By Eric Curl
Aug. 24, 2022 update – Following Savannah Agenda’s inquiry in May, the formerly missing plaque recognizing W.W. Law’s home was installed yesterday during a media event celebrating the marker’s unveiling. Along with Historic Savannah Foundation officials, those in attendance included Vaughnette Goode-Walker, director of the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum, Chatham County Commissioner Chairman Chester Ellis and Savannah Mayor Van Johnson. The current owner of this property, Troy Williams, who restored the home, was in also attendance and memories of Law were shared by Mills Morrison, whose family were longtime friends of the Law family, according to the press release.
“HSF takes our responsibility in honoring the memory of W.W. Law very seriously,” said Gregori Anderson, head of HSF’s building committee and the board parliamentarian. “We hold a Conservation and Preservation Easement on this property and work closely with owners like Troy Williams to preserve important historic buildings throughout Savannah”.
July 31, 2022 – Located at 710 W. Victory Drive, the Savannah home of the late civil rights icon W.W. Law has no plaque or marker acknowledging the property’s historical significance. That omission may finally be corrected following an inquiry by Savannah Agenda, two decades after Law’s death.
Law died in the house in 2002 and the structure deteriorated in the years after, earning a place on the Georgia Trust’s Places in Peril list at one point, before the Historic Savannah Foundation and W.W. Law Foundation stepped in to save the property from collapse in 2011, as reported in a 2012 Savannah Morning News article.
According to the article, HSF was going to provide a historic marker to Remer Pendergraph, Law’s longtime friend and administrator of his estate who owned the house back then. The marker was to be affixed to Law’s house and identify the structure as the “Home of W.W. Law, civil rights leader and preservationist, circa 1936,” according to a quote from Daniel Carey, HSF’s CEO at the time.
But there is no such marker on the house, according to the home’s current owner, Troy Williams, who renovated the property after purchasing it in 2014. If such a marker exists, Williams said he would be in full support of placing it on the house.
When asked about the marker in late May, CEO Susan Adler said via email that the date of the article was before she joined HSF.
“So I am looking into this and will get back to you when I have some info,” Adler said.
On July 29, HSF’s spokesperson said that ten years ago, before the current management or team members joined HSF, there was an oversight and the historic marker dedication was never installed – although it was ordered and has been located.
To rectify this situation, HSF is planning a media call to install and unveil the marker and honor W.W. Law in late August, said Lesley Francis, CEO of Lesley Francis PR.
“As soon as we have a confirmed date – it will be 10am on a Tue, Wed or Thur – I will let you know and send you an invitation as well as information,” Francis said.
About W.W. Law
From 1950-1976 Law served as President of the Savannah chapter of the NAACP. During the 1960s, he led weekly mass meetings at Bolton Street Baptist Church and St. Philip A.M.E. Church during which he urged “passive resistance to segregation” and nonviolent protests. He was involved in efforts to desegregate Grayson Municipal Stadium, department store lunch counters on Broughton Street, and the beaches at Tybee Island. He led an eighteen-month boycott of Broughton Street merchants. Law is largely credited for helping to keep Savannah’s Civil Rights movement more peaceful than those in other southern cities. In 1961, he was fired from his postal job because of his Civil Rights activities, but reinstated after national NAACP leaders and President John F. Kennedy came to his defense.