LISTEN: Patt Gunn, co-founder of the Savannah-based Susie King Taylor Center for Jubilee, told GPB Morning Edition host Pamela Kirkland about the importance of Taylor's legacy in Georgia and beyond.
A public square in downtown Savannah was recently renamed after Susie King Taylor, a formerly enslaved educator and nurse. A granite marker to reflect the history of its name change was installed there in February.
Now, Liberty County plans to mark the 162nd anniversary of Taylor's escape during an event Saturday in her Coastal Georgia hometown of Midway.
The Susie King Taylor Women's Institute and Ecology Center hosts the Escape to Freedom Annual Celebration on April 13 at 3 p.m. The free public commemoration takes place at Jones Creek Park and features speeches, music, and dance presentations.
At the Taylor Square naming in Savannah in February, Patt Gunn, co-founder of the Savannah-based Susie King Taylor Center for Jubilee talked to GPB about the impact of Taylor's legacy on her own life.
"It was a moment that warmed my very soul," Gunn said. "I sat in that square [formerly known as John C. Calhoun Square after the former U.S. vice president from South Carolina who was a supporter of slavery] when I was 10 years old and waited for my mother, who was a cook across the street. And in the early '60s, I would have to write a note and ask someone white, 'Can you please bring me this refreshment?' And so here I stood 55 years later, in a square that we were able to change the name to something that now feels good."
