Hilton Head Plantation voted on whether to change its name. The results are in
A slim majority of the roughly 2,600 Hilton Head Plantation property owners who participated in a community-wide survey voted against removing the word “plantation” from the sprawling gated community’s name, according to an email sent to residents on Friday.
The email said 52.84% of the participating property owners, 1,378 properties, voted to retain “plantation.” It reported 33.55%, or 875 properties, voted to remove the word from the community’s name, with the remaining 13.61% of respondents, or 355 properties, reporting they needed to know more about the costs associated with the change before supporting either side.
About 61% of the approximately 4,278 properties in the gated community — Hilton Head Island’s largest — cast votes while the survey was open during the month of September. Each property received one survey, the email said.
The vote comes on the heels of Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the country, and calls from Hilton Head native islanders and activists for gated communities on the island to strip “plantation” from their names, some arguing the moniker was used as a marketing tool for the communities.
The census tract covering the northern tip of Hilton Head, inside Hilton Head Plantation, is 99% white, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau figures.
In Hilton Head Plantation, a group of community members, HHP Community 4 Change, formed to advocate for a change to the name. The group has pushed for a vote before the 2021 regular survey of residents to expedite the renaming process.
General Manager Peter Kristian told The Island Packet that changing the community’s name could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. He pointed to the neighborhood’s well-known brand that would change if one-third of the name were dropped.
“For someone to wave their hand and say ‘change the name,’ that is not something that is taken lightly,” Kristian said in June. “(Plantation) was to denote a leisurely lifestyle and to recognize the history of the land.”
Historical effort launched after vote on “plantation” name
The Board of Directors of Hilton Head Plantation’s Property Owners’ Association voted unanimously to accept the survey results while recognizing that many are “passionate about their feelings on both sides of this issue,” the email said.
The board said it heard from many of the community’s property owners, and one resident’s suggestion stood out.
“The property owner wrote in part, ‘We believe that the associated history is to be learned from - not to be deleted or rewritten ... We also appreciate other peoples perceived sensitivities to the past unfairness or injustices,’” the email said, quoting the unnamed resident.
The community’s leaders authorized the creation of a “historical committee” to “create a visible, physical, and tangible historical perspective for the word ‘Plantation’ as it relates to Hilton Head Island,” according to the email.
Without specifically mentioning race, slavery or the dozens of plantations on the island that enslaved generations of African people before the Civil War, the community-wide message said the planned display would commemorate “all families’ work and sacrifices from past generations, making Hilton Head Plantation possible.”
The committee will report back to the board with its recommendations, including the possibility of a kiosk in the Dolphin Head Recreation Area, historically a part of the Myrtle Bank Plantation property, the board said in the email.
Where do other gated communities stand?
Hilton Head Plantation was the last of three communities on the island to address the use of the word plantation in public-facing signs and marketing materials.
Earlier this summer, Wexford removed the word from its sign on U.S. 278.
Although Palmetto Hall voters didn’t reach the threshold to legally change their community’s name, the property owners association said it would take the word off its sign and marketing materials, citing a majority of votes cast in favor of the change.
Port Royal Plantation still uses the word in its legal name, but it is not featured on its official sign. But nearby, a green sign directs drivers on U.S. 278 into “Port Royal Plantation.”
An online petition started in June to end the use of the word “plantation” to refer to gated communities and resorts garnered just over 10,500 signatures.
In Hilton Head Plantation, Black residents have spoken up in favor of the name change.
“Especially for white people, for those people who think about history, they need to realize they don’t really know history,” resident Bill Patterson told The Island Packet in June.
“It was a traumatic experience, and we’re not that far removed from slavery. My great-grandfather was a slave,” he said.
This story was originally published October 3, 2020 at 11:45 AM.
