At 11 a.m. on Nov. 13, the Georgia Historical Society will hold the dedication ceremony for a new historical marker at the Carnegie Library at 537 East Henry St.
The marker will recognize the work of the Colored Library Association of Savannah, which was founded by eleven black men in 1906. According to the marker, “In 1913, the Association successfully petitioned the Carnegie Corporation of New York for funds to build a permanent home for the collection.”
Finished in 1915, Savannah’s Carnegie Library is one of the city’s “few examples of Prairie School architecture” and later was “the home library to James Alan McPherson, Pulitzer Prize–winning short story writer and essayist and Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.”
That’s pretty rich history for a modest block of East Henry Street, but we live in a city dotted with evocative places like the Carnegie Library. Behind those sites are the people who imagined and created them — like the eleven visionaries of the Colored Library Association of Savannah.
The Georgia Historical Society has done similar work over the years to spotlight neglected aspects of African-American history across the state and right here in Savannah.
The society’s Georgia Civil Rights Trail includes a couple dozen historical markers statewide, including seven in Chatham County. The list of honored sites includes the McKelvey-Powell Building at 714 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. and the boyhood home of Robert Sengstacke Abbott, founder of the Chicago Defender, at the corner of West Bay and Albion streets.
Savannah will soon have a historical marker commemorating the 1961 boycott and sit-ins that were so vital to the local civil rights movement.
There are obviously other historical markers that document the black experience in Savannah, including one erected by the historical society and the city of Savannah near the site of “the weeping time” — the largest slave sale in Georgia history.
I recently talked at length with society president and CEO W. Todd Groce about the historical marker program, about various efforts to document black history and about the difficult connection between scholarly research and popular tourism.
The Georgia Historical Society was painted in a fairly negative light by “Savannah, Both Sides,” a recent New York Times travel article that I discussed in this column in October. A casual reader of the piece would assume that the historical society has ignored black history, but that’s a tough case to make.
During the meeting, Groce and I examined a variety of relevant items archived at the society’s research center at Hodgson Hall at 501 Whitaker St.
For example, we looked at some of the 19th century photographs by William E. Wilson. I first studied Wilson’s work in the 1990s when I was assisting curator Carroll Greene with an exhibit about black history at the Beach Institute. The photos are simply amazing, and I was thrilled to find recently that they are available in a digital archive.
The NYT piece might have mischaracterized the work of the historical society, but I think the article nevertheless argued compellingly that many Savannah tourists “leave without a clue about the essential role Georgia’s oldest African-American community has played here.”
Groce noted that his organization’s research and educational initiatives make it a key player in heritage tourism, but I’ll add that the society obviously can’t bear the sole burden of changing the way tourists see Savannah.
But do Savannah’s visitors want to hear about slavery, about the civil rights movement and about other darker chapters of the city’s history?
“Tourists want authenticity,” Groce argued as we sat in his office at the new Jepson House Education Center, across Gaston Street from Hodgson Hall.
I agree with Groce on that point. You’ll hear cynics say tourists really just want “fluff,” but we get many visitors who want a deeper understanding of the city and its history.
So how do we make the complex history of Savannah, including its ever-changing racial dynamics, more accessible to interested but casual tourists?
After all, consider the list of historical markers above. Many of the key sites related to local black history are not on the well-worn paths traveled by tourists.
There are obviously many possible avenues for continuing the civic discussion.
Just last week, Savannah Morning News reporter Julia Ritchey took an extended look at the debate about historical accuracy in the tour industry.
The city of Savannah might revamp the current test for tour guide certification, but, as I’ve noted previously in this column, a federal appeals court ruling in July has deemed a similar test in Washington, D.C., unconstitutional.
Groce would like to see city officials spearhead an effort that would result in better resources for tourists and for tour guides.
“We would be willing to work with the city on a fully integrated tour,” Groce said.
Savannah city government certainly has qualified professionals on staff who could guide such an effort. At the same time, it’s hard to know if we can trust a bureaucracy that seems so eager to destroy 36 residences of Meldrim Row, which was developed in the 1880s as housing for black workers.
As I argued here last month, I also think that organizations with the mission of promoting black history could be doing a much better job of marketing themselves. Other organizations already engaged in significant research about black history could probably also promote their scholarship more effectively.
By the way, I should add that a more inclusive sense of Savannah’s history would reach beyond issues solely of race. We’re a city of immigrants, after all, many of whom came to America with little or nothing. There are surely many untold stories that deserve our attention.
As Groce said near the end of our meeting: “It’s not a white or a black story – it’s an American story.”
City Talk appears every Tuesday and Sunday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net. Send mail to 10 East 32nd St., Savannah, Ga. 31401.