June 3, Tuesday – Sitting on the Porch

Early in the morning I swung the double set onto Martin Luther King, Jr Road on the sea island of St. Helena. Along the road under the cover of live oaks I came upon a campus d called Penn Center and turned in.
What I learned from the internet was that the Penn Center was started by Quakers in Philadelphia in 1862. Two teachers, one a Quaker, spent 40 years teaching the Gullah people how to read and write. Within two years a third teacher, who was black, joined them. The history of the school and center is rich with history along with its fifteen historic buildings on the 50 acres.
As I sat in the reading in the administrations, blacks came and went with a couple of white people mixed in. I felt like I was sitting in the admin building for the Swinomish Tribe, a minority; out of place but very comfortable in the setting. They gave me a map with descriptions of the buildings so I set out on a self guided tour ending up in the museum.
One out-of-the-way building gave me pause – the Gantt Cottage. A heavy emotional wave washed over me as I stood before it. It was here that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr stayed on his visits to Penn Center. It was here that he planned and met with whites – one of only two places in the south that blacks and whites could meet together in the 60’s. Slowly I moved to the screened in porch and sat in silence. The March on Washington had its seeds planted here.
I spent an hour in the museum looking at the video and reading the exhibits and displays. And this place lives on dedicated to preserving the islands’ culture of the Gullah people.