From Tomato Fields to Tourists: Hilton Head Island and Beaufort County, South Carolina, 1950-1983

Between 1950 and 1983, Hilton Head Island was transformed from a sleepy rural barrier island to a humming urban tourist destination. In the process, Hilton Head's native black population which had originally dominated the island was ultimately both politically and economically marginalized. This study seeks to answer two questions: first, what are the ways in which blacks sought to retain political power in the face of massive demographic and economic change? and second, how successful were they? I examined three issues through which blacks at Hilton Head sought political empowerment. They are the question of land acquisition and use, the controversy over the location of a potentially polluting industry just upstream of Hilton Head, and the final incorporation of the town of Hilton Head Island itself. I concluded that although blacks were informed and active participants in the island's political and economic life, the dramatic influx of whites with different economic profiles ultimately overwhelmed blacks through sheer numerical superiority.