The Civil Rights in Savannah January 16, 2009
Posted by history in : Savannah , add a commentOn Monday, Savannah will honor the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. with the MLK Day Parade which will take place at ten AM. In honor of MLK day, my Historic Preservation 101 students will be visiting the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum which chronicles the Civil Rights movement in Savannah. Below is excerpted a description of the history of the Museum from it’s Web site:
Savannah’s Civil Rights Movement was different from those in other cities across the South. Its strategy of nonviolent protest reflected what was going on nationally, but the movement in Savannah was fueled with home grown passion. It was fully organized and implemented by local African American citizens, the victims of the laws which gave people of color second class status. Outstanding leadership in the local adult and youth branches of the NAACP, the courage and eagerness of Savannah’s youth, and the wisdom of local elders combined to make the quest for equal rights in Savannah, truly, a movement from within.
Black Savannah came together to develop a well organized plan to boycott and protest injustice during the civil rights movement. And through the sacrifices and indignities they endured during their pursuit of equality and justice for all of Savannah’s citizens, the city became, according to museum officials, richer, more just and diverse. Because of the struggle that blacks endured, the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum preserves and shares the history of the unique struggle and triumph of Savannah’s NAACP led civil rights movement.
W. W. Law, a long time civil rights activist and former head of the Savannah branch of the NAACP, holds firm to his conviction that historic preservation and civil rights must be strongly linked. To this end, Law vigorously protested the early budgetary plans of Savannah’s Olympic Committee prior to the 1996 Games. Mr. Law was astounded by the lack of representation and recognition of black interests by the committee. According to Velma McKenzie, who has been the director of the museum from the beginning, the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum not only embodies the story of Savannah’s black community struggle for freedom and equality, it is also a concrete first step toward Law’s greater vision of preserving Savannah’s oldest black neighborhoods. For this purpose a more appropriate site would have been difficult to find. Originally erected in 1914 by Atlanta contractor Robert Pharis, the building first housed the Wage Earners Savings and Loan–America’s second largest black-owned bank at the time. The building later became the home of the Savannah branch of the NAACP before falling into a period of neglect.
Law began a crusade to restore the once vibrant black business district where the museum is now located when he retired. Immune to criticism, he persevered in spite of scorn from a younger generation of African Americans. Many members of the younger generation want nothing to do with reminders of a segregationist past, according to Law. He is galled by this and often speaks quite bluntly about it . In an interview with the Savannah Morning News, Law stated that “if we are going to have an integrated society, then there has to be an appreciation of the contribution that everybody made…You see young people who have no idea how we got here(and the sacrifices made.)”
Law did a remarkable job of advocating for the preservation of Savannah’s African-American heritage. There is still much work that needs to be done to continue to carry out his pioneering work. I know I still have a tremendous amount to learn about Savannah in general as well as this part of Savannah’s past. It wasn’t until moving here, that I really learned about the important role that Savannah played in the Civil Right’s moment. The excerpt below is taken from the New Georgia Encyclopedia (which is a great resource by the way).
In Savannah, a united, widespread, and unremitting campaign led by W. W. Law, head of the local NAACP,
 |
| W. W. Law |
forced city leaders to agree to desegregate public and private facilities from October 1, 1963, some eight months ahead of federal civil rights legislation. In his 1964 New Year’s Day address, Martin Luther King Jr. described Savannah “as the most desegregated city south of the Mason-Dixon line.” Law himself was fired from his job as a postman during the height of the crisis but was reinstated when the trumped-up nature of his charges became a national scandal. Georgia’s other notably successful movements were in Brunswick, Macon, and Rome, where black leaders often used the threat of heightened protest to force anxious city governments to take the lead in avoiding social unrest.
I wish I had been able to meet Mr. Law. Preservation sometimes suffers from the single-narrative syndrome. This is “our” history, which often means white history, pretty history. In recent decades there has been a great broadening of the preservation movment, revitalizing sites that represent the amazing mosaic that is American history and culture. Some of these sites have difficult histories, some of these narratives tell a story that is difficult to hear. There is still so much we need to do. Historic preservation should represent multiple narratives. Just because history is shocking and sad and the ideology from that era should be discarded does not mean the “artifacts” that it produced should be discarded. Thank you to W.W. Law for making Savannah a more interesting and beautiful place reflecting a history that wasn’t alwalys so beautiful.
Fifty years ago an African-American person couldn’t get served lunch in downtown Savannah. On Monday, there will be will be a parade to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. and all the others who sacrificed so much, even their lives for a vision of a better tomorrow. For all those that sacraficed so much, I am grateful.