Renaming the bridge 'from one racist to another racist’
Editor,
The General Assembly is strongly thinking of renaming the bridge after Juliette Gordon Low. I am an African American woman living in the city of Savannah and I personally feel that naming the bridge after Low would be an insult to the Black community.
Many Black people would remain silent on this issue because we have been conditioned not to hurt white folks’ feelings. However, I am going to stand against this name because it adds salt to the old scars of racism.
The reason Governor Eugene Talmadge’s name is being removed from the bridge is because he was an open and violent racist. However, many white folks would never considered themselves to be like Talmadge but they are.
They are called covert racist which mean they are racist but not open. They don’t run around and call Black people the n-word in public but they exclude them from their social clubs and deny them full justice under the law.
Juliette Low fits the description as a covert racist. She did not go around supporting the KKK but she never allowed Blacks to join the Girl Scouts. Low started the first Girl Scout Troop in 1912 but Blacks were not allowed.
A separate group was started for Black girls in 1917.The first Black President of the Girl Scouts was elected in 1975 long after Low had died.
Juliette Low’s father in law Andrew Low was one of the most notorious slave owners in the world. He made all his wealth off the destruction of Black human lives.
Andrew Low carried millions of dollars’ worth of cotton from Savannah to Liverpool in 1857. Juliette Low’s family also was in association with many men who served in the Confederate War.
Moreover, Low met and became friends with Colonel Baden Powell who was the founder of the Boys Scout. He was involved with the execution of many Africans to take control of the abundance of gold in Angola.
If that’s not enough to make white people rethink naming the bridge after Low, then this information may change your mind and heart. Juliette Low’s father William Washington Low was a cotton broker with the firm Tison which was later changed to WW Gordon and Company.
Low’s father purchased and sold slaved and shipped them to England to be mistreated by the King of low desires. In addition, her father was a loyal member of the Confederate States Army.
Low’s inherited much of her father’s bloodstain money from the inhuman treatment of Black enslaved people. She also was awarded money from her dreadful husband who also inherited money from his bloodthirsty father who owned and sold human beings as chattels.
Now, would it be logical to take the name off the bridge because Talmadge was an open racist and replace it with Low who was a covert or undercover racist?
Low made all her money and enjoyed a privileged life until the day she died off of illegal slave money. If Low was at all concerned for Black people, she would have opened up the Girls Scouts to include little Black girls.
Moreover, the proceeds from her father’s and husband’s money from their heavy involvement in the slave trade should have gone into a trust for education, hospitals and decent homes for the children of the slaves her family sold.
Juliette Gordon Low does not deserve for her name to go on the bridge because she stands toe to toe with racist Governor Eugene Talmadge.
They both shared the same racist ideology — they just took different routes to get to their plantation.
Marilyn Jackson
