During a routine manhole excavation in Portsmouth, N.H., in 2003, a baby blue drain pipe was discovered, at the foot of which were several human skeletons. After a work stoppage to call in local experts, the mystery was partially solved: They were the remains of eight individuals of African descent.
After the discovery, the site was officially deemed the Portsmouth African Burial Ground.
With the support of the majority white community and thanks to donations from area businesses, generous citizens, and the city itself, funds were raised to create a monument designed to foster education, reconciliation, and healing.
The project was ultimately awarded to Savannah-based multi-disciplinary artist Jerome B. Meadows.
Voting rights activists honor memory of John Lewis with âvotercadesâ across Coastal Georgia
Voting rights activists honor memory of John Lewis with âvotercadesâ across Coastal Georgia By Mariah Congedo | May 8, 2021 at 11:15 PM EDT - Updated May 9 at 3:35 PM
SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Saturday was National John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Action Day, and organizers spent the day pushing for the passage of laws to stop legislation some say will restrict access to the polls. From Statesboro to Savannah, people across the Coastal Empire turned out for these so-called âvotercades.â
Community leaders joined the Georgia Coalition of the Peopleâs Agenda in Hinesville, Statesboro and Savannah in recognition of the day. More than 150 John Lewis âGood Troubleâ Awareness votercades took to the streets on Saturday across the country.
As Savannah’s homeless population continues to grow with more than 1,000 residents who are unsheltered, the Salvation Army has proposed a transitional use shelter in west Savannah to aid nearly 200 of those residents. The site of the proposed shelter has caused controversy due to its proximity to the location of The Weeping Time, which is believed to be the largest sale of enslaved people in U.S. history.
The site’s painful past along with a surrounding community that is already fighting 90% poverty rates in some areas and an urgent need to address homelessness has sparked debate and impassioned pleas among city officials, advocates of the unsheltered and local historians.
For several days in early March 1859, rains fell violently on the Ten Broeck race track in what is now west Savannah. During that time more than 400 enslaved people were sold to pay off the debts of plantation owner Pierce Mease Butler.
The rains only stopped after the last slave was sold. The auction would thereafter be known as The Weeping Time.
“As the last family stepped down from the block, the rain ceased, for the first time in four days, the clouds broke away, and the soft sunlight fell on the scene. The unhappy slaves had [sic] many of them been already removed, and others were now departing with their new masters,” New York Tribune journalist Mortimer Q. Thomson wrote of the auction, which took place on March 2 and March 3, 1859.