The Stephenson Center for Appalachia and Comparative Highland Studies presents lecture on community conflict and recovery following a historic storm
In collaboration with the 91探花 John B. Stephenson Center for Appalachia and Comparative Highland Studies, Caroline Grego, an assistant professor of history at Queens University in Charlotte, will present her lecture on the power and pitfalls of community recovery following times of disaster. The lecture will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 27 in Evans Auditorium, and is free and open to the public.
Grego’s lecture, “Parables from the Eye of the Hurricane: Community Conflict and Recovery After the Great Sea Island Storm of 1893” examines the long-term effects caused by the Great Sea Island Storm of 1893 and analyzes how community members from across racial and class demographics collaborated and conflicted in their efforts to restore the devastated landscape.
The Great Sea Island Storm of 1893 swept up the east coast in late August that year, primarily impacting the Sea Islands, a chain of small tidal and barrier islands that sit along the coast of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. The storm was one of the deadliest hurricanes in the country’s history, taking the lives of thousands of people, primarily those of the African American Gullah Geechee community who reside on the Sea Islands.
Grego’s lecture relates to her new book on the same topic, “,” and will resonate with residents of western North Carolina who are still reckoning with the damage caused by Hurricane Helene late last year.
