Hello Savannah February Edition 2023

SUMMARY

06. Susie King taylor

Learn about the historical figure Susie King Taylor and read about her connection to Savannah, GA.

09. Sports Legends

Honoring the achievements of African-Americans in sports that defied the odds despite racism to become legendary

13.Thomas L. Jennings

Read about the first African American man to receive a patent

15. Taking the Journey Together

Spice up your relationship with these tips.

17. The weeping time property is sacred ground

The largest slave auction in history

19. lt. John white: A living Legend

The first African American police officer in Georgia

21. SCAD: Strategic, Cultural appropriation on display

SCAD's presence in Savannah has put a strain on local residents.

24. Litlle known local black history facts

Celebrate Savannah's rich Black History

34. Yoga Still Has a diversity problem

Although there has been an increase in BIPOC yoga teachers, yoga still has a diversity problem, these Black yogis in Savannah are changing the narrative.

Celebrating Black History Month and the local legends.

Savannah, Georgia has a rich and important history when it comes to Black culture and heritage.

WELCOME CONTENT feb 2023

This is the second edition of Hello Savannah and we cannot thank you enough for celebrating Savannah's rich Black history and how we can move the culture forward. Thank you to all of the contributors.

President and Chief Executive Officer - Julius Hall

Executive Editor- Chantaye

McLaughin

Managing Editor

Natalie Leggette

Senior Editor

Leonora Bogus

Contributing

Writers

Robert Bryant, Ph.D., Scott Lorenza, Chantaye Mc Laughlin, Leonora Bogus, Christopher Smith, C.J. Smith, Ph.D., Dr. Amir Toure'

Advertising Director: Natalie Leggette

Director of Information Technology: Christopher Smith

Susie King Taylor

susie King Taylor (1848-1912), known as America’s first Black nurse, was born August 6, 1848. Beyond just her aptitude in nursing the wounded of the 1st Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment, Taylor was the first black woman to self-publish her memoirs.

She was an author and a nurse, but she was also an educator. She taught formerly enslaved black people in the post Ellis south by opening various schools in Georgia. She was also instrumental in organizing the 67 Corps of the Women’s Relief Corps in 1886.

She was born into slavery on a plantation in Liberty County Georgia. She was a member of the Gullah Peoples of the coastal lowlands of Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida.

At the age of seven, she was brought to live with family in Savannah Georgia. There, she was educated in what was known as an “underground education “. Under Georgia law, it was Illegal for enslaved people to be educated.

A friend of her grandmother, Mrs. Woodhouse, taught Taylor and her brother to read. This lasted for two years, until Taylor received further education from Georgia’s first black nun Mary Beasley, who continued to educate Susie until 1860.

There were several other people that contributed to her education, whites like Katie O’Conner and James Blouis.

Her ability to read and write helped countless people of color, both freed and those still in bondage. During the war between the Confederate and Union Army at Fort Pulaski, Taylor and her family fled to St. Catherine’s Island, and then to St. Simon’s Island.

At the young age of only 13, Susie founded the first free African American school for children, and became the first African American woman to teach a free school in Georgia. During the day she taught children, and at night she taught adults.

She was married twice, her first husband Edward King, died in an accident while working as a longshoreman. She later married Russell Taylor, who died in 1901. Susie King Taylor was most likely Savannah’s first black advocate for the rights of black people

In 2015, the Susie King Taylor Community School was dedicated in Savannah Georgia. In 2018 Taylor was elected to the Georgia Women of Achievement Hall of Fame for her contributions to education, Freedom, and Humanity.

Susie King Taylor was the first woman to openly teach former enslaved people at a school in Georgia and the only African-American woman to publish a memoir of her work.

In this "land of the free" we are burned, tortured, and denied a fair trial, murdered for any imaginary wrong conceived in the brain of the Negro-hating white man. There is no redress for us from a government which promised to protect all under its flag.” - Susie King Taylor

African American sports legends

True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.

- Arthur Ashe

Sports would be where we as African Americans got our big introduction on the national stage and world stage.

Yes, music and entertainment were the first talents displayed, but in sports is where our real presence was recognized. Jackie Robinson was our first black Major League Baseball player in 1947 by the then Brooklyn Dodgers. Then along came Hank Aaron, Barry Bonds, Willie Mays, and Sammy Sosa.

