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A Book Lover's Paradise

12/29/2018

Every great city has at least one good independent bookstore. Savannah as I already noted in a previous blog has the new and used bookstore called the Book Lady. But the oldest bookstore in Savannah is E. Shavers Bookseller. Last month in Mother Nature News it was celebrated as one of seventeen extraordinary bookstores in the world.

The bookstore is located on Madison Square in the historic district of Savannah. In an old home behind the Desoto Hotel magical things happen. The store which is over forty years old has seven rooms of new fiction and non-fiction books. Two rooms are dedicated to children’s books and one room is for local and regional topics. Here in this store you can find a chair or two to look at books on every subject from architecture and history to graphic novels and cooking. And to keep you company while you read are two cats who claim the window sills and other nooks and crannies as their home.

They have an old manual typewriter in one room to use to get a feel for how writers used to write their books or poems. Plus you can write a message for future book lovers to find. It also has two rooms dedicated to a Savannah Tea Room. The Savannah Tea Room has one table and a few stools to sit and drink a cup of hot tea. Here in these two rooms you will find all the accoutrements for making tea and tea from all over the world.

E. Shavers has some longstanding book clubs associated with them. The names of a few are The Feminist Book Club, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book Club, Happy Hour Book Club, and a Graphic Novel Book Club. This rambling building has hosted book signings of famous local and regional authors as Pat Conroy, Harrison Scott Key, Mary Kay Andrews, John Berendt, and this blogger Michael Freeman.

In 1976 when Esther Shaver first opened the store in the Greek Revival home could one imagine the place in now claims in Savannah’s and book lovers’ hearts from around the world. Despite Shaver’s retirement the bookstore persist as the new generation owner Jessica Osborne continues to help warm the heart of many a bibliophile.

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Wade In the Water

12/16/2018

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A wade-in at Fort Lauredale

We are all familiar with sit ins. We are not as familiar with wade ins. Many of us would find it hard to believe that the ocean and beaches were segregated in the United States. Our African Americans had limited or no access to the beaches. Savannah’s Beach, Tybee Island, was no exception. Officials in Tybee in 1938 said,” "Did not want the Negro to encumber the earth on that Island …. No Negro is permitted to secure an inch of any part of the Island except the few owners of long years ago. On the waterfront, our people are not allowed, except as a servant even at the terminus of the public streets.” Jim Crow was in full effect even on the island of Tybee.

But African Americans continued to pursue their day at the beach. In 1952, they petitioned the city to use part of the white beach but were denied. In 1957, a protest was enacted by the Chatham Christian Ministerial Association of the black ban use of Tybee Island. The Association made a request for some beach facilities be opened to blacks. They were denied their request.

In 1960 in downtown Savannah Beach High School and Savannah State College students had a sit-in at Levy’s Department Store as Savannah’s direct-action civil rights movement began. As the Broughton Street businesses experienced sit-ins it was decided to challenge Tybee Island and beach usage too. On August 18, 1960 eleven blacks were charged with disrobing in public. All in all there were 27 African Americans involved. The wade-ins could be dangerous as the blacks many who had not only be denied beach privileges but also city pool privileges could not swim. So as they wander deeper and deeper into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean to avoid police arrest they were very much putting themselves at risk.

Future Savannah leaders were there that day. Benjamin Van Clark who has a neighborhood named after him was there. Edna Jackson the first black woman Mayor of Savannah was there. Robbie Robinson a councilman, lawyer, and judge pro term was there. Robbie Robinson would later be murdered by a mail bomb. Their attorney was Eugene H. Gadsen who has a school named after him. There were others who waded-in. And there was more than one wade-in before the integration of the beach occurred.

At a Savannah NAACP branch Mass Meeting to support of the economic boycott of Broughton Street businesses, President W. W. Law praised the courage of the youngsters who participated in the "wade-in”. He remarked: "If these youngsters can sit-in, wade-in, and kneel-in, all Negroes can stay off Broughton Street. Why should we buy segregation?”

