How one young history buff is preserving the Gullah Geechee community on TikTok

By Maya Eaglin, NBC News

The Gullah Geechee people make up one of the oldest and most extraordinary communities in the United States. But if you’ve never heard of them, it might be because their history is often sifted out of textbooks, and the longevity of their culture is now in danger. 

This distinctly African American community began on the eastern coastal islands — spanning from Florida all the way up to North Carolina in the 1600s. Slaves, mostly from West Africa, lived in complete isolation from the continental United States, separated by rivers, swamps and waterways that weren’t easy to cross. 

“That created an environment for us to create our own culture, outside of when white American culture developed,” said Akua Page, a Gullah Geechee tour guide, entrepreneur and content creator from Charleston, South Carolina. 

The Gullah Geechee people held on to stories, religious practices, farming methods, recipes and even formed their own language, separate from that of colonial Americans on the mainland. But now, the language, and culture, face a new threat. 

Find out more about this threat and how social media could help.

The Gullah Geechee created the song “Kumbaya” and you can learn more about them in the Netflix series “High on the Hog”.

Our breaking news page also aims to increase representation and knowledge of Black culture.