Virginia Mixson Geraty

Who was Virginia Mixson Geraty?

Virginia Mixson Geraty was a writer and outspoken defender of the Gullah language. She authored poetry and books in the Gullah language and produced popular recordings in Gullah. She was also involved in theater and film productions that promoted popular understanding of the language.

The Gullah language is spoken by about 250,000 African Americans, called Gullahs, who live in the coastal region of South Carolina and Georgia. Gullah is a creole language that combines influences from English and African languages. Although the Gullah people and their language are now a focus of pride for African Americans, Gullah speech was long ridiculed as "ignorant" and "backward." Geraty came forward as a defender of Gullah in the 1950s when prejudice against the language was still extremely strong.

A white woman, Mrs. Geraty spent some of her childhood years on Yonges Island, South Carolina. She learned Gullah from a family servant named "Maum Chrish," and she attributed her love of Gullah speech to those early interactions. Geraty worked for many years as a librarian in the Charleston County School System. Noticing that white teachers could not understand the speech of Gullah-speaking children, she spoke out in favor of language training for the teachers, but for many years her views were regarded as eccentric at best.