Historian will examine community recovery, conflict after South Carolina’s deadliest hurricane
From staff reports
On Thursday, August 3, at 6 p.m., the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park invites the public to attend a free lecture by historian Caroline Grego, Ph.D., marking the 130th anniversary of the Hurricane of 1893. This program will take place at Darrah Hall in the Penn Center National Historic Landmark District at 24 Penn Center Circle West, St. Helena Island.
In August of 1893, the Sea Islands up and down the coast of Georgia and South Carolina were slammed by a massive hurricane. Thousands of people, mostly from the islands’ Gullah Geechee community, died during and after the storm.
Grego’s presentation will explore how the community, state and local officials, and national relief organizations, all interacted with each other within the context of the collapse of Reconstruction in the Lowcountry.
Grego is an Assistant Professor of History at Queens University of Charlotte and is the author of Hurricane Jim Crow: How the Great Sea Island Storm of 1893 shaped the Lowcountry South, which was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2022.
For more information about Reconstruction Era National Historical Park, visit www.nps.gov/reer or follow on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ReconstructionNPS.
