Audio Guide: African-American Heritage Tour (Self Guided), Savannah

African American history in the United States is shaped by many themes, but few are as powerful as resilience. Through generations of hardship and injustice, African Americans have preserved their communities, strengthened their cultural traditions, and profoundly influenced the nation’s politics, art, literature, and music.

Savannah, Georgia, is an important place for understanding this experience in the American South. African Americans have long formed a substantial part of the city’s population, and their contributions are woven into Savannah’s history and identity.

Several local landmarks help tell this story. The restored Victorian-era King-Tisdell Cottage preserves the history and achievements of Savannah’s African American community. At the Owens-Thomas House, visitors can explore both the elegant residence of a wealthy family and the surviving slave quarters, which reveal the sharply contrasting lives of the enslaved people who worked there.

After emancipation, education became an important path toward greater opportunity. The Beach Institute, opened in 1867, was among Savannah’s first schools established for African American students. The Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum, named after one of the city’s leading civil rights figures, documents the local struggle against segregation and racial discrimination.

Public monuments also commemorate important people and events. On River Street, the African American Monument recalls the experience of slavery and the journey toward freedom. In Franklin Square, the Haitian Monument honors the free Black soldiers from Saint-Domingue who fought during the Siege of Savannah in 1779.

Martin Luther King Jr. once observed, “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” As you follow this self-guided walk, these landmarks will offer you a deeper understanding of African American life, achievement, and resilience-and of the central role this history has played in shaping Savannah.