Our Story

Surrounded by ancestors called to from the past. Touching antebellum days up to the present. Left and came back and fell in love again.

Former slaves and slave-owners share values and traditions fished from the Atlantic and its marshes, and farmed in the sandy soil of the Lowcountry. The descendants of the slaves brought from Sierra Leone and of the Southern Aristocracy exist stubbornly independent of one another yet connected by sea and agriculture.

It's the food that brings us together… Blue crabs, shrimp, oysters, fish, tomatoes, bell peppers, okra, corn, cucumbers. It's “where we caught 'em” and “how we made 'em grow.”

It's waking up to the smell of pluff mud and watching fiddlers march across a sandy beach. It's fish and grits, oyster roasts and boilin' crabs. It's skeeters and sand gnats and hot steamy nights. It's knowing when the tide is low and the bridge is open.

Those of us born and raised in this place can feel the rhythm of the tide, harvest the bounty, and cook the catch. We feel our ancestors here. We know that this place is where God lives. To us, ownership is universal and is granted to all who call this place home.

“We Island” is always in quotation marks because I heard someone say it when I was a boy.

I grew up on Prince Street, between Carteret and New Streets in Beaufort, South Carolina. My great-grandmother, two great aunts, my grandfather and grandmother, my mother and my father and five cousins all lived on our block.

Black folk from off Lady's Island, Coosaw, Dataw, Warsaw, and Saint Helena Islands outnumbered all other community members. The Piggly Wiggly lot filled with vehicles that brought food and beverage. These were the first tailgate parties I ever saw. Restaurants only served black patrons through the back window. Not many cared for that type of service.

By 4:00 pm, most of the shopping was done, and the drivers rounded up their passengers.

“Where are you going?” I asked a rider.

“We Island,” said the old Gullah woman explaining where she lived… Our Home

Our Legacy

  • J.L. Washington

    1866-1938

    Coming of school age just after the Civil War, he entered the public schools of Beaufort and attended South Carolina College, now the University of South Carolina; later reading law under General Whipper.

    J.I. Washington held political positions under the state and federal governments, and was engaged in the active and successful practice of the law until his retirement in 1934.

    For several years prior to 1902 he was associated with former Congressman Thomas E. Millerunder the firm name of Miller & Washington.

    In 1924 he and his son, Charles E. Washington, formed the law partnership of Washington & Washington, enjoying a successful practice.



  • Charles English Washington Jr.

    1928 - 1972

    Born in Beaufort County, South Carolina, he was an attorney who practiced law in Beaufort. He was married to Juanita Jones Washington, a dedicated educator and civil rights activist. Together, they were instrumental in the desegregation of Beaufort County's public schools, with their sons being among the first African American students to integrate the system.

    Charles E. Washington Jr. was part of a distinguished legal lineage. His father, Julius I. Washington (1864–1938), was a prominent attorney in Beaufort. Julius partnered with former Congressman Thomas E. Miller under the firm Miller & Washington and later formed Washington & Washington with his son in 1924 .

  • Charleston Washington Sr.

    My father was a classmate of Martin Luther King, and invited Mr. King to Beaufort, SC where the "I Have a Dream" Speech was written. It was later presented at the Washington DC mall in 1963.