Tybee organizations working to preserve Lazaretto Creek’s history

TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (WTOC) - After the City of Tybee Island passed the race and equity resolution last summer, various organizations have been working together to preserve the island’s Black history.

This area of Battery Creek Park is considered sacred land and soon it’ll be developed into a historical display.

In the 1760′s, Lazaretto Creek had a house on it. This was a place where people were quarantined before being sold into slavery in Savannah. For anyone who comes on or off the island, they’re driving over sacred ground.

Julia Pearce with the Tybee MLK organization says if they didn’t live, they were buried in unmarked graves. Thousands of which are believed to be at Battery Creek Park. The Lazaretto Creek Coalition, which includes the Tybee MLK, Tybee Historical Society, Hillary family, the City of Tybee and Georgia Southern University, are working on creating a memorial.

“When we come across that bridge we should think about that. Not in a morbid way, but think about it in a way that this was American history and where are we today and what are we still grappling with today and how much this is a part of what we live with today,” Pearce said.

Pearce says they plan to break ground on the area in the spring of 2022. The coalition would love public input and they invite the community to come out and join them for a meeting about the project at Battery Creek Park on October 12 at 4 p.m.

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