Voyay walking tour

Waterfront Paths to Black Memory

Follow arrival, survival, institution-building, and remembrance across Charleston

Charleston, United States
10 stops
222 min
16.2 km
History

Free in the Voyay app

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This walk begins where land and water meet at Gadsden’s Wharf, one of the most consequential arrival points for captive Africans in North America. The memorial garden and International African American Museum establish a thoughtful foundation, connecting the violence of forced arrival with African origins, cultural continuity, genealogy, and living memory. From the waterfront, the route follows the institutions African American Charlestonians created and defended. You will encounter a displaced neighborhood, a historic school and archive, a once-thriving business corridor, and churches that supported worship, education, mutual aid, labor organizing, and civil rights activism. These are not isolated landmarks; together, they reveal how community took physical and social form. The walk concludes at a recovered African burial ground where archaeology and community authority have reshaped public remembrance. It is especially rewarding for travelers interested in African American history, urban change, genealogy, and the ways ordinary people preserve their stories. Expect a reflective journey centered not only on suffering, but also on creativity, resistance, care, and renewal.

Try the first stop

Free sample · Stop 1

Gadsden’s Wharf

Begin at the waterfront where captive Africans entered Charleston in devastating numbers.

Stand beside the Cooper River where Gadsden’s Wharf became one of the nation’s most consequential landing places for captive Africans near the end of the legal transatlantic trade. The original wharf is gone, but the water, salt air, and open horizon make this altered shoreline a powerful place to begin.

The route

10 stops, in order.

1
Stop 1 · Free sample
Gadsden’s Wharf
Begin at the waterfront where captive Africans entered Charleston in devastating numbers.
2
Stop 2
African Ancestors Memorial Garden
A contemplative landscape turns the ground of arrival into living remembrance.
3
Stop 3
International African American Museum
Charleston’s waterfront museum connects African origins, diaspora, resistance, and family history.
4
Stop 4
Gadsdenboro Park
An open park reveals a vanished Black waterfront neighborhood beneath modern Charleston.
Stop 5
Mother Emanuel AME Church
A living congregation embodies Black faith, resistance, grief, and repeated renewal.
6
Stop 6
Avery Research Center
A former Black school now safeguards the Lowcountry’s community archives and voices.
Stop 7
Morris Street Business District
Ordinary storefronts reveal how Black enterprise sustained community during segregation.
Stop 8
Morris Brown AME Church
A Reconstruction-era congregation links independent worship with generations of civic action.
9
Stop 9
Cannon Street YMCA
A segregated community hub whose young ballplayers exposed racism in American sports.
10
Stop 10
Anson African Burial Ground
A recovered burial ground centers ancestral dignity, community authority, and remembrance.