St. Helena residents demand officials make changes after parade route danger complaints
A long-standing cultural tradition on St. Helena Island, the Penn Center Heritage Days Parade, sparked outrage when changed routes for this year’s festivities led to concerns about dangerous conditions for parade goers, community members said to the Beaufort County Council during a council meeting last week.
About 50 people filed into council chambers last Tuesday night in response to the changes in traffic patterns for the 40th anniversary of the parade, which took place a few days earlier on Nov. 9.
The parade celebrates the Penn Center and the rich Gullah-Geechee heritage, including its history, arts, music, crafts and ties to West and Central African culture. Many at the meeting emphasized the parade’s deep significance to the Gullah-Geechee people who call St. Helena Island home. Bluffton resident Valeria Richardson noted it is not just a local celebration, drawing attendees from across the U.S. and the world, including Africa.
Thousands of people gathered on either side of U.S. 21 and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to watch the parade go by — people rode down the street on horse back and on floats, community leaders rode in golf carts and high school marching bands performed. Videos and photos posted to social media captured the parade on one side of the highway, separated by a line of orange cones from oncoming traffic. In years past, all lanes of of U.S. 21 were shut down to make way for the parade.
“There’s no way we can have another year like this. There’s just no way,” Richardson said, adding she was grateful that there were no major accidents or fatalities during the parade.
Sheriff and County Chairman respond
County Sheriff P.J. Tanner said a changed route was necessary this year because of last year’s parade, when the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office received calls from motorists who were “stuck in traffic for hours” while the parade traversed down U.S. 21. As community members pointed out, this was the first time that Heritage Days Parade fell on the same day at the Veteran’s Day Parade in Beaufort, which might have caused the influx of calls, they said.
To prioritize safety for parade goers while also allowing traffic to travel down U.S. 21, and with the growing population in Beaufort County, he said a route change was necessary.
At the Nov. 12 council meeting, Chairman Joe Passiment made it clear that county council “does not dictate” the celebration, but that they were still willing to listen to the community’s concern.
The Rev. Jack Ladson, pastor of Scottsville Baptist Church, was the first of many to address the council about the parade mishap. He was born and raised on St. Helena and said that what he witnessed during the parade Saturday caused him to lose sleep.
“I didn’t think I would live to witness this on St. Helena Island,” he said.
Dr. Cynthia Gregory-Smalls, a retired educator and prior Beaufort County School Board member from the island, also addressed the council during public comment, and said that even though the parade was celebrating its 40th anniversary, the celebration has actually been going on for much longer on St. Helena. Her father, born in 1917, remembered hearing stories about his uncle winning a blue ribbon for a horse he presented in the parade.
“This celebration happens once a year, of 365 its just one day,” Gregory-Smalls said. “It’s always the second weekend in November. The celebration is important for our culture, and it should be kept safe and secure... I wish and hope that you can go back to the drawing board to find another and safe way to respect our culture and contribution to our community.”
What is the middle ground?
The new route reduced the mileage spent on U.S. 21 from three-quarters of a mile down to just one-quarter of a mile, Tanner said. The route would also only be on one side of U.S. 21 heading westbound, so that they would be able to escort traffic using the eastbound side of the road. In years past, both lanes of U.S. 21 had been shut down for the parade.
“All of this was planned well in advance before parade day, and the parade committee was a part of the planning process,” Tanner said.
Tanner was at the parade and said that the level of frustration was evident among some of the community members there.
“There are a lot of people who just don’t like change,” he said. “And when you do something a certain way for so long, it’s habit forming, and when you try to change it or or break the habit and come up with a different solution, a lot of people just, it doesn’t settle well with them.”
U.S. 21 is a two-lane highway with a median. It is the only roadway that connects the islands to the city of Beaufort, Tanner added, and it has become a major thoroughfare that takes on much more traffic than it used to.
This is this reason why, he said, the Heritage Days Parade cannot be compared to other parades happening in Beaufort County, like the Christmas parade in downtown Bluffton or the St. Patrick’s parade on Hilton Head Island, where there are alternate routes for motorists to get around the celebration.
“We’ve got to find middle ground,” Tanner said. “We’ve got to make it work. It’s got to be good for both.”
What about next year?
On Monday, Nov. 18, the Penn Center hosted a post-Heritage conversation for community members and leaders to discuss the outcome of this year’s parade.
More than 100 members of the community filed into the room, including Dr. Robert Adams, the executive director for the Penn Center, Michael Rivers, who represents District 121 is the South Carolina State House, and representatives from the Heritage Days Celebration Planning Committee, including Gardenia Simmons-White, a 1952 graduate of The Penn School. In the minutes leading up to 5:30 p.m., people opened up additional folding chairs to make room for everyone.
Emotion filled the room as community members came forward to speak into the microphone. They asked what had gone wrong during the planning period, which started in June, and asked what would be done in the future to avoid the same mistakes.
Although it is still unclear what will be changed about next year’s parade, Adams said it is imperative that they come together as a community to envision the road forward.
This story was originally published November 19, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
