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SPECIAL

Savannah protest follows tradition of rejecting violence

Jan Skutch
jskutch@savannahnow.com
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson addresses gun control at a January  press conference. Police Chief Roy Minter is on the right. Johnson encouraged a peaceful protest May 31, with the cooperation of Minter, along with local business leaders and clergy.

When Savannahians met on Sunday, May 31, to peacefully protest the death of a black man in police custody in Minneapolis, they were following a tradition laid out by city, clergy and business leaders dating to the 1960s.

That message: peacefully protest to express your feelings and concerns, but don’t burn or destroy your town.

Savannah Mayor Van R. Johnson II, who led the city’s response, is no stranger to similar circumstances.

Then an alderman, he was the first official on the scene In the aftermath of the Sept. 18, 2014, shooting death of Charles Smith, a 29-year-old black man, by a white Savannah-Chatham police officer.

There Johnson worked with Savannah Mayor Edna Jackson, local police and clergy, who joined forces to call for a calm response.

Savannahians responded in their traditional, measured manner to what could have been a powder-keg reaction.

That was in contrast to the civic eruptions that had marked the response to the shooting death some 30 days earlier on Aug. 9, 2014, of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri — unrest that resurfaced later in the largely black St. Louis suburb.

Leading the way

“These issues are bigger than me,” Johnson said last week in reflecting on the local response. “I sought (divine) guidance. I received it and I’m running with it.

“We got ahead of it early,” he said. “We reached out.

“You’ve got to make sure you engage good, strong partners,” he said. “We had almost 100 members of the clergy from all denominations and a strong showing by the business community.”

In a number of other American cities, those protests have been marked by angry confrontations with fires being set and property damaged or looted by groups of protesters.

Johnson said it was a time to listen and learn.

“We need to hear what they (people) were saying, what they were feeling, and validate their concerns. ... We were not going to run from this. We were going to meet people where they were,” he said.

In the end, the protests stayed largely peaceful. Property damage was minimal. Aided by a curfew, officials were able to identify those in Savannah to cause trouble before it happened, Johnson said.

“I’m beyond impressed,” he said. “We knew things could have been a whole lot worse. Once again, Savannah is a very blessed city. We weren't going to allow anyone to come into our city and try to damage it.

“This is our home. We were intent on protecting our home.”

Savannah Police Chief Roy Minter was front and center, he said.

“This is a police matter,” Johnson said. “This Is not the time for police to be absent “

Savannah police presence

Minter said Wednesday, June 3, that his department planned in advance to ensure participants had the opportunity to protest peacefully and safely.

For safety purposes, Savannah police as well as partner agencies continued to monitor participants as they began to disband and march through additional areas downtown, he said.

After Johnson imposed an 8:30 p.m. to 7 a.m. curfew to combat any potential disturbances overnight, police began educating lingering protest participants, community members and businesses about the curfew, Minter said.

Due to a small group of protesters acting disorderly and refusing to comply with the curfew, pepper balls were deployed, Minter said. None of the individuals required medical attention.

SPD made 16 arrests involving 30 charges on the day of the protest; three of those charged were from areas outside of Chatham County.

Overall, Minter said, ”I am extremely proud of the protest participants for remaining peaceful and our officers and partner agencies for acting with professionalism and respect.

“The purpose of this protest was to shed light on the tragic death of George Floyd and speak out about inequalities and the conduct of some law enforcement officers. I believe that was accomplished (May 31) and the few disturbances during the evening did not overshadow this purpose.

“The relationship between (Savannah police) and the community will remain a core area of focus for us,” he said. “We will continue to expect nothing less than professionalism, respect, integrity, dedication and excellence from our department members.”

Local tradition

Peaceful protest is a local tradition that dates back to at least the racial turbulence of the 1960s when Savannah Mayor Malcolm Maclean, a prominent attorney and World War II hero who brought a progressive agenda to the office, worked quietly — often behind closed doors — to guide Savannah through turbulent moments.

