Emory Campbell

Who is Emory Campbell?

Emory Campbell is a renowned community leader among the Gullah people, African Americans who live in the coastal low country region of South Carolina and Georgia. The Gullahs have preserved more of their African linguistic and cultural heritage than any other black community in the US.

Campbell was born and raised on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina before that island — now an internationally famous resort area — was connected to the mainland by a bridge. When he went to high school on the mainland in the 1950s, he discovered that his Gullah language was so "deep" that even his African American teachers had trouble understanding him and the other children from the islands. Campbell would later earn a master's degree in environmental engineering from Tufts University in Boston. Throughout his adult life he has been a peacemaker within his community and a bridge-builder between the Gullahs and the outside world.

Campbell began his career in the 1970s as a community development activist, working to implement public health measures in impoverished rural areas and to preserve traditional Gullah communities threatened by out-of-control resort development on the sea islands. Later, as the Executive Director of Penn Center, Inc. on St. Helena Island, South Carolina Campbell helped lead the movement to preserve Gullah culture and make Gullah people in the rural areas more aware of the importance of their uniquely rich African cultural heritage. Campbell was a member of the committee that translated the New Testament into the Gullah language.