This new mural tells the neglected story of HHI’s Black shrimpers and its proudest moment | Opinion
An old photo from The New York Times of Gullah entrepreneur David Jones No. 1 and shrimper Thomas Bryan suddenly has new meaning.
Today, it is helping to prominently tell the neglected story of Hilton Head Island’s proudest moment. The moment was celebrated Wednesday at a festive unveiling at the site of the Black-owned Hilton Head Fishing Cooperative.
It came in April 1970 when a 42-foot shrimp trawler from the co-op named the Capt. Dave figuratively went up against an aircraft carrier and won. The little boat owned by Jones remains the lasting symbol of a street brawl that erupted in the Lowcountry when every official of so-called importance, local and statewide, proudly supported plans for a $100 million petrochemical plant on Victoria Bluff near Bluffton.
The BASF plant was announced in October 1969 as a done deal. It would bring prosperity to Bluffton, population 650 back then. But it would suck up 100 million gallons of water a day, and dump 2.5 million gallons of effluent into the non-flushing Colleton River daily. Miles of shipping lane would be dredged down the river and out Port Royal Sound, and 40,000 barrels of oil would be shipped in daily.
State and local officials were bobbing their heads yes (with no specific plan) as the German chemical giant promised that none of this would pollute the air or water.
The Gullah watermen knew better. They’d seen pollution from Savannah ruin the oyster industry on nearby Daufuskie Island.
Thanks to the cooperative, founded in 1966 by 10 Black shrimpers, the Gullah shrimpers felt they had finally gotten their fair share of the commercial fishing dollar. They didn’t want to risk it.
Thomas C. Barnwell Jr., the last surviving cooperative founder, said at the ceremony: “We showed our native island community and the world that we were not just bystanders, but active participants in the island’s growth and prosperity. We gave hope and confidence that the native island families could be a part of the economic action.”
It was the island’s proudest moment because the BASF fight brought the community together like never before or since.
The netmaker and the developer, the shrimp boat striker and the retired admiral, the retired Shell Oil general counsel and young hippies marching with “Bad Air Sick Fish” posters united in a seemingly doomed cause.
And the fishing cooperative — built with money from a federal loan on land along Skull Creek made available by the Bryan family — took a courageous stand against the NAACP, which wanted the plant for its jobs. At the time, this county was the focus of a Hunger Tour, and children had parasitic worms due to a lack of plumbing.
The Capt. Dave made a symbolic 777-mile, 7-day trek from Hilton Head Island to the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., delivering 45,000 petition signatures and 25 pounds of shrimp to then-Secretary of the Interior Walter Hickel, whose pressure influenced BASF.
In January 1971, BASF announced it would instead head to Louisiana, settling in an area that later became known as “Cancer Alley.”
This legacy has new life at the Town of Hilton Head Island’s Rowing & Sailing Center at Squire Pope Community Park, 133 Squire Pope Road.
The story is told in a new kiosk with names, dates, quotations and photos like the one of Jones and Bryan that have been pulled together over time by Natalie Harvey, director of the town’s Office of Cultural Affairs. A 15-by-9-foot mural featuring the Capt. Dave by artist Amari Farris was unveiled on a sun-soaked afternoon. Speeches by Barnwell and others were “photo-bombed” by a low-flying heron.
Widows and children of those involved in the environmental and economic fight formed a rare homecoming of old-time Hilton Head. They sat in a breeze that was blowing over today’s public fishing dock and non-motorized boat launch in a park that came along well after the cooperative closed in 1978.
They enjoyed shrimp from Benny Hudson Seafood and hushpuppies from Hudson’s Seafood House around a bend in the creek. The pristine creek.
David Lauderdale may be reached at LauderdaleColumn@gmail.com .