In the NBA, it was Earl Lloyd, on October 31, 1950, Lloyd took the court for the Washington Capitals. He paved the way for Jordan, Jabbar, Russell, Kobe, Lebron, Magic, and all the greats we’ve seen since then, and the ones still to come like Curry, Durant, & Irving. In the NFL, Kenny Washington was the first black to play in the league, 11 years after the league started. He paved the way for such greats as Jim Brown, Walter Peyton, Jerry Rice, Warren Moon, Randall Cunningham, and Doug Williams. And they have opened the doors to the amazing African American players that we watch today. But it was Fritz Pollard and Bobby Marshall in 1921 who first broke the NFL color barrier.

kobe bryant(L) and michael Jordan

Arthur Ashe

Usain Bolt

The first black professional golfer was Charlie Sifford in 1946 also, he opened the door for who some consider the greatest golfer of all time Tiger Woods, who is still playing today. Sifford and Teddy Rhodes integrated golf in 1946 and 1948, but it was Tiger Woods who set the grass on fire.

Of these major American sports, we can’t leave out Tennis. Here we have two trailblazers, Robert Bob Ryland, and Althea Gibson, both in the 1940s. But the world will remember Arthur Ashe on the men’s side and Venus and Serena Williams on the ladies side. History is what we do.

Please read up on all these wonderful change agents who helped to tear down barriers to integrate American society. Track and Field is just too huge a sport to even start to cover with Hussein Bolt and Flo Jo. Boxing with Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, and George Foreman. I Hope you as a reader can now see the connection sports has had to our inclusion here and around the world?

By: Julius Hall

Doug Williams(L) and Jim brown

Tiger woods

Serena (L) and Venus Williams

Get out of your box

People are going to relate...but what happens when the relating gets stale? Often times that is when the complaining begins.

You complain to your friends, your partner, strangers if they start the conversation, anyone who will listen. And if you are in a surviving relationship, that is as far as a solution goes. On the other hand, should you find yourself in a thriving or healthy relationship, you and your partner step outside the box and add a little spice.

A thriving healthy relationship is when we respond to the spirit of love and carry it forward through the practice of compassion, nurturing, listening, collaboration, etc.

As human beings, this is where we bring focus to our environment to uplift and strengthen our relationship. The environment includes all that surrounds you: the forest, the ocean, the animals, people your mate, the room you’re in, just to mention a few. To get out of our box, we expand our environment. This happens by doing something different. Explore each other’s hobbies together, take walks together, play games together, go on dates together.

Do you see the pattern? It requires togetherness, a sharing of time and space in a way that creates connection between you and your partner. Ancient wisdom describes human beings as having five layers of experience: the environment, the physical body, the mind, the intuition and our self/spirit, which we call the soul. If compassion and care are kindled within ourselves, they will form the basis for a deeper connection to, and care for both, others and the environment. February is the month we go above and beyond to do something special and different for our lovers. Thought: do something special for your friend the other months and keep the spice in your relationship. Thank you in advance

The Weeping Time Property is Sacred Ground

by: Natalie Legette

One day when I picked my son up from school, he told me what he learned in class that day. On this day, he shared that they learned about Ellis island. He shared that around forty percent of the American population can trace their family line back to Ellis island.

Ellis island is a historical site located at the mouth of the Hudson river between New York and new jersey. Ellis island provides some American families with important details of their own family history. This opportunity to trace and reverence family lineage is a privilege available to certain Americans. It is also believed that over a million black Americans can trace their family line to the largest sale of enslaved Africans in united states history. The tragic event is known as the weeping time.

The rain poured down on march 2nd and march 3rd until the final slave was sold. 429 Enslaved Africans were sold in two days. The sadness and despair of this day way documented by northern newspapers and its size fueled the fire of discourse between those for and against slavery. A reporter for the New York tribune, who published under his pen name, Q. K. Philander Doesticks, traveled to savannah to cover the event. He infiltrated the buyers and posed as a buyer himself. He recorded what he witnessed and described the emotional toll upon the enslaved people. Of the 429 enslaved Africans sold, thirty were babies. The sale garnered $303,850.16. Impacting the lives of over 900 enslaved Africans, the weeping time sale cut the butler plantation slave population in half. The cost of the sale continues to impact generations of black families to this very day. It is believed that over a million black Americans can trace their history to the weeping time event.

BUTLER PLANTATION DESCENDANT & DESCENDANT of SLAVES with Pastor Small and Pastor Gordon of the Weeping Time Coalition

In 2008, the city of savannah and the Georgia historical society placed a marker near the site of the sale. Over the years parcels of the ten broeck race course were sold as well as divided by highway 516. A small portion of land remains and has sparked a battle between concerned citizens and the savannah city government. In 2020, the salvation army submitted a request for a special use permit to purchase and build a homeless shelter and transitional housing on the remaining parcel of land.

