Preserving historiography, oral history and the written word.
Inspired by the Gullah Geechee culture and the Black Midwest.
The Lowcountry of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
The Louis Hilton story is my story. I was raised by a mother born and bred in the Midwest and by my father, a fourth-generation Hilton Head Islander. My midwestern and Gullah roots are a part of my being.
As a military brat, home was where the Army sent us. However, my parents never let me forget their hometowns.
East Saint Louis and Hilton Head will always feel like home. Together, they birthed my love for history and Black cities. My goal is to help preserve and tell our stories: the stories of Black space and time. The stories of Louis Hilton.
This journey of preservation and love for history and particularly microhistory is the impetus behind Louis Hilton.
Louis Hilton is a platform and space dedicated to historiography, oral history and the written word.
Through this space I hope to provide cultural and social emancipation. And in doing so, create a domain, and a repository of Black thought and creativity.
At times this space will expand and contract. It will ebb and flow as I aim to invent and reinvent. Just like myself, and many others, this space will be beyond category as I aim to express different facets of myself, my background and the microhistories of others, through the written word.
Here’s to places and spaces like East Saint Louis and Hilton Head. Here’s to the people who labored. Here’s to history and those that made it.
Welcome to Louis Hilton.