To make room for the wade-ins the Tybee prison camp was re-opened. But the voice of these African-Americans would not be contained by jails and the Tybee Island beach was eventually integrated. Today they have an annual college spring break of black students called Orange Crush. The mistakes of dealing with this group show that Tybee Island is integrated now but still has a long way to go. But on the other hand the annual Tybee Island MLK Jr. leaves us with hope that things will be better one day.

A wade-in at a unidentified beach

A reenactment of Tybee Island Wade-In during Juneteenth Celebration

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Forty Years Ago in Savannah

12/8/2018

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The Storefront of Brighter Day Natural Food Market

There was something happening forty years ago in Savannah. In 1976 one of Savannah’s biggest public projects was being completed; Rousakis Riverfront Plaza on River Street. It was a harbinger of a new Savannah. Many people want to credit the Book (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) as the moment modern Savannah began its Renaissance. But one would also have to look forty years ago when several businesses and people staked a claim to Savannah.

The biggest of course was the Savannah College of Art and Design. It was started by Richard Rowan and Paula Wallace in the old Armory in 1976. Paula would eventually stay as the captain of the ship that has not only revived the architecture of the town but also infused the city with nearly 8,500 young artists. Today SCAD is one of the premier art schools in the world with outposts in Atlanta, Hong Kong, and LaCoste.

Also in the magical year of 1978 Savannah’s only used and new independent bookstore The Book Lady was started in a house in the Historic District. The Book Lady Bookstore was founded by published poet Anita Raskin. The locals nicknamed her “The Book Lady.” The Book Lady has readings and book signings from authors across the nation. It is at the forefront of promoting local authors. Although Ms. Raskin no longer runs the store it’s keeping Savannah reading.

In 1978 the young entrepreneurs and health food proprietors Janie and Peter Brodhead came to town with a dream, and they have made that dream a reality. They have an independent, locally owned market that offers the very best and healthiest products available. Their store became the Savannah headquarters of the new health movement overtaking the nation. They have also modeled how a small business can be a good citizen through their many gifts to charities.

The year 1978 also brought us one of Savannah’s favorite charities: Chatham-Savannah Citizen’s Advocacy. Their mission is to “provide protection of and advocacy for people being abused, neglected or excluded because of disability.” Over the past 40 years, they have made close to 900 of these citizen advocate matches. They have acted as a social conscious of our city. But it also enabled the worker for all things good Tom Kohler to have a voice and strong presence in grassroots advocacy in our city. Tom Kohler, many would say, is the Savannah whisperer for progress.

Another organization that was started 43 years ago has saved and cultivated the history of Savannah. The Coastal Heritage Society started in 1975. Its purpose is to provide educational experiences for the public through the preservation and presentation of the historic resources of coastal Georgia and adjacent regions. It received its first chance to perform their mission after the state decided to close Old Fort Jackson in 1975. The Coastal Heritage Society approached the State in 1976 asking permission to re-open and operate the site, which was granted. The historic site was now referred to as Old Fort Jackson. The Coastal Heritage Society has grown immensely since and they now supervise the Georgia State Railroad Museum, Pin Point Museum, Children’s Museum, and the Savannah History Museum. They also oversee Savannah’s Battlefield Park.

Today it would be hard to imagine Savannah without SCAD, Brighter Day, Tom Kohler and Citizen’s Advocacy, or the Coastal Heritage Society. Maybe this renaissance would have come without the Rousakis Plaza but this civic project made Savannah a little more attractive. Today we have an arena being erected and a canal district that is taking shape. One can only wonder what and who this may bring to our city.

A TRAIN AT THE COASTAL HERITAGE SOCIETY GEORGIA REAILROAD MUSEUM

COASTAL HERITAGE SOCIETY CHILDREN'S MUSEUM

Rousakis Plaza

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Historical Ruminations

A Book Lover's Paradise

Wade In the Water

Forty Years Ago in Savannah

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