Square in Savannah Honors Susie King Taylor

For the first time in Savannah’s 291-year history, one of its city squares has been named after a woman. It’s also the first time a Savannah square has been named after a person of color. Susie King Taylor, born into slavery in 1848, was the first Black woman to teach Black children in the state of Georgia openly.

Making History: Susie King Taylor, a teacher and nurse, was the first Black woman to teach Black children openly. | Photo credit: Library of Congress

Taylor, who spent the first seven years of her life enslaved on a plantation, moved to Savannah with her grandmother and learned to read and write at two secret schools taught by people of color. She fled to Union-occupied St. Simons Island at age 14, where she worked as a nurse and laundress with the First South Carolina Volunteers, the first Black regiment in the U.S. Army, and became the first Black teacher to openly educate Black children. After the Civil War ended, she moved back to Savannah and opened a school for Black children, before moving to Boston and becoming the only Black woman to publish a memoir about her wartime experiences with the First South Carolina Volunteers.

The square, located at Abercorn and Wayne streets, was once a burial ground for hundreds of enslaved people. It was previously named after John C. Calhoun, a former U.S. vice president and advocate of slavery.

It took three years to get the square renamed – during which time it sat nameless – but the Savannah City Council finally voted on the name in October 2023. Hundreds gathered for the ceremony when it was officially designated Taylor Square in February. As Mayor Van Johnson welcomed the crowd and unveiled the new sign, he said, “We’re not only here to make history, we’re here to make sense.”

Phil Starks, a member of the Susie King Taylor Committee, says he hopes one day there will be a memorial of Taylor in the square. And Patt Gunn, who petitioned to change the name, said she hopes the renaming will be a blueprint for future generations. – Kathleen Conway

In the article “Partners in Progress” in the April issue, we should have said The Cloudland at McLemore was in Walker County, not Dade County.

In the article “Unified Community” in the April issue, the correct spelling of the county at the top of the page should have been Troup County.