Myrtle Beach choice city for Black family reunions. Why families make them a grand affair

When the Faulk family held their first family reunion in the 1980s, Thomasine Kashaka said she remembers watching her kids meet and become friends with their cousins. The large family had spread out, so it wasn’t always possible for the children to meet each other.

“When we started, they were little children,” said Kashaka, speaking about her kids and their cousins.

Almost 40 years later, those same children are now the adults in charge of planning the next family reunion.

The Faulk family has held an annual family reunion in the Myrtle Beach area for decades. The family originates from Dothan, North Carolina, a neighborhood near Tabor City, North Carolina, so holding it in Myrtle Beach acts as a homecoming for a lot of family members, Antwan Dozier said.

Family reunions are often a staple of Black families in the United States. It’s common to have three to five generations of family attending a reunion. Myrtle Beach is home to many family get-togethers every year, and taking part is a cultural hallmark.

Melanie Doty, the Visit Myrtle Beach specialty market sales manager, said she’s helping out with 70 family reunions so far this year. In 2023, 73 families contacted her, so she’s hopeful that number will grow through the rest of the year.

The Myrtle Beach Visitors and Convention Bureau helps plan family reunions by coordinating with hotels, getting group tickets and helping to estimate costs. Doty said family reunions had a steep drop-off due to the COVID-19 pandemic and it has been slow to pick back up. She said 2024 is the year where she feels like “we’re back.”

‘Because we can’t go back, it’s up to us to go forward’

Black family reunions can be dated back to the end of slavery when former slaves tried to find their families after being freed, according to the Smithsonian. Often slave owners split up families. People would use newspaper ads, letters and word of mouth to try and find family, although it could be difficult to bring everyone together.

“Ultimately, the separation of family proved to be so effective a tool of oppression to disempower African Americans, that its legacy persisted long after the abolishment of slavery,” wrote the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Nikki Miller-Ka, who held her annual family reunion in Myrtle Beach in 2022, said she had difficulty finding records of her ancestors before and during slavery.

“I can’t trace anything much further than the 1850s and that reason alone is the reason why we keep having a family reunion,” Miller-Ka said. “Because we can’t go back, it’s up to us to go forward.”

For the Faulk family, it’s important everyone knows their family history. There is a scholarship given out every year to one to four family members who are continuing education, either through trade school or college. One of the requirements to earn the scholarship is being able to name their ancestors.

What does a family reunion look like?

Most Black family reunions follow the same three-day structure: a meet-and-greet on Friday, activities on Saturday, which is followed by a large family dinner and a church service and cook-out on Sunday.

The reunion is often held during summer break and families tend to choose a theme. For example, this year, the Faulk Family Reunion theme is “The Heritage Awards,” said planning committee president Tequila Harris. The Faulk family wants to honor their past, present and future.

The Faulk family reunion is centered around Ella May Faulk, who started the reunion, and her 15 siblings. To honor the theme, family members will wear T-shirts with the face of a Faulk sibling they are directly related to at the Friday meet-and-greet.

The Faulk reunion will be held in late August.

Typically the reunion can move around locations based on where family lives. Miller-Ka said her family has held the reunion at Ahoskie, North Carolina, the most because that’s where her family is from, but they have also come to Myrtle Beach, Washington D.C. and Virginia.

Dozier said the Faulk family usually hosts their reunion in Myrtle Beach but has also hosted it elsewhere. He said the crowd is largest at Myrtle Beach.

A true labor of love

Planning a family get together with over 100 attendees is no small feat. There’s so much planning that goes into it that a planning committee is formed.

Who will be on the committee for the next family reunion is decided during the current family reunion. Dozier, who is on the planning committee this year, said it can be stressful. Since the Faulk family typically hosts theirs at a resort, they have to coordinate with the resort, using the resort facilities and booking activities for all ages and catering.

“It can be a little overwhelming sometimes, especially having to deal with different venues or the facility you want isn’t big enough to accommodate all your folks,” Dozier said.

Despite the work that goes into a reunion, Faulk family reunion planning committee president Harris said she feels like it’s an honor to help plan the annual family reunion. It’s a job that’s moved through multiple generations.

“It feels like the baton has been passed,” Harris said. “Now that it’s our turn, remember we did this as small children, it feels like an honor as well as a great responsibility.”