This coastal city's role in the civil rights movement is commemorated in a new museum that chronicles the push for equal rights for blacks during the 1960s.
"I am certain that it represents the finest hour in this society's history," said W.W. Law, Savannah historian and project historian for the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum. "It's a story that for 36 years has not been told."Exhibits include an oversize judge's bench and an account of injustices to blacks, set out at the entry - balanced by a final display outlining progress that has been made. There's a lunch counter patterned after one involved in 1960s boycotts and a theater, designed like a small sanctuary, screening a film in which local blacks talk about the civil rights struggle.
The museum is named after Ralph Mark Gilbert, a pastor at First African Baptist Church. Gilbert was a religious, political, educational and social leader from 1939 until his death in 1956. His papers and memorabilia are in the museum's archives.