The name of Susie King Taylor, an emancipated Black woman who taught former enslaved people how to read and write, was chosen to be honored at a historic square in Savannah, Georgia.
"It’s not about Calhoun," said Tootle, who is Black."It’s the fact that we’re erasing history. We can’t erase somebody out of the history books and take their names off things because we don’t agree with them and thought they were bad."
The mayor and council also voted to place a marker in the square explaining that it initially bore Calhoun's name and why they chose to remove it.Born to enslaved parents in 1848, Taylor was secretly taught to read and write as a girl living in Savannah. As a teenager during the Civil War, she fled to Georgia's St. Simons Island, which was occupied by Union troops.
Taylor worked as a nurse for the Union Army, which in turn helped her organize a school to teach emancipated children and adults. After the war, Taylor set up two more schools for Black students. Before her death in 1912, Taylor became the only Black woman to publish a memoir of her life during the war.
The city council chose Taylor from a diverse group. Finalists also included a pastor who in 1777 founded one of America’s oldest Black churches in Savannah; a civil rights leader whose efforts peacefully desegregated the city in 1963; the women who kickstarted Savannah's historic preservation movement in the 1950s; and an Army special operations pilot who saved his crew but perished in a 2014 helicopter crash in Savannah.
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Savannah picks emancipated Black woman to replace name of slavery advocate on historic squareLeaders of Georgia's oldest city have made history by voting to name one of Savannah's treasured downtown squares for a Black woman who taught formerly enslaved people to read and write.
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Savannah picks emancipated Black woman to replace name of slavery advocate on historic squareLeaders of Georgia's oldest city have made history by voting to name one of Savannah's treasured downtown squares for a Black woman who taught formerly enslaved people to read and write
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Savannah picks emancipated Black woman to replace name of slavery advocate on historic squareLeaders of Georgia's oldest city have made history by voting to name one of Savannah's treasured downtown squares for a Black woman who taught formerly enslaved people to read and write.
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Savannah picks emancipated Black woman to replace name of slavery advocate on historic squareLeaders of Georgia's oldest city have made history by voting to name one of Savannah's treasured downtown squares for a Black woman who taught formerly enslaved people to read and write.
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Savannah picks emancipated Black woman to replace name of slavery advocate on historic squareLeaders of Georgia's oldest city have made history by voting to name one of Savannah's treasured downtown squares for a Black woman who taught formerly enslaved people to read and write
Read more »
Savannah picks emancipated Black woman to replace name of slavery advocate on historic squareLeaders of Georgia's oldest city have made history by voting to name one of Savannah's treasured downtown squares for a Black woman who taught formerly enslaved people to read and write.
Read more »