Book explores Jacksonville's Gullah Geechee Heritage

In his first book since 2014, Jaxson co-owner Ennis Davis has collaborated with urban planner and historian Adrienne Burke to highlight the story of Jacksonville's Gullah Geechee Heritage. Preorder your author signed copy of Jacksonville's Gullah Geechee Heritage today.

Jacksonville’s Gullah Geechee Heritage

The Jaxson is pleased to announce that one of our co-owners and editors is publishing a new book. Jacksonville’s Gullah Geechee Heritage, a collaboration between local urban planners and historians Ennis Davis and Adrienne Burke, will be released by Arcadia Publishing on April 28, 2026.

Jacksonville, Florida’s Gullah Geechee heritage is an integral part of the city’s story. Gullah Geechee people, descendants of West and Central African people forcibly brought to the Southeastern coast of the United States, have retained many of their indigenous African traditions through architecture, food, culture, religion, and occupations. This legacy, combined with Northeast Florida’s unique blend of Indigenous, French, Spanish, and English colonial history, has contributed to the African American journey in Jacksonville.

Today Jacksonville is the largest city in the federally designated Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, which stretches from Wilmington, NC to St. Augustine, FL. This book highlights the Gullah Geechee experience and its influence on life in the city’s development and culture. An introduction is provided by Saundra Morene with the Jacksonville Gullah/Geechee Nation Community Development Corporation.

What Are They Saying?

Gullah Geechee is a foundational culture for the United States influencing everything from our foodways and music to the way we speak. It has a descendant community that numbers in the hundreds of thousands internationally.
Many of them contributed greatly to the economic engine that has fueled Jacksonville’s growing metroplex since Reconstruction. However, there are no universities or colleges in Florida (or elsewhere in the Gullah Geechee Corridor) that consistently offer courses in Gullah Geechee studies and none that provide a major or degree in the field.

Works of public history like Davis and Burke’s “Jacksonville’s Gullah Geechee Culture” that successfully mine Florida’s public archives, government records, oral histories and scholarly publications demonstrate that a foundation for a teachable canon and generative scholarship about the centuries-long history of the Gullah Geechee people of Northeast Florida exists — and should be endowed.

Heather L. Hodges • Heather L. Hodges, Former Executive Director, Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor (2017-2020)

This book honors the voices, traditions, and contributions of Jacksonville’s Gullah Geechee community that too often go unnoticed and untold. Through thoughtful interpretation, Ennis Davis affirms that our legacy deserves respect and attention. He reminds us that culture lives through people, place, and memory. Releasing this work on Emancipation Day makes it timely, intentional, and meaningful.

Ju’Coby Pittman • Ju’Coby Pittman, CEO/President of Clara White Mission and City Councilwoman, District 10

This book spectacularly details how Gullah Geechee’s culture has intertwined with Jacksonville’s history. It also details the ways the Gullah Geechee culture has shaped modern Jacksonville. Anyone who wants to learn about how Jacksonville was formed should add this book to their library and use it as a reference.

Will Brown • WJCT Public Media

Order your signed copy

You can preorder signed copies of Jacksonville’s Gullah Geechee Heritage, available in hardcover or paperback here:

Books will ship after release on April 28, 2026. The book can also be found at Arcadiapublishing.com and at most area bookstores.