Westley Wallace Law, gives a speech at a Savannah church during the Civil Rights Movement. Edna Jackson, who became mayor of Savannah from 2012 to 2016, is seated in the back on the far left.
Stay in the field,
Stay in the field,
Stay in the field,
Until the war is ended.
— Negro Spiritual
I would not have missed those Mass Meetings of the Savannah, Georgia
Branch, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,
held over the past two years, for the life of me. Nor would I have
missed the sit–ins, the wade–ins, the kneel–ins, the picket–line,
the boycotts, the vote campaigns, the bus ride–ins and any of the other
wonderful experiences gained while fighting for freedom in Chatham County.
The memory of those inspiring experiences will stay with me for the rest
of my life. Whenever people talk about the importance of Unity, I will
ask them “How did you help with the fifteen–month boycott of Broughton
Street and shopping center merchants and the more than one hundred Sunday
afternoon mass meetings?” I have a warm affection for the people I have
come to know through their regular attendance at the weekly mass meetings.
They are the finest people in the world, and much of the good that has come
would not have been made possible had it not been for these brave souls.
The course of events following the arrest of our Negro youth at downtown
lunch counters, beginning with Wednesday afternoon, March 16, 1960, is
a clear indication that the Savannah Negro was not satisfied with things
as they were and many of them were willing to do their very best to bring
Freedom and Justice to their home town. It was an unselfish, Christian
adventure. We fought hard, although we knew that many who did nothing
to help and others who openly opposed the fight for freedom would in
the end benefit most from the fruits of our labors.
We came to the mass meetings each Sunday and heard strong, stirring
speeches by the Rev. Curtis J. Jackson, Hosea L. Williams, Rev. P. A.
Patterson, Rev. L. S. Stell, Jr., Curtis V. Cooper, Mrs. Mercedes Wright,
Sidney A. Jones and many other, who admonished the Negro people to throw
of the yolk of oppression and stand fast for freedom. We also witnessed
passionate, and oftimes eloquent, addresses by youth “sit–in” leaders
Willie Ludden, Charles Dailey, Ernest Robinson, Sherman Roberson, Jr.,
Leford Tobias, Jr., John “Plunk” McMillan, Benjamin V. Clark among others.
To look upon the youth and adults who, in the succeeding weeks, had
bravely challenged the forces of segregation and demonstrated their
faith in the rightness of the cause and to hear them relate their daring
experiences, executed with extreme courage and great
zeal,
evoked prompt responses of complete cooperation of the Negro Community.
W. W. Law
This introduction, written by Westley Wallace Law, first appeared in the previous collection of Freedom songs, entitled “Grand Songs of the Savannah NAACP “Freedom Now” Movement, 1962.
Westley Wallace Law and Esther Garrison, both on the right, inspect an NAACP membership campaign poster.