Thursday could be Calhoun Square's last day. Savannah council to vote on name removal.

Savannah City Council will meet Thursday for a public vote to remove John Calhoun’s name from one of the city’s downtown squares, almost two years after a group of local activists began working to change the name. 

Two weeks ago, 11 residents spoke on the issue, some in support and others in opposition. The hearing attracted a capacity crowd in the City Hall council chambers.

At that meeting, Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said he hoped to get a council vote on stripping the name off the square "hopefully in the first meeting in November," and when the Nov. 10 meeting agenda was posted earlier this week, the item was there.

It's the second time in two weeks that the Calhoun Square conversation has seen formal consideration by council. Depending on the vote, which seems likely to pass based on council's comments at the public hearing, it could be the last time council discusses Calhoun Square with its current name.

Previously, an activist group calling itself the Center for Jubilee, Reconciliation and Healing and its founders, Patt Gunn and Rosalyn Rouse have been the primary flagbearers for the issue.

But their efforts have come with opposition, and at the public hearing held Oct. 27, residents spoke about keeping Calhoun’s name on the square, citing the importance of not changing history. Calhoun was the U.S. vice president from 1825 to 1832 and was an outspoken pro-slavery advocate.

Calhoun Square renaming: Savannah Council takes up issue. For activists, the fight dates back years

Reader letters: Making the case to keep Calhoun's name on square as council readies to vote

The hearing and the anticipated vote represent a shift in approach to the Calhoun Square controversy. The Center for Jubilee, Reconciliation and Healing have been working for two years to effect change through the city's documented process to rename a public space, which involves securing the blessing of a majority of property owners adjacent to the square.

Those efforts have been fraught with starts and stops, as several properties are owned by institutions, such as a church and the Savannah-Chatham Public Schools, which have declined to take a position on the matter. Meanwhile, several residential properties around the square have been bought and sold recently, and each change in ownership means name change advocates must seek the signature of the new owner.

To expedite the change, Mayor Johnson recommended splitting the process into two issues: Removal of the name followed by choosing a new name. At his weekly media roundtable Wednesday, he said his intention is to allow the public more opportunity to give input about the square's new name.

"The purpose of the process is not only that it required the property owners around the square to weigh in, and they have to weigh in at a certain percentage. There are other boards that have the opportunity to be able to weigh in as well," Johnson said. "Again, I think for us to just say 'we will just change it' negates the input of those who live around the square, to include a church and to include an educational institution. I think we have to be able to respect that process."

Gunn says she doesn't view the council action as stealing the coalition's thunder. Gunn has done racial justice-related work for most of her adult life, and says as long as it gets done, she's happy.

"It goes with the territory of coalition building," Gunn said. "For me, I don't even care if they ever call my name, I want it done because it's a healing piece. If they can get the vision of this as something to heal their city, so be it."

Public hearing

At the public hearing portion of the last council meeting, those in opposition and support made their case before council.

After a 10-minute preamble about the Center's work and a detailed outline of the new process from Johnson, the public hearing began. Gunn spoke first

"Since Calhoun is not a local boy, he's from the state of South Carolina," Gunn said. "I think we should send him back."

Seven spoke in favor of changing the square, and three spoke in opposition.

David Tootle argued that Calhoun was not honored because of his views on slavery, but for his stature as a founder of a fledgling nation, a war hero.

“Calhoun’s name wasn’t put there because of his stance on slavery, it was put there because was a hero of the War of 1812, a champion of the Alamo. And the other argument as well, he wasn’t from Savannah, wasn’t from Georgia," Tootle said, turning to Gunn. "Lafayette was from France, should we send him back from France?”

Carol Teasley, in opposition, took a legal angle in her opposition, asking city council to follow the rules laid out in the city code for renaming a public space, and not circumventing the process,

To rename a square requires 51% support of all neighbors who own abutting properties, and the Center for Jubilee has had a hard time keeping above that threshold long enough for the action to get on a Historic Sites and Monuments Commission agenda, the first step in the formal renaming process.

A group in opposition to the change have been counterpetitioning the square's neighbors, going as far as to email the city signed letters from those neighbors rescinding their signatures. But Johnson said prior to Thursday's hearing he hadn't met "anybody" who wants to keep Calhoun's name on the square.

"I have not heard from anybody who says that they felt that John C. Calhoun was representative of a person who we would want to honor, someone who has no connection to the city of Savannah or to Georgia, someone who was a purveyor of slavery, and really set the mindset for slavery in this country," Johnson said. "I didn't hear anybody say, 'Well, you know, I think we need to leave his name on the square.'"

What Johnson has heard, he said, was that neighbors felt the renaming process had not been inclusive, hence his recommendation of renaming the square at an undefined later date, after collecting more public input.

But Teasley challenged Johnson, saying she had sent the city a package of items that strongly indicated opposition. She asked council about the Historic Sites and Monuments Commission's recommendation. That board never reviewed the renaming petition because the Center for Jubilee, Reconciliation and Freedom fell short of the 51% threshold of neighbor support.

"That package contains a petition of 400 signatures of those opposed to the renaming, and an accounting of the signatures," Teasley said. "Additionally, I’m unable to find the recommendation of the Historic Sites and Monuments Commission for presentation to you and the council."

Still pushing for Susie King Taylor

Should council decide to remove Calhoun’s name, there will likely be a time where the square is just “The square formerly known as Calhoun,” as Johnson put it.

Gunn and Rouse continue to push for a new name: That of Susie King Taylor, a Savannah icon.

Taylor was born to enslaved parents in Midway in 1848, received a formal education from two secret schools taught by Black women, and went on to be an educator herself. After the Civil War in 1866, she and her husband returned to Savannah, where she opened a fee-based school for Black children on what is now Oglethorpe Avenue.

But with city council now taking up the action, Gunn says they’re turning their efforts towards advocating for Taylor Square as council considers options for a future name.

"In the post civil rights era, that I was in back in the '70s and '80s, I saw them do three things to be successful: agitate, educate, organize. I think we're at the education point," Gunn said. "And I think that Susie King Taylor being among the other [potential new names for the square], that's fine. I think we get a chance to educate people. So if they want to put other names in, that's fine, let's do it, but I think that they will all fall in love with Susie King Taylor."

Gunn says the coalition will be mobilizing around honoring Taylor through petitions and outreach campaigns like their "Come Sunday" events held in Calhoun and Whitefield Squares. The last time they met publicly was Oct. 13, when they handed out shirts with Taylor's image and the words "Say her name" printed on them.

Will Peebles is the City Council and County Commission reporter for Savannah Morning News, covering local Savannah and Chatham County decisions. He can be reached at wpeebles@savannahnow.com or on Twitter @willpeeblesSMN

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah Council hears public on removing Calhoun's name from square