Protests ensued and demands for the city of Savannah to submit the property for review by the Georgia Historical Society before selling the land were formally submitted in writing. The Mayor stated that a study was conducted and approved however, a deeper investigation revealed that the report was not submitted for review by the Georgia Historically society. The debate of whether this property was in fact the location of The Weeping Time sale and holds enough historical significance to be preserved and dedicated as a historical landmark continues in litigation today. As this debate rages on, the city of Darien, Georgia formally announced in 2021, the preservation of the Butler Plantation. The descendants of the Butler Plantation and the descendants of former slaves came together to recognize the historic importance of their history with a vow to learn from its hard truths and heal together.

Today the question of preserving the sacred ground, where 429 enslaved people were ripped apart from their families remains unanswered. Many organizations seek to preserve this history. The weeping time coalition has brought the issue to the courts with support from people around the world. Numerous events remembering the weeping time are scheduled to take place throughout the coastal empire during the first week of march. It is difficult to explain to our children, how a location that serves as a point of connection, where generations of black Americans can trace their family lineage, is not revered and preserved with a similar honor as that of Ellis island.

Discounting the historical significance of this sacred ground devalues and discounts the importance of black Americans tracing their family lineage. Exacerbating a void in ancestral connections. Equity is still possible. The weeping time property is sacred ground.

IMAGE of WEEPING TIME Book: Credit: Anne C Bailey

LT. John White: a living legend

Lieutenant (Ret.) John White of the Savannah Police Department is a son of Savannah, GA and Hilton Head Island, SC.

His parents are the late Gussie and Bonapart White. Lt. White was born in 1924. The Gullah Geechee communities of Old Fort and Tin City were a part of his foundation - the village that helped in raising him.

What is remarkable is that during the heyday of segregation he was intrigued by and guided by Caucasians in the community, in addition to the African Americans.

There was a conflict that occurred on West Broad Street (now MLK, Jr. Blvd.) Caucasian Savannah Police Officers and African American Soldiers from Camp Stewart (now Fort Stewart). The Caucasian police officers attacked the soldiers.

Dr. Amir Toure' and Lt. John WHite

Rev. Dr. Ralph Mark Gilbert investigated on behalf of the NAACP. Dr. Gilbert advocated for the importance of a black USO and more importantly, for Savannah, in general, the need for African American police officers with the Savannah Police department.

The call was made to get African American candidates to now become officers. Lt. White was recruited by the savannah police department.

He and other 9 men would answer the call. Nine of them would become the first african American law officers in savannah and the entire in 1947. They were known as “the original nine.”

They were relegated to african American (gullah geechee) neighborhoods/communities. They were instructed that they could not arrest caucasians. Two days after he was sworn in white would detain/arrest a caucasian man - who first attempted to bribe, intimidate, and later spat at him to be released.

Lt. White served as the bodyguard for rev. Dr. Martin luther king, jr. When he was in the area. Presidents jimmy carter, ronald reagan, and bill clinton and fbi director j. Edgar hoover provided him with commendations for his work and career. Lt. White and the other surviving montford point marines received the congressional gold medal. The georgia association of chiefs of police recognized White.

Bouhan street at the intersection with waters avenue, where lt. White grew up and lived in Savannah, was named Lieutenant John White Avenue by the city of Savannah.

Retired Lieutenant John White sits on his porch in his Savannah home. (photo credit gpb.org)

ScaD:Strategic, Cultural, appropriation on Display

By: Robert G. Bryant

The savannah college of art and design (scad) was founded in 1978 to provide educational pathways for students in this region. The institution of higher education would also serve as a learning community for students in the usa and beyond.

The growth of scad has created an international presence with Three campuses and an online program. As the college expands so does the need to identify space for Learning, students, and offices. Local communities are impacted by growth, specifically when the Financial framework does not support local taxes in the area. The college is exempt from paying taxes due to its non-profit status, while the growth of the college means local real estate becomes acquired and no revenue results to support city expenses.

Residents who live in the city pay taxes, utilities, and other fees for services provided through the city And/or county.

It becomes a question of how the college can engage in a fair exchange where the same services, utilities, and properties carry a value that does not support the overall area, despite students’ use of municipal resources. That missed funding creates a gap that is mostly filled with residents of the area, creating an unbalanced model for taxation in the municipality.

The growth of the college means there is a slower tax revenue stream because the property is acquired and now ineligible for taxation.

little known local black history facts

By: Dr. Amir Toure'

Although yoga has become increasingly popular and mainstream in recent years, it has historically been associated with certain cultural and ethnic groups, particularly in India.

As a result, there has been a lack of representation and inclusion of people of color, particularly Black, indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC), in the yoga community.

BIPOC individuals have reported feeling excluded and marginalized in yoga spaces, with some reporting experiences of racism and cultural appropriation. Additionally, yoga can be inaccessible for many due to financial barriers, lack of representation in mainstream media, and cultural differences that can make yoga practices feel unfamiliar or uncomfortable.

