Benjamin Van Clark Neighborhood Documentation Project
Neighborhood Oral History Project
Savannah Department of Cultural Affairs
Oral History# 23
Ronald Battle
[NAMES REMOVED FOR PRIVACY]
September 25, 2003
Savannah, Georgia
PORTIONS OF THIS ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW ARE RESTRICTED AND HAVE BEEN
DELETED FROM THIS COPY.
LS: Today is September 25, 2003. This is Luciana Spracher, project historian for the Benjamin
Van Clark Neighborhood Documentation Project for the City of Savannah's Department of
Cultural Affairs. I am speaking with Ronald Battle, resident of the neighborhood, at his private
residence in Savannah, Georgia. Now Mr. Battle, were putting together a social history and
we are focusing on three themes that have affected the neighborhood. The first theme,
transportation, because the streetcars that ran out here really got the neighborhood started,
the second is desegregation and how the population has shifted during the twentieth century,
and the third is the revitalization being spurred right now by the HOPE VI project where
Garden Homes used to be. So those are the three themes, but first what I want to know is just
some background about you and when you moved here. So let me start by asking you what
your full name is including your middle name?
RB: My name is Ronald Lee Battle.
LS: Lee?
RB: Ronald Lee Battle.
LS: Okay. Could you please state your birthday and place of birth?
RB: 5-13-54, Brighton, Alabama, Brighton, Alabama.
LS: Okay. What is your current address, or if you are not comfortable, the block and street you live
on?
RB: My current address is 1219 East Duffy Street, Savannah, Georgia 31404, Ben Van Clark
Neighborhood.
LS: Okay. When did you move to this house?
RB: I can't give you a good idea, I was about thirteen, I don't know what year that was.
[unintelligible[.
LS: Okay, so obviously your parents bought the house?
RB: Yes they did.
LS: Do you know why they chose to move to this house?
Page2of11 April1, 2004
RB: Yes, first we moved out the East Village, I was about thirteen I think, we moved out of an
apartment. And the house around there, in fact they wanted to buy it, but the man refused, he
said he just wanted to rent it. So moved around here, because we could buy this house.
Because they got about six-thousand dollars in it.
LS: Do you remember who they bought it from?
RB: No. I really don't, I just know that they was Jewish. I can't remember his name though.
LS: Okay. So it was a white residence before you moved here?
RB: Yes.
LS: Were most of the residences on this block white?
RB: Yeah, on this street everyone was white from Waters on back, to um, the projects down here.
The projects were white too. So we were the first blacks to move on this street. And in fact,
the little boys down the street used to yell, "Mama, here the come niggers, here come the
niggersl" But we never had no problems out of anyone though when we moved in.
LS: So you felt comfortable?
RB: Yes, it [unintelligible). The house Miss Jackson lives in was a white family, but one of the other
families was Puerto Ricans.
LS: Okay.
RB: In the house next to them.
LS: At any point did you leave the neighborhood?
RB: I went into the military for about two years, and then I lived down there for a couple of years. I
came back home around the eighties. But I've been here most of my life, in this house most of
my life. I grew up in this house, in fact my daughter lives here and she has the same bedroom
I grew up in [unintelligible].
LS: Okay. So, you were coming back to Savannah anyway, so you moved back here or did this
house and this neighborhood bring you back?
RB: No, the fact is I couldn't really get a job in Atlanta, I planned to retire here, so ...
LS: Okay. Can I ask what your parents' names were?
RB: Adrian Battle and Jill Battle.
LS: Battle. And what did they do for a living?
RB: My father worked in the hotel industry, a waiter and a bellhop most of his life.
LS: Was he at one particular hotel?
RB: No, he moved around, he was at the Manger, [unintelligible].
LS: Okay, and your mother stayed at home?
RB: No, she was a nurse at Memorial Hospital.
Page3of11 April1, 2004
LS: Okay. What about any siblings?
RB: Yes, I have five sisters and brothers that lived in this house with me. [unintelligible] But four of
us grew up in this house together.
LS: So it was a pretty full house then?
RB: Yes, it was full.
LS: Since you pretty much grew up in this neighborhood, where did you go to school?
RB: Spencer Elementary School, and I went to Johnson High School for about two years, and then
they integrated so I had to go to Savannah High School.
LS: How did you feel about that?
RB: Oh, I didn't like it, 'cause I hadn't been around white people, and I didn't know how to act and
anything, so I was a real loner. It was more, I think more white people than black people. But,
and I missed the things I did at the black high school, because I had been in a black band, and
I had to go and get in a white band. It was much different and I didn't like it.
LS: Okay, so it was a hard transition ...
RB: It was a hard transition.
LS: At the end of high school. Tell me a little bit about Spencer, was it a fairly new school when
you went there?
RB: Yeah, it was fairly new, it was a fairly new school. The principal was Miss Lovett, I think I still
I was in the second grade when I came here. I had a tough time when I came here, the
educational system in Alabama was not as good as the one in Georgia at that time. I learned
to read when I came here. We walked to school, we walked to school.
LS: From here down to Wheaton Street?
RB: No, no, I was living in Hitch Village at that time. We walked, we walked back and forth to
school. We never had problems or anything like that. So it was a good school.
LS: Okay. How long did you live in Hitch Village?
RB: From age six to twelve I guess. [unintelligible] I was in the sixth grade when I graduated. I
graduated from Spencer and the next year we moved onto Park Avenue, and we was there
about a year and then we moved around here.
LS: Do you have any memories of Hitch Village?
