Talladega: Talladega College’s Savery Library

Fifty-three illegally purchased West Africans were transported from Cuba in 1839 aboard the Spanish-built schooner Amistad. The slaves were able to stage a successful mutiny. One-hundred years later in 1939, Savery Library was dedicated at Talladega College, Alabama’s oldest private historically black liberal arts college. Savery Library contains murals depicting the Amistad painted by prominent black artist Hale Woodruff. The Amistad incident is depicted in three panels in the library lobby: The Mutiny, The Court Scene and The Return to Africa. Also in the lobby is a replica of the Amistad ship embedded in the terrazzo floor.

Photo credit: Lewis Kennedy