By CAROLYN CARY

Contributing Writer

In culmination of Black History Month, the Holly Grove A.M.E. Church is hosting famed Civil Rights leader and historical preservationist, W. W. Law of Savannah.

The special service will be held Sunday, Feb. 28 at the church from 3 to 5 p.m. It is located at 400 Holly Grove Church Road in the southern end of Peachtree City.

Mr. Law is a native of Savannah and a graduate of Savannah State College in 1948 with a major in biology. However,due to his active support of the NAACP, the black school administrators declined to hire him as a teacher and his working career was then spent with the United State Postal Service as a letter carrier.¹

He currently heads the Savannah-Yamacraw Branch of the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History.

He served as president of the Savannah Chapter of the NAACP from 1950 to 1976. By the late 1970's he turned his attention to the preservation of facilities in the black areas of his town that were slowly being torn down. He was successful in having the Beach Institute Historic Neighborhood included in the town's preservation efforts, including the King-Tisdell Cottage, built in 1896 by a black contractor.

A culmination of his life's work was in the opening of the Ralph M. Gilbert Civil Rights Museum in Sept. 1996, which houses three floors of exhibits.

The Sunday afternoon program will include singing by the Rev. Willie Heard, pastor at New Hope A.M.E. Church, Harralson.

Mr. Law will also be at the Herndon Home in Atlanta on Saturday, Feb. 27 at 2 p.m.

Both events are open to the public and everyone is invited to attend.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a co-sponsor of this program.

¹. National Trust magazine, Jan./Feb. 1995

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