RB: Hitch Village, it was nice down there at that time. We were glad to get there. We came from
Alabama, we lived in a poor neighborhood in Alabama, and we were struggling, so we went
from bad to good. It was real clean down there. There were some good people that lived
there, and we were really glad to get there, and it was clean and we played, the children
played together. There wasn't gang shootings or anything like there is now, it was just a nice
neighborhood.
LS: So, now did you raise your daughter here?
Page 4 of 11 April 1 , 2004
RB: Yes, she's nine years old. She's been with me for three years. I raise her here, yes.
LS: Where does she go to school?
RB: She goes to school at East Broad Elementary School.
LS: Okay, and she gets the bus takes her out there.
RB: No, I take her, its right on East Broad Street, I take her every morning.
LS: Okay. When you were growing up, tell me about playing. Did you go to the parks, did you
play on the streets, who did you play with?
RB: Around here, I was a teenager when I first moved around here. I don't have a recollection of
playing with anyone in this area. I was in high school, there wasn't too much playing, there
was more going to band practice or either working. That was it, going to band practice and
working, I don't remember playing with people.
LS: Okay. Since you were really in high school, the civil rights movement really effected you
obviously because you switched high schools, could we talk a little bit more about that period?
What was going on in the neighborhood, were the students that were involved in the civil rights
movement in Savannah?
RB: No, cause when I was growing up I knew very little about civil rights, in fact, that was one of the
things I was struggling with when I had to switch high schools, cause I had very little contact
with white people, period. I grew up in Hitch Village, and l[unintelligible]. I had very little
interaction with them, and the only real interaction I had was when I went to Savannah High
School. I had black kids in elementary school and when I got to high school [unintelligible].
Cause I was in the band with some of them. No problems, there was no problems, as far as
race relations or anything, it was normal relationship. But, I had no close friends or anything
like that. It was the first time I had ever been around white people. But there was no racial
fighting or anything like that, I think there was one incident where there was a fight at school
but that was it.
LS: Were you involved in any type of civil rights protests?
RB: No, not at all. In fact, the only time I ever remember hearing about Martin Luther King was
when he got assassinated, cause his funeral was on T.V., you know. But I knew very little
about it at that period of time. I do remember that they had the, I think they had a march on
Washington. There were marches that came through Savannah, we went to see people at
churches, that's the only thing I remember.
LS: Okay, just on a very personal level, it was the transition for you from - to Savannah High
School?
RB: That's the only time I remember coming into contact with white kids.
LS: Let me ask you, how did you feel, how do you feel about Garden Homes when it was still in
operation? Did you have any interaction with people from Garden Homes?
RB: No, I had no problems with Garden Homes, I always wanted it tore down. It was an eyesore to
me. The people down there, I had no problems with them. I didn't go through there that often.
It was dead end street. I didn't have no problems with them, it was just a housing project. I
had no problem with it, I just thought that something better could be done wilh it. I was glad
when they tore it down, and I'll be glad to see something put there. I didn't have any problem
Page 5 of 11 April 1 , 2004
with people down there as far as crime goes. I never had nobody broke him my house or
anything.
LS: Okay. How do you feel about the HOPE VI project that is going to introduce mixed income
housing?
RB: I can't wait for it to happen, you know, for the redevelopment, see it in my lifetime. I think it
would be good for the neighborhood, though I know it will probably make the property taxes
higher. I'm just glad to see something nice put up down there.
LS: Okay, so you're optimistic about it?
RB: Yeah, I'm optimistic.
LS: Okay. When you moved to this area what did you call, because at that time it wasn't Benjamin
Van Clark?
RB: What do you call anything, we just called it the Eastside. That just came up I'd say in the last
ten years, that they call it Midtown. This was just known as the Eastside, far as my knowledge.
They just been saying Midtown in the last few years, I've been hearing people say Midtown.
LS: Okay, so in high school when people asked you 'Where do you live?" you would say on the
Eastside?
RB: I would say Eastside.
LS: Okay, let me just ask you generally what changes you've noticed in the neighborhood, maybe
population, maybe businesses, architecture, that you might want to comment on?
RB: Architecture, I noticed there is a [unintelligible], that I think is due to Savannah College of Art
and Design, students come in here and see that there's a nice quality of living in the Savannah
area period, and the housing here is cheap, and there are a lot of houses that can be bought in
this neighborhood, and renovated, and these kids come here and they see that this is a real
good opportunity for real estate and they take advantage of it. And they tell their parents and
other people and they come here and they take advantage of it.
[REMOVED SECTION]
LS: Do you think that helps or hurts the neighborhood?
RB: I think it helps, it helps the neighborhood, cause other people here aren't taking advantage of it
and they probably don't have the financing to do it., I think it's good for the neighborhood, I
want to see it develop. I mean, I'm sorry whites come in, and can take advantage of it, I would
like to see blacks take advantage of it. But rather than just let it go, I want to see someone
take advantage of the situation.
LS: Okay.
[REMOVED SECTION]
LS: Let me ask you Mr. Battle, is there anything you would like to add about your experiences in
this neighborhood or about growing up here?
RB: No. It's a good neighborhood. I tell you, it's turning, it's turning, its good. My street is a good
street, but the neighborhood itself is getting crime ridden, cause a little boy about fourteen
years old was killed not too far from here awhile back, must have been about a month ago,
Page 6 of 11 April1, 2004
and there's been several other killings, not in Benjamin Van Clark Park per se but in that area,
and I just hope it stops, and I want people who are going to move in and take care of it,
because I want it to be safe for me and my daughter, and the residents that live around here.
LS: Okay.
[REMOVED SECTION)
LS: Okay. Well, unless anybody has anything they would like to add, no. I'd like to thank you all
very much, you've been very helpful.
-End of interviewTranscript prepared by:
Luciana M. Spracher
Project Histortan