{"id":2012510,"date":"2023-08-25T19:49:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-25T23:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/historic-square-gets-new-name-after-original-is-stripped-from-one-of-americas-oldest-cities\/"},"modified":"2023-08-25T19:52:24","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T23:52:24","slug":"historic-square-gets-new-name-after-original-is-stripped-from-one-of-americas-oldest-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/historic-square-gets-new-name-after-original-is-stripped-from-one-of-americas-oldest-cities\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic square renamed after original name is removed from one of America&#8217;s oldest cities."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhistoric-square-gets-new-name-after-original-is-stripped-from-one-of-americas-oldest-cities%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2012510&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Historic Square Gets New Name After Original Is Stripped from One of America&#8217;s Oldest Cities<\/h2>\n<p>Georgia\u2019s oldest city, \u2064steeped in history pre-dating the\u200c American Revolution, made a \u200chistoric break with its slavery-era past Thursday as the Savannah City Council voted to rename\u2063 a downtown square in\u200c honor \u2063of a black woman who taught formerly enslaved people to read and write.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Susie King Taylor<\/strong> is the first person\u200c of \u200ccolor whose \u2064name will adorn one of Savannah\u2019s 23 squares. It\u2019s the first time in 140 years that Savannah has\u200b approved\u2062 a name change for one of \u2064the picturesque,\u2063 park-like\u2062 squares that are\u2064 treasured features of the original plan \u200bfor \u200bthe city founded in 1733.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s one thing to make \u2064history. It\u2019s something else \u2063to make sense.\u2063 And \u2062in this case, we\u2019re making both,\u201d Savannah\u200c Mayor Van Johnson said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>He noted that five black women sit on the nine<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-lawmaker-introduces-bill-for-us-govt-to-take-over-democrat-run-city-after-rising-crime-rates\/\" title=\"GOP lawmaker proposes federal takeover of Democrat-run city due to increasing crime rates.\">-member city council<\/a>, something people of Taylor\u2019s era \u201cnever would have fathomed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Public spaces and \u200cmonuments in\u2062 the Southern city have long been dedicated almost exclusively to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/look-inside-georgia-jail-trump-booked-nothing-short-hulking-sprawling-nightmare\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Georgia\u2019s<\/a> colonial founders, former governors, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-slammed-after-looking-at-watch-during-dignified-transfer-of-13-slain-troops-late-for-your-nap\/\" title=\"Biden Slammed After Looking At Watch During Dignified Transfer Of 13 Slain Troops: \u2018Late For Your Nap?\u2019\">fallen war heroes<\/a>, and other prominent white\u2064 men.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s time for a woman-named square,\u201d said Patt \u200dGunn, a Savannah tour \u2063guide who led \u2062a group of activists that pushed for three years to have the square renamed for \u200bTaylor.<\/p>\n<p>The oak-shaded square that will bear Taylor\u2019s name near the\u2063 southern edge of Savannah\u2019s downtown\u200b historic district had spent 170 years named for John C. Calhoun, a former U.S. vice president from\u200c South Carolina who was a vocal supporter of slavery in the \u200cdecades preceding the Civil War.<\/p>\n<p>The Savannah City Council voted last November to get \u200drid of \u2064the name Calhoun Square following\u200b a campaign \u2064by Gunn\u2019s \u200dcoalition, which argued\u200b he was unworthy of the honor \u2064in a city where 54% of the population is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/watch-rapper-yg-sang-f-donald-trump-says-black-community-shifting-toward-maga-biden-aint-nothing-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">black<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>City officials stripped any signs of Calhoun\u2019s name from the square\u200d immediately following that first vote.\u2062 The space sat \u200bnameless for nine \u200cmonths \u200das City Hall collected recommendations for a new name.<\/p>\n<p>Some in \u200bSavannah strongly opposed the change. Resident David Tootle said Calhoun\u2019s support for slavery was wrong but \u200bshouldn\u2019t disqualify him\u2064 because Calhoun was a historical figure who served as vice president \u200cunder two administrations \u2014 those\u2064 of John Quincy Adams and \u200dAndrew Jackson.<\/p>\n<p>Tootle filed suit last month arguing that removing signs with Calhoun\u2019s name from the square violated a 2019 Georgia law passed to protect Confederate memorials and other public \u2063monuments. Tootle sought an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/historic-square-gets-new-name-after-original-is-stripped-from-one-of-americas-oldest-cities\/\" title=\"Historic square renamed after original name is removed from one of America's oldest cities.\">injunction \u2062blocking city officials<\/a> from voting on a new name but never got a ruling from a judge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not about Calhoun,\u201d said Tootle, who is \u200bblack. \u200b\u201cIt\u2019s the fact that we\u2019re erasing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/al-sharpton-tries-shaming-trump-comparing-founding-fathers-gets-instant-history-lesson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">history<\/a>. We can\u2019t erase somebody out \u200dof the history books and take \u200btheir names off things because we don\u2019t\u2064 agree with them and\u2064 thought they were bad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Savannah\u2019s mayor and\u200b council also voted to \u2064place a marker in \u2062the square explaining that\u2063 it initially bore Calhoun\u2019s name and why\u2062 they\u200b chose to\u2062 remove \u200dit.<\/p>\n<p>Born to enslaved parents in\u2064 1848, Taylor was secretly taught to\u2064 read and write as a girl living in\u2062 Savannah. As a teenager during the Civil War, she fled\u2064 to Georgia\u2019s St. Simons Island, which was occupied by Union troops.<\/p>\n<p>Taylor worked as a nurse for the Union Army, \u2064which in turn helped her organize\u200c a school to teach\u200b emancipated children and adults.<\/p>\n<p>After the war,\u2062 Taylor set up two more schools for black students. Before\u200c her death in 1912, \u200cshe became the only black woman to publish a memoir of\u200b her life during the war.<\/p>\n<p>The \u200bSavannah City Council chose Taylor from a diverse group. Finalists included a \u200dpastor\u200d who in 1777 founded one of America\u2019s oldest black churches in\u200b Savannah; a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/leaked-audio-of-joe-biden-telling-black-civil-rights-leaders-he-wont-go-all-in-on-executive-orders-to-appease-the-far-left-infuriates-progressives\/\" title=\"Leaked Audio of Joe Biden Telling Black Civil Rights Leaders He Won\u2019t Go All in on Executive Orders to Appease the Far Left Infuriates Progressives\">civil rights leader<\/a> whose\u2062 efforts peacefully \u200ddesegregated the city in 1963; the women who kick-started Savannah\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/historic-square-stripped-of-us-vice-presidents-name\/\" title=\"US Vice President's Name Removed from Historic Square\">historic preservation movement<\/a> in the 1950s; and an Army special-operations pilot \u2063who saved his crew but perished\u200d in a 2014 helicopter crash in Savannah.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-style: italic\">The \u200bWestern Journal has reviewed \u2063this Associated Press story and may have altered it \u2064prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/ap-savannah-picks-emancipated-black-woman-replace-name-slavery-advocate-historic-square\/\">Historic Square Gets New Name After Original Is Stripped from One of America&#8217;s Oldest \u200bCities<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\">The Western Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Georgia&#8217;s oldest city, rich in pre-American Revolution history, took a significant step forward by shedding its slavery-era legacy. The Savannah City Council voted to rename a downtown square after Susie King Taylor, a black woman who taught literacy to formerly enslaved individuals. She becomes the first person of color to receive this honor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":2012511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2012510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-conservative-news-daily"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2012510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2012511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2012510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2012510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2012510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}