Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum — Attraction in Savannah

Worst experience I have ever had! When we arrived there was a sign on the door that said be back at one... We arrived at 1:15 pm. Luckily the coordinator of our church group was inside and opened the doors because it was 95 degrees in the shade. As we stood in the lobby waiting for the tour director to return (around 10min later) a guy comes in the door and began yelling "whoever let these people in you paying for everybody" Yall shouldn't be in this building, who let yall in, I would never walk into a building with a sign that says be back" All of us were in total shock.. The guy turns around and lo and behold his name tag said Troy Lance tour director...ugh! Our group coordinator and mother of our church explained that there were people coming out of the museum that held the door open for her. so when our church group (who by the way came to tour the museum with our children to teach them about Jim crow laws and their abolishment ) came the door was open. He then turned to her and began yelling at her.. well at that time others in our group tried to calm him down and asked him to be respectful.. He didn't he continued to rant and rave waving his Mc donalds bag in the air yelling about how we didn't know anything and shouldn't have come in and she was going to pay for anyone in the bulding.. I was totally appalled. I then approached him at his desk and explained that she was the mother of our church, I told him we were on a field trip with our youth and explained the purpose.. He told me he didn't care nobody was going to disobey his sign and we shouldn't have come in building. At this point I was frustrated and told him okay. I would just be at the next board meeting to discuss it with rational people. He looked me in my face and told me I don't care if you call the mayor of Savannah, you can call President Obama.. He wasn't gonna stop yelling and they weren't gonna do anything about it. We had a group discussion with our children and told them no matter what color a person is if they are disrespectful you don't have to spend your dollars there. We then told them this portion of the field trip was cancelled. Four other patrons left with us. The funny thing is previous to coming to the museum.. We treated our children to a "lunch counter" experience at the Abercorn Diner. The Mayor Edna Jackson came out to speak to our children about racism and being treated unfairly, as well as the Mayor Pro Tem Van Johnson. The Diners owner interrupted her business to allow our children this experience.... It's shameful when your own people treat you like trash and others treat you like gold. I would never take anyone to this establishment and I am appalled that someone of his caliber is...

The education you receive here is mostly of events, persons and issues of Savannah during Reconstruction on through to the early '70's. However, there is connection and continuity with the national level of the Civil Rights movement that most of us learn and hear about. There are many inspiring and tragic stories that took place in Savannah and the city is where a lot of important ideas were born. You cannot help but be moved to anger, shame, empathy, brotherhood. There was and is a fight going on in our great nation. You can begin to learn of it here. It's not an expensive to tour. There are guides to get you started and many things to read and watch at your own pace. This is a self supporting museum so they suffer somewhat from not having funding to provide high tech displays. Still, they provide an excellent presentation of the history and for me it's brought to life. I recommend seeing it if your...

This was a really interesting museum, built in a former bank, in a kind of out-of-the-way location. It presents a nice blend of national and local aspects of the civil rights movement, with the emphasis clearly on the local, which was very interesting and new to all of us. The woman who took our admission payment also led us around the exhibits for a while and clearly had an in-depth knowledge of the history being presented there, then rounded us up to take us to the mini-theater for presentation of the 20-minute documentary film. The "no photography" rule was a minor annoyance since there were many memorable displays that we would have preferred to record and remember (and share). Overall, a very memorable and...