This week in Savannah history: September 16-22

Written by Gracie Williams

Inspired by The Georgia Historical Society’s daily segment “Today in Georgia History,” I was interested to see what bits of Savannah’s past I could dig up. This weekly column will share events, iconic and unknown, that define Savannah’s past.

James Allen McPherson was born on September 19, 1943, in Savannah, Georgia. His mother, Mabel Small, worked as a maid in town, and his father eventually became the first black master electrician in the state of Georgia. McPherson spent much of his childhood reading comics in what he named the colored branch of the Carnegie Public Library. He first attended the historically black Morris Brown College in Atlanta, GA and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1965.

From there he attended Harvard Law School, where he worked as a janitor to afford the high expenses. But instead of pursuing a legal career, he decided to enroll in the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. It paid off in the end because McPherson became a well-respected writer who overcame the struggles of segregation. In 1978, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with “Elbow Room,” his second collection of short stories, and was the first black writer to do so. Starting in the late 1960s, McPherson taught at the University of California–Santa Cruz, Harvard, Morgan State, and the University of Virginia. In 1981, he returned to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop as a faculty member and stayed there for the rest of his life. He died from pneumonia complications in 2016 at age 72.

The name Telfair is plastered just about everywhere in Savannah, but many aren’t familiar with the real story behind this iconic figure. Born in 1735 in Scotland, Edward Telfair stayed until his early twenties. In 1758, he set sail for America where he settled in Virginia, then North Carolina and finally Georgia. He quickly became a successful merchant, and soon entered the political scene.

In 1778, he was elected to the Continental Congress where he served for five years, and from there served three terms as governor. He married Sarah Gibbons in 1774 and had six children. The Telfair Mansion [Now the Telfair Academy] built for his son Alexander Telfair, was passed over to Alexander’s sister, Mary, where she donated it to the Georgia Historical Society. On September 17, 1807, Edward Telfair died in his townhome and was buried at Colonial Cemetery. His body was later moved to Bonaventure Cemetery, where he remains today.

In early September of 1979, the Savannah College of Art and Design opened its doors for the first time. At 9 a.m. sharp, 71 students walked through the doors of Preston Hall [now Poetter Hall] eager to learn. The fields of study at the time included graphic design, ceramics, historic preservation, painting, interior design, photography, printmaking and weaving/textile design. This year, SCAD celebrates its 40 birthday with exciting events planned throughout the year, but in 1979, things were just getting started.