Where: St. Helena Island, South Carolina
When: year-round
If you like: history
Why you should go: On the live oak–studded, Spanish moss–draped barrier island of St. Helena in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, the Penn Center has served as keeper of history and culture for the Gullah Geechee, a community of descendants of enslaved West Africans, for more than 150 years. Abolitionists established the school in 1862—six months before Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation—as one of the first educational institutions in the country for formerly enslaved people. Later it transformed into a community resource center and then a meeting place for civil rights advocates. Today the fifty-acre campus—a National Historic Landmark that joined UNESCO’s Network of Places of History and Memory last year—invites visitors to wander among twenty-five structures, including a museum, a praise house, a brick church built in 1855, and the Arnett House, which was frequented by Martin Luther King, Jr. Steadfast in its mission, the center also operates as a social services hub for local residents. As the late Congressman John Lewis said, “More than a century since its founding, Penn Center still remains at the forefront in the fight for human dignity.”
G&G tip: The annual Heritage Days festival in November brings three days of special events, including a Lowcountry Supper with classic Gullah Geechee dishes, a worship service with old-time spirituals and call-and-response prayer, a fish fry, and basket weaving demonstrations.
