Ralph Mark Gilbert compiled a directory of African-American-owned Savannah businesses in 1952 (housed at Georgia Historical Society). Here I have removed two categories he included (social workers and teachers) and mapped all the rest using Mapbox. This map is interactive–click on the markers to see the street address, business name, business type (using Gilbert’s categories), and owner. Several of the locations are appearing outside of Savannah, most likely due to street names changing since 1952. Several others are incorrectly placed–Thunderbolt Road, City Market and other non-precise addresses are skewing oddly, for instance. In the future, I will correct that, but wanted to share the map here as it stands. Data transcription by graduate student Brittany Speller.
