- Collection:
- Oral histories of the American South (Georgia selections)
- Title:
- Oral history interview with Floyd Adams, August 16, 2002
- Creator:
- Adams, Floyd, 1945-
- Contributor to Resource:
- Taylor, Kieran Walsh
Southern Oral History Program - Date of Original:
- 2002-08-16
- Subject:
- African American civic leaders--Georgia--Savannah
Urban renewal--Georgia--Savannah
African American neighborhoods--Georgia--Savannah
African Americans--Georgia--Savannah--Social conditions
Savannah (Ga.)--Economic conditions
City planning--Georgia--Savannah
Savannah (Ga.)--Race relations - People:
- Adams, Floyd, 1945-
- Location:
- United States, Georgia, Chatham County, Savannah, 32.08354, -81.09983
- Medium:
- transcripts
sound recordings
oral histories (literary works) - Type:
- Sound
Text - Description:
- Floyd Adams Jr., the son of a newspaper publisher, grew up known as "Little Press Boy" in Savannah, Georgia. Adams followed his father into the publishing business, taking control of the Savannah Herald, the paper his father had published since 1949. He also found success in politics, becoming Savannah's first African American mayor in 1996 and winning reelection in 1999. In 2007, he failed in his attempt to win a third term. Adams does not discuss his political or journalistic career in this interview; instead, he describes the destruction of Currytown, a black neighborhood in Savannah that fell prey to urban renewal. The project swept out black businesses, allowing white investors to take their places; it razed black churches; and it forced out middle-class black Savannans, replacing their homes with public housing projects. He also describes contemporary urban renewal projects that, with input from community members, promised to be less destructive to Savannah's African Americans. This interview offers researchers insights to the history of African Americans in Savannah and some reflections on the complex task of keeping a city healthy.
Title from menu page (viewed on Nov. 14, 2008).
Interview participants: Floyd Adams, interviewee; Kieran Taylor, interviewer.
This electronic edition is part of the UNC-Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South. It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.
Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner. Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.
The Civil Rights Digital Library received support from a National Leadership Grant for Libraries awarded to the University of Georgia by the Institute of Museum and Library Services for the aggregation and enhancement of partner metadata. - Metadata URL:
- http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/R-0168/menu.html
- Language:
- eng
- Extent:
- Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 113.1 kilobytes, 115 megabytes.
(MP3 format / ca. 115 MB, 01:03:11 - Contributing Institution:
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
- Rights:
-
