October 18, 2001 Haitian-American Representatives Visit Savannah

On October 18, 2001, a delegation of Haitian-Americans from Miami, Florida visited Savannah in a show of support for the preservation of the site of the 1779 Siege of Savannah. The delegation, led by Mayor Joe Celestin, North Miami’s first mayor of Haitian descent, was made up of elected officials, including Vice-Mayor Ossmann Desir, professionals and entrepreneurs. Mayor Floyd Adams, Jr., the City of Savannah, and the Coastal Heritage Society hosted the visit which included stops at the Siege site off of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in the vicinity of the Savannah History Museum. In addition, members of the Haitian-American Historical Society, including Celestin and Chairman Daniel Fils-Aime, Sr., appeared before City Council to propose a monument in Savannah in honor of the Chasseurs Volontaires, the Haitian unit that fought alongside Count d’Estaing and the American forces at the Siege of Savannah.

Haitian tablet in City Hall Council Chamber, December 2005.
City of Savannah, Research Library and Municipal Archives, Savannah, Georgia.
Used with permission.

The visit created a dialogue between the Savannahian and Haitian communities, and Mayor Adams later paid a reciprocal visit to Haiti where the City was presented with a tablet depicting the Chasseurs Volontaires that now hangs in Council Chambers.