Center was one of the first US schools for formerly enslaved people, and now preserves Gullah Geechee culture

Earlier this month, the historic Penn Center, a 50-acre site in St Helena Island, South Carolina, that served as one of the nation’s first schools for formerly enslaved people of African descent in the 1860s, joined a Unesco network. It was named one of 22 places around the world that holds significance for its preservation of enslaved people’s history by the Unesco Network of Places of History and Memory.

The network is part of the organization’s Routes of Enslaved Peoples: Resistance, Liberty and Heritage program that was launched in 1994 to recognize the history of slavery and its impact on the world. Over the course of the five-year initiative, the institutions’ staffs will share sustainability practices and create shared activities through the international network.

“The legacy of the transatlantic slave trade still scars our societies. We must remember the places which bear witness to one of humanity’s greatest crimes,” Audrey Azoulay, Unesco’s director general, said in a statement. “Preserving and visiting these places will help us honour the memory of its millions of victims, advance scientific knowledge and educate new generations.”