Last week’s New York Times travel piece about Savannah has spawned some interesting discussion about the city’s neglected black history.
“A visitor could easily spend a week sauntering along the city’s haunting boulevards and leave without a clue about the essential role Georgia’s oldest African-American community has played here,” writes Ron Stodghill in “Savannah, Both Sides.”
“Blame the Low Country blackout, at least partly, on the fact that in the pageant of cities primping with New South sheen and aura, Savannah has perhaps made a less than eager contestant,” Stodghill argues. “The city is so proud of its Southern charms and traditions — Gothic Revival homes, high-on-the-hog soul food, Spanish moss canopies shading picturesque squares — that the mere suggestion of cultural evolution is enough to make an old-timer drop his mint julep.”
So who are all these mint julep drinkers? Some of you have obviously been holding out on me.
Of course, travel writers have been covering the changing culture of Savannah for many years, so it’s disappointing the Times article would deal in such broad stereotypes.
But that criticism doesn’t detract from Stodghill’s central argument that Savannah’s black history is not getting sufficient attention.
Stodghill quotes the charismatic guide Johnnie Brown, whose tours focus on Savannah’s black history. He also quotes art collector, benefactor and developer Walter O. Evans, who observes that there are fewer black entrepreneurs in Savannah now than in the past and who has been pushing for more historical markers to document local black history.
The piece discusses a variety of other efforts to promote this largely hidden history, but there are some serious omissions.
The Times article says nothing about the work of scholars at Savannah State University and Armstrong State University, about the ongoing efforts at the Telfair Museums’ Owens-Thomas House or about the work of the King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation, which isn’t directly mentioned but is cited implicitly cited through a brief listing of the foundation’s Beach Institute.
But perhaps those omissions actually reinforce the thesis that Savannah’s black history has not gotten the attention it deserves. Much of the work simply hasn’t been well-promoted. For example, the King-Tisdell Cottage Foundation and the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum don’t seem to have their own websites and don’t use social media well either.
The article mentions the historic Savannah Pharmacy but does not mention its recent demolition. Stodghill’s piece also omits the city’s plan to destroy the Meldrim Row cottages that have been occupied by working class black families since the 1880s.
Judging from the local interest generated by the article, many local residents agree that more attention needs to be paid to Savannah’s black history. It will be interesting to see if anything substantive comes of these discussions.
City Talk appears every Sunday and Tuesday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 E. 32nd St., Savannah, GA 31401.