[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 36 (Tuesday, March 6, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E318]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO EMORY CAMPBELL

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                         HON. JAMES E. CLYBURN

                           of south carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 6, 2012

  Mr. CLYBURN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a remarkable 
man who has distinguished himself as a great South Carolinian and an 
outstanding scholar and advocate of the Gullah/Geechee culture. He has 
dedicated his life to preserving the culture and the community he 
loves, and has just ended his tenure as the first Chairman of the 
Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission. I commend him for 
his outstanding work and thank him for his long-time friendship. We 
could not have had a better person to get this Commission off on the 
right foot.
  Emory Shaw Campbell was born on October 11, 1941, on Hilton Head 
Island, South Carolina, which was at the time was an isolated Sea 
Island inhabited by the descendents of former slaves, not the high-end 
resort it has become today. He was the sixth of 12 children born to 
Sarah and Reginald Campbell.
  While he attended elementary school on Hilton Head Island, he had to 
travel by boat to attend high school at Michael C. Riley High School in 
the mainland town of Bluffton. He graduated as valedictorian of his 
class in 1960. He went on to earn his bachelor's degree in biology from 
Savannah State College, and a master's in environmental engineering 
from Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts.
  Following his academic training, Dr. Campbell returned home to his 
beloved Sea Islands. He served for ten years as the Director of 
Community Service Education at the Beaufort-Jasper Comprehensive Health 
Services in Ridgeland, South Carolina. This community health center 
provided quality, affordable health care to the underserved populations 
of the Sea Islands in the southernmost corner of the State. He also 
worked to protect Gullah communities that were threatened by the 
encroachment of resort development in the area.
  In 1980, he became the Director of the Penn Community Center on St. 
Helena Island. This historic facility began as a school in the 1800s to 
educate freed slaves. It became a meeting place during the civil rights 
movement of the 1960s. As a student organizer at South Carolina State 
College, I attended meetings at Penn Center and subsequently served as 
a member of its Board of Trustees. Dr. Martin Luther King retreated 
there to plan protest strategies. Today, the center serves to protect 
and preserve the heritage of the island and its Gullah culture. Dr. 
Campbell was synonymous with these efforts, and he became a sought 
after expert on all things Gullah.
  Most notably during his 22 years at the helm of Penn Center, Dr. 
Campbell led an effort to reconnect the Gullah community to its family 
roots in Sierra Leone, West Africa. This initiative resulted in Sierra 
Leone's President Joseph Momoh visiting Penn Center in 1988, and the 
following year Dr. Campbell was given the title of Honorary Paramount 
Chief when he took a group from the Gullah community to Sierra Leone 
for a reunion with their ancestral families. In 1990, South Carolina 
Educational Television produced a documentary Family Across the Sea, 
which chronicles these events.
  Dr. Campbell has sought to preserve the heritage of his native 
culture through his book Gullah Cultural Legacies that includes Gullah 
traditions, beliefs, art and language. He also helped in the effort to 
translate the New Testament of the Bible into Gullah, which I used when 
I was sworn in as House Majority Whip in 2007. When Dr. Campbell 
retired from Penn Center in 2002, he began Gullah Heritage Consulting 
Services to continue his lifelong work and he manages the Gullah 
Heritage Trail Tours on Hilton Head Island.
  In 2005, Dr. Campbell received the Carter F. Woodson Memorial Award 
from the National Education Association for his efforts to preserve the 
Gullah heritage and communities and to improve the quality of life for 
the Gullah people.
  In 2008, I succeeded in getting the Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage 
Corridor enacted into law. The legislation included the established of 
a Commission to manage the corridor, and Dr. Campbell was fittingly 
chosen to Chair the inaugural Commission.
  Dr. Campbell lives on Hilton Head Island with his wife, Emma. They 
have two adult children.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask you and our colleagues to join me in thanking Dr. 
Emory Campbell for his dedication to preserving, protecting and 
promoting the Gullah culture that is unique to the Sea Islands of the 
American South. He has made remarkable contributions throughout his 
career to bring recognition and support to Gullah communities, and he 
is one of their most distinguished members. His work has helped to save 
an entire culture that was rapidly disappearing due to encroachment and 
assimilation, and that is a tremendous legacy for any one individual.

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