In Charleston County's historic Phillips community, the descendants of the African American freedmen who originally founded the settlement on a former plantation east of the Cooper have fought for its survival for years. Longtime Phillips resident Ada Bennett and Richard Habersham, president of the Phillips Community Association, share why.
Instead of touting old buildings or artifacts, the historic Phillips Community points to its people.
The families who inhabit the small community today are descendants of the formerly enslaved freedmen who founded Phillips in 1875 where a plantation of the same name had been. They themselves are “living history” one resident said, passing down common values through generations.
Family. Working together. Everybody knowing everybody.
But the world around Phillips, an unincorporated community in Charleston County east of the Cooper, changed dramatically once more people moved into the area.
This week, we heard from lifelong Phillips resident Ada Bennett and Phillips Community Association president Richard Habersham on the history of the community, their experiences living there, what it means to them and what they have done and continue to do to fight for its survival.
Most recently, that’s meant opposing a plan that would widen Highway 41 through the Phillips Community.
After Phillips residents and a broad coalition of community groups opposed that plan, Charleston County proposed an alternative.
But, even if the county goes with another plan that has less of an adverse impact on Phillips, there are still a number of challenges they face in the once-rural community that’s now surrounded by growth and development.
The Phillips Community is just one example of how Black communities in the Lowcountry have been threatened by development and infrastructure projects. Read more: 5 road projects threaten long-established Black communities across the Lowcountry.