Pin Point is an
unincorporated community in
Chatham County,
Georgia, United States; it is located southeast of
Savannah
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the Canopy (forest), canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to rea ...
and is part of the Savannah
Metropolitan Statistical Area.
[ Pin Point is wide and long, and lies 13 feet above sea level. The town is best known as the birthplace of ]Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
Justice Clarence Thomas (June 23, 1948),[ and for its longstanding Gullah-speaking community.][
A rural settlement founded by freed people after the abolishment of slavery post- Civil War,][ In 1897, they founded Sweetfield of Eden Baptist Church.][ In 1926, as part of a school-building initiative for African American children in the South—who at the time only had access to underfunded, segregated schools—a Rosenwald school was built in the Pin Point community.][
The town lies on the edge of Shipyard Creek, a branch of the Moon River. The surrounding land has large oak trees and coastal marshes, as well as crab and oyster habitats.][ The main employer in the community was crab and oyster canning from the 1920s through 1980s.][
Pin Point remains a small, predominantly African American community that has a well-established Gullah community. The Gullah people have been able to preserve many cultural connections to their origins in West Africa, where many of their ancestors were captured and then enslaved in the United States.
Gullah, the only English-based, Afro-Indigenous creole language in the United States, is spoken in Pin Point.][ It is unknown how many native speakers there are in the town, but along the Southeastern seaboard there are about 5,000 semi-speakers and 300 native speakers.][ Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is a native speaker of Gullah (then called Geechee).][ He has attributed his silence on the Supreme Court to his self-consciousness speaking in an all-white school as a teenager, where classmates made fun of him for not speaking “]standard English
In an English-speaking country, Standard English (SE) is the variety of English that has undergone substantial regularisation and is associated with formal schooling, language assessment, and official print publications, such as public service a ...
.” Pin Point Heritage Museum, once the Varn and Sons Oyster and Crab Canning Factory, is devoted to the Gullah/Geechee culture and community.[
]
References
External links
Pin Point Community
historical marker
Pin Point Heritage Museum
official website.]
Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words
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Populated coastal places in Georgia (U.S. state)
Unincorporated communities in Chatham County, Georgia
Unincorporated communities in Georgia (U.S. state)
Savannah metropolitan area
Populated places established by African Americans