Later, as riots erupted in Harlem and other cities in the aftermath of the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., an alliance of black and white leaders oversaw a relatively calm response in Savannah.

In the hours after King’s assassination, Savannah Mayor J. Curtis Lewis, a white businessman and philanthropist who took a no-nonsense approach to civil disorder, urgently worked with community leaders to avoid the riots and destruction visited elsewhere.

Joining Lewis and the white community in the call for calm were civil rights icon W.W. Law, longtime president of the Savannah Branch, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and his leadership team including Eugene H. Gadsden, an attorney and later Chatham County’s first black Superior Court judge.

"We must not use King's death as an example to wreak havoc in the community," Law said, reported in the Savannah Morning News in 2015.

Only an apparent fire bomb that leveled Yachum & Yachum department store on then-West Broad Street, seven minor fires, two bomb scares and several gunshots broke the calm. At least four people, including a Savannah firefighter, were injured.

The tradition of nonviolent protest is one passed down through several generations of leaders and communities.

When then-Mayor Edna Jackson and others worked to keep the lid on in the aftermath of the Charles Smith shooting, the Rev. Matthew Southall Brown Sr., considered Savannah’s senior pastor and pastor emeritus of the St. John Baptist Church, the Mighty Fortress on Hartridge Street, led a group of clergy in keeping calm.

"While there are still questions that need to be answered and while we await those answers, let us not incite things that will upset our communities and our cities," Brown told a community meeting shortly afterward, reported in the Savannah Morning News in 2015.

Business responds

Trip Tollison, president/CEO of the Savannah Economic Development Authority, said the mayor called him on Saturday, May 30, with a head’s up on the anticipated Sunday event.

“What can we do for you, mayor?” Tollison responded.

SEDA officials alerted local business leaders, and when Johnson addressed the crowd in Johnson Square on Sunday afternoon, Tollison and other business leaders were at his side.

“What he (Johnson) did, I think, showed a lot of leadership,” Tollison said. “I think a lot of other cities and communities could learn from Van’s leadership. What he did was show a unique and very classy example of leadership.

“Van was proactive,” he said, rather than reactive, telling the protesters that “We are going to be with you. We are going to do this together.”

Tollison described the protest’s organization as a “collaborative effort” that showed a “a very unified, diverse” community.

“We’ve been doing it for a long time and it showed,” Tollison said.

Savannah’s clergy have always been central in the local efforts.

Rabbi Robert Haas with Congregation Mickve Israel, said that Johnson met with clergy at First African Baptist Church about an hour before the protest Sunday to discuss the process, then the group walked together to Johnson Square.

“This is one community,” said Haas, who spoke at City Hall. “We all want the same thing. We all want to transition to a better world and we want to do it peacefully.

“Everybody is on board trying to find ways to do this. … It became a national movement where we all look out for others.”

Like Haas, the Rev. Michael Chaney at the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany was among the 100 or so ”masked” clergy who met with Johnson at First African Baptist Church on Montgomery Street in preparation for the protest.

Chaney, one of a dozen Episcopal clergy members including new Bishop Frank Logue, assisted in coordinating a de-escalation team that worked the periphery during the event and was a speaker with Johnson at Savannah City Hall during the event.

“As faith leaders it is our duty, our obligation, to stand against any form of injustice and with those who have been maligned by those in power.

“Our city is our beloved community. We are one another’s neighbors. My faith tradition commands me to love both God and my neighbor at all times and particularly at this time.

“As a follower of Jesus and a person of privilege, I have no other option than to stand with those who have faced injustice and oppression. And it is honor to do so.”

“At this time, it is imperative for clergy to be a calm and responsive presence while supporting the struggle for justice and the elimination of systemic racism,” he said. “As a white ally, it is my obligation to use my own privilege as a tool to de-escalate any potentially volatile reactions from other people of privilege.”

Trip Tollison