Yoga still has a diversity problem- Black Yoga Teachers in Savannah are changing that

In 2018, I hit a wall. I had reached the top of the corporate ladder with a company I had dreamed of working with for years, only to face the dreaded glass ceiling.

I would cry in my car before going into the office because I literally couldn't take it anymore. Despite being asked to work my "Black Girl Magic," my wand was broken. I was overworked, underpaid, and not given the resources I needed to do my job.

Due to the professional title I held, I was isolated from other co-workers, and as a result, I was unhappy. Rather than providing me with the resources I had requested to do my job, I was isolated and seen as the "ABC," or in other words, the "angry Black chick." I ultimately decided that I couldn't continue in this way, so I took a severance and embarked on a spiritual journey that involved returning to what had worked for me in the past: therapy, yoga, and meditation.

Yoga has been practiced in the African American community since 1926, with famous yogis like Rosa Parks and Eartha Kitt. Unfortunately, when I went to find a Black yoga studio, there were none available. So I decided to become the change I wanted to see.

I created my own yoga studio called The Indigo House. Then the pandemic hit: we were left without a building and clients. Fortunately, we now have a space, but we're crowd funding for a larger space in Savannah, GA.

"As much as I loved yoga and had been an active yogi for years, my experience hasn't always been the best. I have been in studios where I've been the only Black person in the class and I would get the dreaded stares and I would feel like people thought I didn't belong there," Tyra James, 38, said. "Some of the studios were super nice but they made me feel like I wasn't 'trying hard enough' or needed correction when my body just doesn't look like yours in a certain position. I have curves, hips, and boobs.. and they get in the way."

In addition to a lack of representation, yoga can also be inaccessible for many due to financial barriers, lack of representation in mainstream media, and cultural differences that can make yoga practices feel unfamiliar or uncomfortable. These barriers can prevent many people from accessing the physical and mental benefits of yoga, further contributing to the lack of diversity in the yoga community.

Yoga classes held at Beach Institute African American Cultural Center. You can reach me at

Eartha Kitt in Plough Pose

Rosa Parks in Bow Pose

I started to listen to music that felt good to me and my practice: offering trap yoga classes, twerk yoga classes, as well as adding hip-hop and R&B to my yoga flows. My practice is about bringing your authentic self to the mat, to take up space as you are unapologetically.

"Being a personal trainer and lifting heavy 5 days out of the week. I really wanted to incorporate a practice that helps me connect my mind and body. Yoga was my choice because it would not only help with the connection but it was perfect for my active rest days.",

LeKyra Brown, of KidFit, LLC said.

To address these issues, it is important for the yoga community to actively work towards creating more inclusive spaces and actively invite and welcome people from diverse backgrounds. This includes recognizing and acknowledging the roots of yoga in South Asian culture, amplifying the voices of BIPOC yoga teachers and practitioners, and offering affordable or donation-based classes. It also involves actively confronting and addressing instances of racism and cultural appropriation in yoga spaces.

Creating a more diverse and inclusive yoga community requires ongoing effort and commitment from all those involved in the practice. Yoga studios and teachers can take steps to create more welcoming and inclusive spaces by offering classes that cater to a diverse range of bodies and abilities, hiring diverse staff, and partnering with organizations that work to increase diversity in yoga.

I believe yoga can be as intense as you want it to be which brings a understanding that you are in control of reality. So yoga is a reminder that I am in control of my mind, body, and life. - LeKyra Brown

LeKyra Brown is a yoga teacher in Savannah, GA offering classes for kids and families through the 360 experience classes. You can reach her at kidfitnessllc@gmail.com

Creating a more diverse and inclusive yoga community requires ongoing effort and commitment from all those involved in the practice. Yoga studios and teachers can take steps to create more welcoming and inclusive spaces by offering classes that cater to a diverse range of bodies and abilities, hiring diverse staff, and partnering with organizations that work to increase diversity in yoga.

At the same time, it is important for those who practice yoga to recognize and acknowledge the diversity problem within the community, and actively work to create a more inclusive space. This means listening to the experiences of BIPOC individuals in yoga spaces, educating oneself on the cultural roots of yoga, and being mindful of the potential or cultural appropriation in one’s own practice.

In conclusion, yoga still has a diversity problem, and it is up to the entire yoga community to work towards creating a more inclusive and welcoming space for all. By recognizing and addressing the barriers that prevent many BIPOC individuals from accessing yoga, as well as actively working to confront instances of racism and cultural appropriation, we can create a more diverse and equitable yoga community that benefits everyone.

Tanisha Taylor of Yoga In The Moment (YITM) regularly holds classes at Beach Institute in Savannah, GA.

Brittany Fraisier of Flourish Well Living teaches yoga classes at Just Right Twerk Out in Savannah, GA. You can reach her at www.flourishwellliving.com