Exhibit Kiosk and Mural Honoring the Hilton Head Fishing Cooperative
The exhibit displays the history of the Hilton Head Fishing Cooperative, which Black fishermen from the Island’s Gullah neighborhoods founded in 1966 and operated until 1978 at the Squire Pope Community Park site. Freddie Chisholm, David Jones #1, and Thomas C. Barnwell, Jr. joined forces to organize the Cooperative, secure funding from a $66,290 Farmers Home Administration Loan, and acquire the 0.75 acre property along Skull Creek where the Cooperative operated. They built their own docking facilities including a processing house, a railway for dry docking boats, an icehouse, and a retail sales office. The cooperative ensured local black shrimpers received fair market value for their catch. The Cooperative had 10 founding members and eventually it expanded to 25 members who paid $500 each to participate. The cooperative’s success was featured in the November 1969 issue of the once-renowned Ebony magazine, which highlighted Black life across the country.
Another significant part of the cooperative’s history was its profound impact on protecting local waters from chemical pollution. Between 1969 and 1971, the cooperative collaborated with other community members to oppose BASF’s plans for a petrochemical plant on Victoria Bluff. Their campaign included the April 1970 voyage to Washington, D.C., aboard the “Capt. Dave” trawler.
In April 1970, a group of Black Hilton Head Island fishermen and members of the resort development community sailed to Washington, D.C., to deliver a petition with 45,000 signatures protesting the construction of a petrochemical plant on Victoria Bluff, near the Island. That trip was the culmination of a long and valiant fight to preserve the area’s natural environment that included environmentalists, developers, concerned citizens and the members of the Hilton Head Fishing Cooperative. Their courageous efforts successfully preserved the area’s natural environment and resources, which significantly contributed to the survival of the Lowcountry’s shrimping industry.
“The Town of Hilton Head Island is proud to celebrate and honor this important part of our Island’s history. The Hilton Head Fishing Cooperative and the victory over BASF underscore the importance of community in finding solutions that work for everyone. This is history we can all celebrate,” said Mayor Alan Perry.
The exhibit panels, unveiled on May 22nd, feature photos and written history about the fishing cooperative and the Black fishermen involved during its 12-year period of activity. Community members, elected officials, Town of Hilton Head Island staff, and family members of the Cooperative’s members joined together to honor the legacy of this organization.
Artist Amiri Farris Mural Honoring the Capt. Dave
Amiri Geuka Farris is a contemporary, multidisciplinary artist. As a contemporary African American male artist, he blurs the boundaries between abstraction and representation, sculpture and printmaking, and contemporary and traditional. In addition to being inspired by the materials around him to create dynamic and colorful pieces, Farris also looks to his own life as he creates works that are full of intimate personal experiences and examinations of subjects that are compelling to him, including issues surrounding diaspora, Gullah Geechee culture, memory, and perception. Farris received his MFA in painting, with his BFA in illustration and graphic design, from the Savannah College of Art and Design. His academic appointments include Professor of Fine Arts Foundations and Graphic Design at Georgia Southern University, at the Betty Foy Sanders Department of Art and Professor of Fine Arts, at the University of South Carolina-Beaufort. Farris’ work has been featured in more than 50 solo exhibitions and juried museum exhibitions across the country, including the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. and the Smithsonian.
