Taylor Square Foundation

Thursday, December 11th at The Otis S. Johnson, Ph.D. Cultural Arts Center

‘The Making of Taylor Square©️’ film documentary.6

6pm doors | 7pm screening

Followed by Q&A with Sistah Patt Gunn, Coalition Members and filmmakers

Synopsis

Gullah Geechee Truth-Teller Sistah Patt Gunn leads a diverse Coalition in a

three-year battle to rename Savannah’s Calhoun Square — once honoring

pro-slavery advocate John C. Calhoun — after Susie King Taylor, a Civil War nurse,

educator, and formerly enslaved woman. Despite legal barriers and opposition, the

film chronicles a community’s resilience and determination to reclaim history.

Hindsight Film Festival is proud to present this half-hour documentary by local

director Caroline Josey Karoki and producer Abbey Hoekzema, who dutifully

captured the ups and downs of this story as it unfolded. Many Savannah residents

attended the jubilant dedication ceremony last year, and now the rousing backstory

will be presented on the big screen, followed by an in-depth conversation with the

filmmakers and the stars of the film.

$10 at door or in advance. Purchase tickets at:

https://www.hindsightfilmfestival.com/special-events

For Sistah Patt Gunn, the fight for the square was deeply personal, rooted in a memory from childhood. What was then Calhoun Square was a place where she waited for her mother and aunt after they finished work at a nearby Methodist church.

“I would wait in that square,” she recounted, speaking of the segregation she experienced in 1967, just a year before the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. She remembers having to approach the door of the corner confectionery store, write a note, and wait for a white person to come and purchase an item for her.

“Just a real memory of sitting in this square and reflecting on segregation, and how in the 21st century we would get an opportunity to change the name of the square was to change the energy around here,” Gunn stated.

That opportunity came in the form of a three-year push by her coalition, which faced legal barriers and administrative hurdles. Initially, Gunn and her group were legally right in their application. Still, the advice was to follow the city’s intricate path—through the Park, Street, and Zoning departments—to secure the victory permanently.

“We were right from the very beginning,” Gunn noted. “So it was recommended to go with the process... so that when you go through that process, and you go forward, you cannot have somebody to come back later and take the name off of the square”.

Gunn stressed that the sheer complexity required collective work. She highlighted the vital role of diversity in the campaign, commending those who stood with them: “I want to highlight these brave neighbors around the square and the bright and the brave downtown churches that were white that say we need to stand up with this one. There were so many people from all walks of life who helped.” The unified effort proved successful, with the City Council’s final vote on the renaming being unanimous.

Director Caroline Josey Karoki, whose team also included producer and editor Abbey Hoekzema and director of photography Evan Griffith, admitted that she, like many, did not know the full impact of Susie King Taylor when she first took on the project. Karoki, an independent filmmaker, saw the renaming battle as an essential story, calling it a “no-brainer to bring to the forefront”.

“It was an honor to witness and document,” Karoki said. “And now the world will see not just Savannah and learn about her [Susie King], but learn about this advocate [Sistah Gunn], this grassroots leader here in Savannah doing the work that most people are afraid to do”.

Karoki noted that a major challenge in documenting Black history is the lack of preserved archival material. She found the difficulty when searching for historical images of Taylor, stating, “We have that one that’s repetitive.”

“In a city that’s again known for preservation, in a city that’s been known for archival material stories, people who made an impact, it’s not inclusive,” Karoki said.

The renaming of the square is linked to a larger, ongoing mission by Sistah Patt Gunn and others to correct Savannah’s sanitized historical narrative. Gunn’s advocacy for “truth telling” was ignited when she took a tour as a returning resident and was appalled by the omissions.

She recalled one tour guide who gave a mere “20 seconds of information on slavery.“ Even worse was an “Emancipation Walk” she attended that treated the city’s dark history with what felt like a “romanticizing comedy.” She vividly remembered a comment that generated laughter: “Yes, yes, we had slavery, but we made a lot of money,“ the tour guide said.

“That was the actual straw that broke the camel’s back,” Gunn said, which led her to discover a wealth of municipal archives on slavery that had simply “not been told” and had been “totally redacted” from the public narrative.

Sister Roz, who was also on the tour, felt the same heartbreak. “I witnessed that. It broke my heart, like, as if it were just some type of romanticizing comedy,” she said.

For both women, their current work—Gunn’s tours, Roz’s re-enactments, and the successful renaming of the square—is about making sure the full, painful, and ultimately triumphant history of their people is known.

The documentary, “The Making of Taylor Square,” which runs 25 minutes, will be screened at the Otis S. Johnson Cultural Arts Center on Thursday, December 11, at 7 p.m. and will be followed by an in-depth conversation with Sistah Patt Gunn, coalition members, and the filmmakers. It stands as a testament to the power of a community to honor its past and shape a more inclusive future.

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