The following is an excerpt from a podcast discussion on “The Commute,” in which former Savannah Mayor Edna Jackson took part in the Tybee Wade-In civil rights protests as a teenager. Comments have been summarized in the interests of space. The full interview can be found at SavannahNow.com/podcasts or via mobile podcast apps by searching for “The Commute with @SavannahOpinion”.
Question: A historical marker that records the Tybee wade-ins was recently inaugurated near North Beach. How did these protests affect the eventual lifting of the separation from Savannah?
Edna Jackson: “We started sit-in at the lunch tables on Broughton Street in March 1960. Savannah civil rights leader WW Law understood that if we were to abolish Savannah we had to look at all parts of the community, not just downtown. African Americans could go to it Time not to go to Tybee Beach, Hilton Head was the black beach. We could also swim in Fernandina, Florida. But not in the Atlantic Ocean right on our doorstep. So the tour came up with the idea of the calf-ins. Sure enough, that first group to go down there and do the calf-in, all arrested.
“At the same time, we also knelt in the churches. Savannah was the most separated every Sunday morning at 11 am. So every Sunday we went to a different white church and tried to come to the service. In most places, they stopped us at Open the door, and from here we just knelt, prayed, and left. So we worked to desegregate this fellowship on several fronts. “
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Q: For many of us born after the civil rights era, it is difficult to imagine the scene on Tybee Beach for these wade-ins. Can you describe it
NOT: “They didn’t want us in the water. They arrested us on the pretext of undressing in public, even though we were wearing our swimsuits with shirts and pants over our tops. Some were able to get into the water. Some were arrested beforehand.” You go into the water. They stopped us in our cars on Butler Avenue or on foot before we could go down to South Beach. We did calf-ins for three years, but really very few could actually wade in the water. “
Q: How did the other beachgoers react after the police reaction? Anger? Shock? Both?
NOT: “Anger definitely. Some of them ran out of the water when we got in. There were a lot of hecklers. And the police were always there to stop us or arrest those who went in.”
Q: You were one of the demonstrators who spent the night in prison?
NOT: “Yes, and I have a brick from that prison that was given to me after they knocked it down. The day I was arrested, my grandmother knew I was going to the beach but thought I was going to Hilton Head. Me didn’t. ” Tell her Tybee because I knew she was going to try to stop me. We came all the way out, parked, and were about to jump out of our cars and fetch water when the police pulled up.
“The problem was, our lawyers didn’t know what we were doing that day. So they weren’t aware that we needed someone to get us out.”
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Q: You recently attended the inauguration of the Historic Markers and I know that has brought back many memories. How was that experience?
NOT: “It was very overwhelming. You have people on Tybee today, like Julia Pearce of the Tybee MLK organization, who worked to make the era of civil rights remembered. It opened the eyes of so many people. but it was also sad because I’m watching now, 50 years later, and racism is about us again. He’s raised his ugly head. He reminds me of the days of the civil rights era, of all the hatred and that only turns me on Sad. ”
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