In order to realize the establishment of a W. W. Law Research and Preservation Center, the W. W. Law Foundation and its Board of Directors has created a plan that is both forward looking and ambitious.

The W. W. Law Research and Preservation Center grows out of three decades of Law’s historic preservation contributions through Savannah-Yamacraw Branch Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). During his twenty-year tenure as president, ASALH labored to document the rich history of Savannah’s slave descendants, forged the creation of African American historic preservation and established black tourism in the city.

Upon passing in July 2002, W. W. Law entrusted for the benefit of his beloved Savannah, a voluminous collection to long-time friend and supporter Remer K. Pendergraph. Pendergraph worked and collaborated with W. W. Law in building Savannah’s three landmark African American institutions. As Law’s apprentice, Pendergraph’s vision is to build an institution to celebrate and continue the work of the city’s ultimate institution builder. To this end Pendergraph established the W. W. Law Foundation as a fund raising vehicle to create the W. W. Law Research and Preservation Center. The Foundation was included in the 2003-08 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) Referendum for $908,000 of the $5 million needed to complete the project.

The W. W. Law Research and Preservation Center is working on a plan to share space with Savannah’s Visitors Center in the midst of the newly renovated Revolutionary Battlefield Park. The Battlefield Park’s international emphasis correspondence with W. W. Law’s long-standing campaign to recognize the siege of Savannah as the site of the largest number of blacks to participate in any Revolutionary War battle. For more than seven million annual visitors to the city, the Center’s pivotal location is ideally situated to identify Savannah’s hidden treasures, its African American historic and cultural offerings.

The W. W. Law Research and Preservation Center addresses an unfilled need not met by any other institutions. Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum focuses on Savannah’s civil rights movement and the many unsung heroes of that period. King Tisdale-Cottage is a house museum that reflects the material culture of turn of the century black middle class Savannah. The Beach Institute building was the first school erected to educate Freedmen in the aftermath of the Civil War; today it serves to highlight the artistic, cultural and intellectual expressions of African Americans. Savannah State University, an 1890 land grant institution, has an archive with a focus on its own institutional history and primarily utilized by its students, faculty and researchers. The newly renovated Carnegie branch, created by seven African American men for Savannah’s segregated black community, is reestablishing its African American reference and children’s collection, in addition to assuming the role of technology center for Live Oak Public Libraries. The Georgia Historical Society recent privatization requires patrons to pay a fee to access most collections. While Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum offers excellent exhibits highlighting Savannah’s civil rights history, it has not created a library or an archive to provide patrons with supporting documentation on Savannah’s civil rights history. Moreover, it would be outside of its mission and capabilities to handle the wide range of materials contained in the W. W. Law collection. Both the King-Tisdale Cottage and Beach Institute are on the periphery of the historic district and will benefit from the Research and Preservation Center’s centralized location and commitment to W. W. Law’s vision of African American institutions like a string of pearls.

When opened, the W.W. Law Research and Preservation Center promises to offer “Low Country” citizens an impressive collection of art, artifacts, memorabilia and manuscripts. Over the last half of the twentieth century the people of Savannah entrusted W.W. Law with their valuable historic possessions. These donations coupled with W.W. Law’s stunning collection, will allow Savannah an unparallel opportunity to understand itself in both a penetrating and pervasive way. It also promises to allow visitors to Georgia’s first city, a unique glimpse into the special experience that is Savannah.