L2L African American History (ft. Brian Renner)

Honoring African American History Through Books and Songs

In honor of African American History Month, Brian Renner of Beyond the Liner Notes and Leigh E. Rich of Listening to Literature teamed up for a special two-hour episode to discuss books for learning about black history in Savannah, interspersed with musical selections from the different eras. Approximately twenty books were featured (see below) that address the institution of slavery in Savannah’s early days, the Underground Railroad, the Civil War in Savannah, the post-Civil War in the late nineteenth century, Jim Crow and the early twentieth century, the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and ’60s, and the tenures of three different African American mayors in Savannah’s recent history, including a recent book by Dr. Otis S. Johnson.

Dr. Johnson has spoken about his book, From N-Word to Mr. Mayor: Experiencing the American Dream, on prior episodes of Listening to Literature: click to listen to Part I and Part II.

The books featured on the program are listed in the order presented during the broadcast. Titles, artists, album names, and publishers of the featured songs can be found on the corresponding page of Beyond the Liner Notes.

• Slavery and Freedom in Savannah, Leslie M. Harris and Daina Ramey Berry (editors) 
• African American Life in the Georgia Lowcountry: The Atlantic World and the Gullah Geechee, Philp Morgan (editor) 
• Tybee Island: The Long Branch of the South, Robert A. Ciucevich 
• The Owens-Thomas House, Tania June Sammons 
• The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead 
• Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman, Sarah H. Bradford 
• Saving Savannah: The City and the Civil War, Jacqueline Jones 
• The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History, Anne C. Bailey 
• Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule, Harriette Gillem Robinet, with illustrations by Wendell Minor 
• The Origins of Southern Sharecropping, Edward Royce 
• Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America, Mamie Till-Mobley and Christopher Benson 
• Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880 to 1930, W. Fitzhugh Brundage 
• Ebb and Flow: Life and Community in Eastern Savannah, Martha L. Keber 
• Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship in the Era of ‘Plessy v. Ferguson’, Blair L. M. Kelley 
• Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954–1965 , Juan Williams 
• The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South, John T. Edge 
• Delivering Justice: W. W. Law and the Fight for Civil Rights, Jim Haskins, with illustrations by Benny Andrews 
• Black America Series: Savannah, Georgia, Charles J. Elmore 
• African American Journey, A. Jamal Touré 
• Making Gullah: A History of Sapelo Islanders, Race, and the American Imagination, Melissa L. Cooper 
• From N-Word to Mr. Mayor: Experiencing the American Dream, Otis S. Johnson