Oral history interview with Floyd Adams, August 16, 2002
Subtitle: interview R-0168, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Contributors: Taylor, Kieran Walsh, interviewer; Southern Oral History Program; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South (Project); University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library
Edition: Electronic ed.
Publisher: University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill
Published: 2007
Place of publication: [Chapel Hill, N.C.]
Language: eng
Subjects: Interviews; African American civic leaders; Urban renewal; African American neighborhoods; African Americans; Social conditions; Economic conditions; City planning; Race relations
Other titles: Interview R-0168, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007); Interview with Floyd Adams, August 16, 2002; Oral histories of the American South.
Description: Floyd Adams Jr., the son of a newspaper publisher, grew up known as "Little Press Boy" in Savannah, Georgia. Adams followed his father into the publishing business, taking control of the Savannah Herald, the paper his father had published since 1949. He also found success in politics, becoming Savannah's first African-American mayor in 1996 and winning reelection in 1999. In 2007, he failed in his attempt to win a third term. Adams does not discuss his political or journalistic career in this interview; instead, he describes the destruction of Currytown, a black neighborhood in Savannah that fell prey to urban renewal. The project swept out black businesses, allowing white investors to take their places; it razed black churches; and it forced out middle-class black Savannans, replacing their homes with public housing projects. He also describes contemporary urban renewal projects that, with input from community members, promised to be less destructive to Savannah's African Americans. This interview offers researchers insights to the history of African Americans in Savannah and some reflections on the complex task of keeping a city healthy.
Notes: Title from menu page (viewed on Nov. 14, 2008).

Interview participants: Floyd Adams, interviewee; Kieran Taylor, interviewer.

Duration: 01:03:11.

This electronic edition is part of the UNC-Chapel Hill digital library, Documenting the American South.  It is a part of the collection Oral histories of the American South.

Text encoded by Jennifer Joyner.  Sound recordings digitized by Aaron Smithers.

Text (HTML and XML/TEI source file) and audio (MP3); 2 files: ca. 113.1 kilobytes, 115 megabytes.

Original version: Southern Oral History Program Collection, (#4007), Series R, Special research projects, interview R-0168, Manuscripts Department, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Transcribed by L. Altizer. Original transcript: 21 p.

Funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this interview.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements:  Web browser with Javascript enabled and multimedia player.