The Community That Raised a
Sanctuary from Swampland

Born from emancipation along a winding river, the Turkey Creek community began in 1866 as a refuge for freedom. Newly emancipated families—among them Thomas and Melinda Benton—pooled scarce resources to purchase roughly 320 acres north of what would later become Gulfport, Mississippi. On land others dismissed as unusable swampland, they built a self-sufficient settlement of farms, homes, a church, and a school—rooted in mutual aid, hard work, and the stewardship of a living watershed.

From Emancipation to Establishment

Early Turkey Creek was a lesson in collective vision. Lots often fronted the creek itself, a practical thoroughfare for travel and trade. Newly freed families planted gardens, tended fruit trees, raised livestock, and passed down plots across generations. The landscape, freshwater marsh, and coastal hardwood forest shaped daily life: live oaks (Quercus virginiana) spread their canopies over Rippy Road, while yaupon holly, wax myrtle, sparkleberry, and saw palmetto stitched together the understory. Houses were modest, one-story cottages. The creek that sustains Turkey Creek meanders to Bayou Bernard. It serves as memory and map: a corridor for food and fellowship, a lifeline during hard seasons, and a unifying natural feature anchoring culture to place. In Turkey Creek, ecology and history are inseparable. The marsh stores floodwater; the forest cools the air and filters rain; the people, in turn, care for the land that cared for them at the start of emancipation.

“I am a descendent of African American freed men and women who settled my community three miles north of the Gulf of Mexico in 1866 during the first year after 14 generations of slavery that they were free to do so.” —Community Member of Turkey Creek

Encroachment, Annexation, and the Long Fight Back

By the mid-20th century, Gulfport’s expansion pressed hard against Turkey Creek. Wetlands were filled. Highways, an airport, and industrial corridors hemmed the neighborhood on three sides. Though Turkey Creek predates the City of Gulfport by decades, the community was annexed in 1994 without the representation or protections its residents deserved. After Hurricane Katrina (2005), development surged inland, accelerating loss: businesses and big-box stores advanced up U.S. 49; new zoning arrived faster than public notice; ancestral ground—including cemeteries—were paved or fenced, grief piled upon grief. Environmental injustice became the status quo against the community at Turkey Creek.

Come Hell or High Water, a documentary about Turkey Creek

Yet the community organized. Elders testified. Teachers brought students to learn the real history that highway bridges hide. Turkey Creek community initiatives formed, partnering with the Land Trust for the Mississippi Coastal Plain and Audubon Mississippi to safeguard what remained, people and place together. In 2007, the Turkey Creek Community Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places, an overdue recognition of Reconstruction-era Black settlement and resilience. In 2021, American Rivers listed Turkey Creek among America’s Most Endangered Rivers, underscoring the stakes: protect the watershed or lose a living culture.

To learn more about the environmental injustices of Turkey Creek, click here.

Building Power in Place

Protecting Turkey Creek has never been only about trees and tides; it is about environmental justice. Residents and allies continue to advance a watershed plan, restore habitat, and push for proper avenues to reconstruct the past harms done to the land by the government. Churches and civic groups double as planning rooms; classrooms are field schools; canoes are turned into corridors for oral history. The work braids science, law, and story: mapping floodplains, pressing for wetland enforcement, educating people on the inequities of redlining, and teaching the next generation to defend their landscapes.

Today, live oaks still lean over the old lanes, and Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church still gathers neighbors in praise and purpose. Planes may lift from the airport to the south; trucks may hum along the highway to the west; industry may line the seaway to the north, but the heart of Turkey Creek remains what its founders made it: a free Black community that turned “swampland” into a sanctuary.

Diego Tovar — Director of Campus and Civic Engagement

Diego Tovar, Director of Campus and Civic Engagement, holds his master’s in Global Environmental Policy from American University and an undergraduate degree as a Udall Scholar in Ecosystem Science and Sustainability with a minor in Political Communication from Colorado State University. Diego has worked for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. House of Representatives, and the Navajo Nation Washington Office focusing on climate justice and climate adaptation.