Pin Point is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Chatham County,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, United States; it is located southeast of

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) biome and ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach th ...

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 for its longstanding

Gullah The Gullah () are a subgroup of the African Americans, African American ethnic group, who predominantly live in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida within ...

-speaking community, and being the birthplace of U.S. Supreme Court justice

Clarence Thomas Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American lawyer and jurist who has served since 1991 as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. President George H. W. Bush nominated him to succeed Thurgood Marshall. Afte ...

. A rural settlement founded by freed people after the abolishment of slavery post-

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, it was settled in the 1890s by people from nearby Ossabaw, Green, and Skidaway Islands. 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 The Rosenwald School project built more than 5,000 schools, shops, and teacher homes in the United States primarily for the education of African-American children in the South during the early 20th century. The project was the product of the partn ...

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 the 1980s. Pin Point remains a small, predominantly African American community that has a well-established

community. The Gullah people have been able to preserve many cultural connections to their origins in

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

, where many of their ancestors were captured and then enslaved in the United States.

, 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

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 codification to the point of being socially perceived as the standard language, associated with formal schooling, language assessment, and off ...

.” Pin Point Heritage Museum, once the Varn and Sons Oyster and Crab Canning Factory, is devoted to the Gullah/Geechee culture and community.

Education

Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools The Savannah-Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS) is a public school district in Chatham County, Georgia, United States. SCCPSS is run by an elected Board of Public Education and operates most all of the public schools in Chatham Cou ...

is the school district for all of Chatham County.
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Notable People

b. 1948 - Clarence Thomas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

References

External links

Pin Point Community
historical marker
Pin Point Heritage Museum
official website.]
Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words
{{authority control 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 in Georgia established by African Americans