Online Public Relations Thoughts

I'm back from a week-long visit to Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA.  The change in tourist communications was noticeable from prior visits years ago.  Now, guides stress the burden of slavery and its economic impact on the South.  Previously, they conjured a romantic image of the aristocratic Old South before the Civil War -- easy to do in the dreamscapes of the two towns.  The new museum in Charleston dedicated to slavery and its effects doesn't hide the evil but also highlights the culture brought and created by Africans in the New World  -- a must-see.  The museum is built on the old wharf where slaves were landed and prepared for auction.  Savannah appears not to have moved as far down the path of recognition as Charleston, but Tybee Island, 18 miles from downtown Savannah has documented the "Wade-ins" by young African Americans to desegregate the beaches there.  It was an instructive visit to a culture still foreign to Northerners but much changed.