by Dereka Sears and John Conner
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 feels that younger African Americans need to understand that the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s was not just another movement. Of the movement he says "I am certain that it represents the finest hour in this society's history." Given the centrality of this event, Law believes that it is crucial that younger African Americans absorb what has for thirty-six years been an essentially untold story. The Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum is dedicated to preserving and conveying this untold story to the public and especially to young people.
The time to begin telling the story of the struggle for civil rights in Savannah finally came in the early 1990s. Chatham County's special options sales tax, passed in 1993, gave a share of one million dollars, which was needed to begin renovations to convert the one-time bank into a museum. The current location of the museum was Law's first choice. Located on what is now Martin Luther King Blvd., the building is prominently located in what was once a "black Mecca" of trade and commerce in Savannah. According to Law, West Broad Street was once known as the Wall Street of black America because of the number of banks located on it. This rich history makes the site not only relevant to the past, but also a significant symbol of what Law hopes will be the future of the area.
Once a shell of a building with empty rooms and crumbled sheet rock, the sight is now filled with history, art, and intellectual stimulation for the benefit of the community and the general public. Getting the building in shape to house a museum required a tremendous amount of time, funding, and labor. But the Savannah Yamacraw Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the operators of the museum, were up for the challenge. W. W. Law, the president of this association, used the non-profit organization to guide the project to completion and acquire the contents of the museum. And by keeping as much of the original building intact as possible, the architectural and cultural integrity of the historical building has been preserved along with the artifacts it contains.
Once all the preparations were in place, only the task of naming the museum remained. Though few would object to naming the museum after the venerable Mr. Law, he would not hear of it. Mr. Law has refused consistently to profit in any way from his lifelong commitment to political activism. Law is now retired after forty years with the U.S. postal service, where he worked throughout his twenty-six year term as the president of the Savannah branch of the NAACP. Mr. Law never accepted any monetary compensation during his entire tenure as president. Thus, no one was surprised by Law's refusal to have the museum named after himself. Instead, Law insisted that the museum be named after his predecessor. Thus the museum is now known as the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum. Law saw this as a proper name since Dr. Gilbert had earned the title of the father of the civil rights movement in Savannah. At this point it is appropriate take a look at Mr. Gilbert's contributions to Savannah's black community.
Ralph Mark Gilbert came to Savannah in 1939 to assist in the staging of a play for the local black PTA. When Dr. Gilbert arrived in the city, he received much support for his work with the play. His popularity and qualifications led the First African Baptist Church, the oldest black church in North America, to invite him to become the church's pastor, which he did shortly thereafter. After becoming pastor he reorganized the Sunday School of the church. Because he was committed to change, Gilbert quickly became seen as a religious, political, educational, and social leader in Savannah. Gilbert saw that politically Savannah blacks were not up to speed. He saw this as a problem but felt that the NAACP, which at the time was dormant, would be a beginning step for African Americans in the area. His first big task was to reorganize the NAACP. In an interview with The Cornerstone of Black History, Law said that Gilbert revitalized the Savannah branch of NAACP and helped to organize over forty additional NAACP branches throughout Georgia. This helped to create a network for action on civil rights in the state. This network enabled Gilbert to take on the white Democratic primary that held control of the political scene and suppressed the ability of blacks to determine who would be their senators, congressmen, and governors. The Citizens Democratic club was initially formed by Gilbert to assist in the endorsement of candidates and eventually played a significant role in getting blacks the vote in Georgia.
With the breakup of the white primary, a door of opportunity had been forced open. This allowed Savannah blacks to begin making important changes on a broad spectrum of issues that led to the improved conditions that exist today. There were several changes that Dr. Gilbert and others in the black community wanted to make. The number one issue, however, was the police force. Given the high profile of the white police in the black community, there was a felt need to integrate this powerful all-white institution. With the work of Gilbert , the NAACP, and other blacks in the area, Savannah became the first city in the deep South to integrate the police force by adding nine African Americans to the payroll.
