Abstract of an interview with Prince A. Jackson, Jr.

Benjamin Von Clark Neighborhood Documentation Project
Neighborhood Oral History Project
Savannah Department of Cultural Affairs
Oral History # 15
Prince A Jackson, Jr.
June 23, 2003
Savannah, Georgia
Dr. Prince A. Jackson, Jr. is a retiree, former president of Savannah State University, and currently,
president of the Savannah Chapter of the NAACP.
The following is an abslract of the interview, for a complete recording of the interview please see the
corresponding cassette tape:
I was born March 17, 1925, to Mr. & Mrs. Prince A Jackson, Sr. My father was a native of
South Carolina, and my mother was a Savannahian. I was born on 124 Randolph Slreet. Afterwards,
we moved to 124 Arnold Slreet, and then to 124 Reynolds Street until I enlisted in the Navy in the midforties. I was born and raised in the "Old Fort" neighborhood that bordered on part of Wheaton Street.
The Fort neighborhood was named "The Forf' because it was in the shadows of Fort McAllister. In our
neighborhood, in the Fort, we called Wheaton Street "Out the Road." There was a high density of black
Catholics in the "Old Forf' neighborhood where black and some whites lived. Many black parents
struggled to get their children enrolled in St. Benedict the Moor black Catholic school so they could get
a quality education. Many of those black children were converted to Catholicism because of the positive
influence of the white Irish Missionary Franciscan nuns.
The part of the Fort neighborhood on Wheaton Street was at the eastern and southern part of
it. The Fort neighborhood started on Bay Slreet to Liberty Slreet to Wheaton Street. We all grew up in
the vicinity of the current Ben Van Clark Neighborhood. 'Tin City' was east of Randolph Slreet, and
black people who could not pay rent built housed made of corrugated tin, and had floors covered with
cardboard. They cooked ovar wood fires. It was God's grace that a hurricane did not come and blow
their homes away. It was mostly black people who lived in the Fort neighborhood towards Reynolds
and East Broad Street to Houston Slreet. Some whites also lived in the areas around Green Square on
Houston Street, and they were Irish Catholics. I grew up from boyhood to adulthood with many whites
who lived in that area.
Many white Irish Catholics attended the predominantly black St. Benedict the Moor Church like
the Duloherys'. Every Sunday many Irish Catholics went to St. Benedict's as their main parish church. I
remember when I was a little boy, after my Confirmation, the Dean of the College of Cardinals from the
Vatican in Rome, Italy, visited Bishop Gerald 0' Hara, bishop of Savannah. Bishop O'Hara was well
thought of by the Vatican, and many Catholic Church dignitaries from Rome visited him over the years.
They would visit the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist first, and St. Benedict the Moor Church would
always be the next Catholic Church to visit in their itinerary. St. Patrick's was a Catholic church on
Liberty and West Broad Street that was the church of many white Irish Catholics in Savannah. Today,
the statue of St. Patrick in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist came from the St. Patrick Catholic
Church, which was torn down years ago. The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist is the only Catholic
church in Savannah that is older that the black St. Benedict the Moor Church which was established in
187 4 by Benedictine Monks.
Page2 of2 August 27, 2003
My recollections about Wheaton Street and the Ben Van Clark Neighborhood are many.
Charlie Johnson, Jr., lived on Wheaton Street. There were many dirt streets in that area like Live Oak,
and Park Avenue off Rockefeller. Wilton C. Scott lived on a" Street. Walter Leonard's (he later became
president of Fisk University and attended Savannah State College for a time) future wife lived on
Wheaton Street. I remember that most of the people lived in decent housing. Rachel Edwards Thomas
(she married Henton Thomas who also lived on Wheaton Street), her sister, Rebecca, and her brother
Price Edwards, all lived on Wheaton Street. Crawford (he taught school for many years at S.M.
Tompkins High School and William Bryant (retired from the U.S. Postal Service) were brothers who
grew up on East Gwinnett Street in the Ben Van Clark Neighborhood. The left side of Wheaton Street
going east was all woods. The Perrys, a prominent black family of educators, lived on East Gwinnett
Street in the heart of the Ben Van Clark Neighborhood in the mid-twentieth century. Thelma Perry
became a well-known judge in Washington, D.C.
James Wiley, a famous Savannah musician and black pioneer in local commercial radio, and
Mattie Bell Wiley, his sister, lived East Gwinnett Street. Mattie Bell Wiley Brannen's son, Charles, was a
veteran public school educator and historian at Sophronia M. Tompkins High School, before retiring. He
now lives in New Jersey. Harry Ladson, a retired postman, and his brother, lived on East Gwinnett
Street. Walter J. Bogan originally lived on Harmon and Gwinnett Streets in the Ben Van Clark
Neighborhood, but later moved to 716 Waters Avenue near St. Paul Baptist Church. He was a maker
of man as he gave many of us young men jobs at the Savannah Morning News where he was a very
respected employee. His daughters Mary, Catherine, and Connie retired and came back to live in
Savannah. Many blacks, including the Colleys, lived on Waters Avenue. Concentrations of whites could
be found northwest and east of Waters Avenue.
I bought my current house at 1215 East Duffy Street, which is in the heart of the Ben Van Clark
Neighborhood, in 1967. We were the second black family to move into this all white neighborhood. The
man who sold me my house was a Mr. Razik who was Lebanese and a Catholic. He told me he left the
neighborhood because the whites there constantly degraded and talked badly about black people, and
he could no longer stand the racism. He said he decided to sell his house to a decent black Catholic
family. Currently, in my neighborhood, there are a few white families. Mrs. Alnutt of the Alnutt Music
Company family lived across the street from me until she died fifteen years ago in 1988.
-End of interviewAbstract prepared by:
Charles J. Elmore
Project Historian