Slave descendants are suing to fight zoning changes they say threaten their island homes off Georgia

By RUSS BYNUM
Associated Press

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Black residents descended from slaves on a Georgia island have filed suit in hopes of stopping zoning changes that they fear will force them to sell their homes. Lawyers from the Southern Poverty Law Center and Atlanta attorney Jason Carter, the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter, filed the civil lawsuit on behalf of nine residents of Sapelo Island. Commissioners for coastal McIntosh County last month voted to weaken restrictions that for decades have protected Gullah-Geechee residents and landowners in the island’s tiny community of Hogg Hummock. The lawsuit accuses county officials of race discrimination and says they violated residents’ due process rights. The county’s attorney did not immediately return phone and email messages.