Savannah State University Friends of the Library Committee Hosts Weeping Time Forum

The Savannah State University Friends of the Library Committee (SSU-FOTL) completed its activity debut on Monday, March 6, 2023 at 1 PM as hosts of a forum entitled, “ Beyond Boundaries of the Weeping Time-A Genealogy of People and Place.” It was the last event in a series of activities sponsored by The Weeping Time Commemoration Committee inspired by 15 years of scholarly work by Dr. Kwesi DeGraft-Hanson to document and preserve the significance of the largest sale of enslaved Africans in the United States on March 2-3, 1859 in Savannah, GA. The forum was held in the Asa H. Gordon Library with over 40 locals, faculty, and staff joining FOTL.

The hybrid panel included a virtual presentation by genealogist and documentarian Nicka Smith who identified several ways to gather direct information from relatives and even “fictive kin”-those close family friends who we call auntie or uncle. Speaker Janice Roots is a direct descendant of the Butler Plantation enslaved sold during the 1859 sale who traveled from New Jersey to share her story of recovered ancestry. Keynote speaker Dr. DeGraft -Hanson traced the history of the Butlers back to the Middleton Plantation in Charleston and ultimately called for a more concrete form of commemoration. “Why don’t we reserve this site for a national slave memorial? ” he asked the audience. He ended by suggesting several sources for further reading and research.

The FOTL is a new initiative charged with the mission to “advocate for the library, archives, art gallery, and any other resources as vital centers of learning at Savannah State University”. With the said stated mission, we urge members of the community to consider the SSU library archives as a permanent home for significant books and historical works. Co-chairing the committee are retired Professor Pat West and Dr. Deborah Johnson-Simon of the Kiah Project. Other officers are SSU Prof. Sharee Seal, Alumnae Dr. Clemotine F. Washington, and SSU staffer/Author Tina Brown. Committee members include Dr. Christana Davis, Dr. Sue Ebanks, Servant Emanuel Branch, Leonard Brown, Dr. Marguerite Birt, Dr. Omega Moore, and Dr. Otis S. Johnson. Representing the library are Librarian Felix Unaeze, Jeremy Schwartz, Janice Shipp, Jennifer West, and Janice Shipp. For further information, please contact Pat West at authorpatwest@gmail.com.

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