping, and crabbing in the area, which was based off a 40-acre deed.
Currently, the Alexander Memorial United Methodist Church is there, and there are graves dating back to the 18th century in the area.
The museum, it is posited, would be an economic driver, both in construction and maintenance of the museum, and culturally interested tourist traffic.
In addition to ceding land, Councilman Ferraro said there is an “open conversation” with Gate Petroleum regarding financial support.
“I think this is important,” Ferraro said.
