By Eric Curl
Aug. 25, 2024 – The Salvation Army made its case last week to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the nonprofit’s plans to construct a homeless transitional center on a site an opposition group, The Weeping Time Coalition (WTC), contends was part the largest slave sale in the country’s history.
The hearing at Chatham County Superior Court on Friday means the dispute could be just one ruling away from closing the almost 3-year-old case.
Over a tense hour and a half, attorney Kevin Gough on behalf of the coalition, argued for the importance of the historical preservation and recognition of a brutal part of Savannah’s history, while Attorney David Johnson for The Salvation Army framed the case as a zoning issue and contested the actual location of the slave auction, as reported by The Current.
The WTC filed the lawsuit in October 2021 after the city granted a special use permit to the Housing Authority of Savannah that April, allowing the site at 2305 Augusta Avenue to be used as a homeless transitional center. The permit was approved with the condition that an archaeological study be obtained to determine the site was not part of the location where the Weeping Time tragedy occurred.
A consultant hired by the city then conducted a survey and found that the project tract was not associated with the tragedy. The same survey found that another site south of Old West Lathrop is the actual location of the former Ten Broeck Race Course, where more than 400 enslaved men, women and children were auctioned off in 1859.
The Salvation Army subsequently purchased the property with the intention of constructing a homeless transitional center there.
In March, the Salvation Army submitted a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the coalition submitted what was essentially a zoning challenge beyond the 30-day deadline to oppose the permit. In addition, the Salvation Army contends there is no factual basis to the coalition’s claim that the archeological survey is required to be submitted to the State Historic Preservation Office because the city did not impose any such requirement in its grant of the special use permit. Also, the motion stated that the Salvation Army and city are not federal agencies and so cannot commit any violation of the National Historic Preservation Act, as the WTC alleged in its complaint. The NHPA established requirements for cities to adopt an ordinance to designate historic properties or historic districts, but the statutes do not require the adoption of any such ordinance as to any particular property, the Salvation Army argued in its motion.
The Weeping Time Coalition filed a motion to postpone Friday’s hearing for at least 40 days, stating one of the group’s members had a health issue and was scheduled for a medical appointment that day. The Salvation Army opposed the continuance, stating the particular individual’s absence would have not impact the proceedings in any way since other group leaders, including the CEO and secretary, could still attend the hearing. Chatham County Superior Court Judge Lisa Goldwire Colbert agreed and denied the motion for a continuance, stating the coalition failed to present sufficient grounds for the delay.
Meanwhile, adjacent property to the south at 204 Old West Lathrop where the racetrack was located is now sitting unused after Dixie Plywood sold the site for more than $30 million to a shipping container transportation company, as previously reported by Savannah Agenda in November last year.
Named for the families that were torn apart and the heavy rain that accompanied the two-day auction, the Weeping Time is currently memorialized with a historical marker at a small park on Augusta Road about half a mile away from where the tragedy occurred. The auction was thought to be the largest sale of enslaved people in US history up until recently, when it was discovered that a sale comprised of 600 people occurred in Charleston.
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