Dr. Gilbert was a man who was respected by both whites and blacks. Because he knew that it would take the entire community to make a difference, Gilbert's relations with the whites of Savannah, although of a different type, were in some ways as important as his relations with the black community. A dedicated and untiring man, Dr. Gilbert was devoted to "bringing blacks into their own," according to W. W. Law. Because of this devotion it was virtually impossible to give any other name to a museum that would embody the total of what Ralph Mark Gilbert stood for during his eight year tenure as president of the Savannah branch of the NAACP and his life in this city. Now that a name had been given to this monument, the question of what was to be in the museum had to be answered.
Whatever was to be displayed in the museum had to be a true-to-life depiction of the historical era that it represented. The story of the civil rights movement in Savannah, as told by the museum, dates back to 1865, the year that slavery was abolished in America. The first floor of the museum tells this story with several permanent exhibits that highlight some of the major event of the civil rights movement. An oversized judges bench and an account of injustices to African Americans confronts visitors as soon as they enter. The purpose of the oversized judges bench is to show the relationship between the courts and blacks during the days of Jim Crow Laws in the South. As visitors move further into the gallery, they encounter a lunch counter, which is representative of many of the department store lunch counters of the day.
Department store lunch counters and restrooms were off limits to blacks. If children were in tow, separate arrangements had to be made to feed them. When they needed to go to the restroom it often meant a trip out of the store, blocks away to a downtown black business, church, or residence. Clerks and store managers were always white, and as dictated by the degrading ethos of the Jim Crow era in the South, they felt it unnecessary to use formal titles when addressing African Americans. If a clerk noticed a black patron's name on her credit card, she would simply be called by her first name during the transaction, even if the persons involved ion the exchange were complete strangers. A white patron would always rate the more respectful title of "Mr.," "Miss," or "Mrs.," or "Sir" or "Ma'am." Though this slight was endured with seeming indifference by blacks, the more derogatory titles such as "Auntie" or "Girl" for women, and "Preacher," "Professor," "Fessor," or just "Boy" for men, caused friction between the races. Always meant to remind blacks of their social status, these terms communicated not-so-subtle reminders of their subordinate roles as caretakers and their lack of educational opportunities. Resentment toward such treatment helped to inspire the fifteen month boycott of stores by blacks.
The museum also includes continuously playing videos of interviews with significant people from the civil rights movement in Savannah. The mezzanine level houses a theater which resembles a sanctuary. In this sanctuary one feels vicariously what it was like to be in one of the weekly church meetings of the day. The civil rights movement is brought to life there through a short film. The Sunday meetings played a big part in keeping the black community unified and on the same track during the movement in Savannah.
In its heyday, Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., then West Broad Street, was seen as the center of Savannah's African American community. It contained banks, stores, restaurants, and night clubs. This street along with its many facets is recreated on the second floor in a pictorial exhibit. Other changing exhibits can be found on the second floor along with lecture halls, classrooms, a darkroom, and a computer room. The third floor of the museum is home to an archives, research center, conference room, and administrative offices. Another vision of the museum was to have spaces that would give children the opportunity to learn about Savannah's history through words and music. This was accomplished through setting up an audio visual room and a reading room. It was important that the museum would tell the story of the black struggle in Savannah, but also that the museum would show how important it is in a democratic society for everyone--women, Jews, blacks, and other minorities--to be treated equally. This is truly what the civil rights movement is about. The museum also wanted to be sure to educate people, young and old, about their past and hopefully give them some kind of idea of how to approach the future.
Mr. W. W. Law's vision of representation for the black community in Savannah is being fulfilled through the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum. There are classes being held at the museum by colleges and universities. The museum has drawn visitors from around the world, from places as far as Japan, Australia, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Africa, and Canada to study the unique contribution of black Savannah to the struggle for equality in the United States. The museum is a place that blacks and whites can come together to learn about their shared past from a perspective that includes all of Savannah's people. Dr. Gilbert knew that it would take the black vote and a strong NAACP for Savannah to become a vehicle for true democracy. Significantly, Savannah integrated many of its public facilities one year before being required by the law to take such action. This led Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to state in 1964, "Savannah is the most integrated city south of the Mason Dixon line." Savannah's nonviolent civil rights movement set an example for others to follow that will be remembered for years to come. The contributions of Dr. Gilbert, W. W. Law and the Savannah branch of the NAACP, and the African American community in the struggle for civil rights in Savannah have often been neglected. Thanks to the Ralph Mark Gilbet Civil Rights Museum this is no longer the case.