On Thursday, May 25, 2023, the Georgia Historical Society (GHS) unveiled a new Georgia Civil Rights Trail historical marker in Savannah recognizing political and civic leader Mamie George Williams. GHS dedicated the new marker in partnership with the League of Women Voters of Coastal Georgia, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. - Savannah Alumnae Chapter, and The Savannah Tribune.

“The Mamie George Williams historical marker is the newest marker included on GHS’s Georgia Civil Rights Trail,” said Elyse Butler, GHS Marker Manager. “The marker highlights the life and accomplishments of Williams, an African-American political and civic leader who fought for women’s suffrage. This new historical marker is located in Savannah’s Dixon Park neighborhood, where Williams lived and worked.”

The marker joins over 50 historical markers across the state that make up GHS’s Georgia Civil Rights Trail, an initiative that uses historical markers to document the struggle for human and civil rights from the period following Reconstruction to the modern movement in the mid twentieth century.

A lifelong resident of Savannah, Mamie George Williams was active in the community for over three decades, volunteering for organizations such as the Red Cross, the Girl Scouts, and the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs. After becoming a suffragist, Williams entered politics. She organized voter campaigns and registered African-American women to vote in the 1920 presidential election. Although the 19th Amendment passed that year, Georgia women were precluded from voting until 1922, and African-American women did not gain suffrage until the passage of the Federal Voting Rights Act in 1965. Despite these challenges and those she faced due to Jim Crow laws, she continued in politics, and in 1924 Williams was appointed to serve on the Republican National Committee.

The marker unveiling took place at Dixon Park, across the street from Carnegie Library, at 537 East Henry Street in Savannah. Speakers at the dedication included Velma Maia Thomas Fann, historian and marker applicant; Breana James, Historical Marker and Program Coordinator, Georgia Historical Society; Chassidy Malloy, President, League of Women Voters of Coastal Georgia; Elaine Shavers Campbell, Chapter President, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. – Savannah Alumnae Chapter; Shirley Barber James, Publisher, The Savannah Tribune; and Shannon Browning-Mullis, Executive Director, Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace. Four local youths performed a theatrical reading titled “I am Mamie George Williams”: Trinity Allen, Delta GEMS, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. – Savannah Alumnae Chapter; Paris Wilson, Girl Scout, Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia, Sycamore Service Unit, Troop 30002; Abigail Gregory, The Savannah Tribune; and Nia Conley, Summer Bonanza Partnership.