Tour guide Johnnie Brown takes his passengers through downtown Savannah. Along the way, he gives a narrative of the black experience in Savannah, passing sites and monuments to the city's African-American culture, with stops at three main centers of Savannah's black culture. The first is at the First African Baptist Church of Savannah. The building on Franklin Square was the first brick building owned by blacks in the state of Georgia. The Negro Heritage Tour offers a viewing of the church's archives, which include charters, letters and a collection of silver and pewter used in church ceremonies since its founding.

Beyond the archives, there are three points of special interest in the church. The first is its enormous pipe organ, which is housed in the main chapel -- it is the oldest pipe organ in Georgia and towers grandly over the congregation from the balcony. The second is also located in the balcony. Its pews date from the construction of the church, and the sides of the pews are engraved with a variety of markings that are abstract to the uninformed eye. Some are simple straight lines, others curve, and a few take on more intricate designs. These markings belonged to the Gullah people, many of whom were illiterate, and some recently brought from Africa. The markings were a common language among the blacks, a way of denoting their families and tribal affiliations. To the congregations of the time, a glance at the markings would reveal a great deal about the folks sitting in the pews -- where they hailed from, who their families were, and so on, transcending the limits of illiteracy and fostering a sense of community among the churchgoers. The third remarkable feature of the church is found in its second, lower chapel. On the floor one sees a variety of diamond-shaped patterns bored into the wood. Thirty-six in total, these are airholes leading to hidden chambers beneath the floor from the days when the First African Baptist Church was a stop on the Underground Railroad. These chambers anchor 14 tunnels that branch out from beneath the church; Brown explains that the entrances to the tunnels are still hidden today.

The next stop on the tour is the Ralph Gilbert Marks Civil Rights Museum on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Named for the Savannah minister who invigorated the city's NAACP chapter in the 1940s, the museum chronicles the Savannah Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. It features a small theater that shows a video documenting the struggle of African-Americans to achieve legal and social equality through a series of well-orchestrated drives and acts of civil disobedience. The film includes reminiscences of those involved in mass-meetings, voter registration drives, boycotts, sit-ins, kneel-ins (integration of the churches) and wade-ins (integration of the public beaches). Prominently featured in the video is the Rev. W.W. Law, who helped organize the movements of the era and whose influence can be felt today; it is he who created the Negro Heritage Trail Tour. Elsewhere in the museum is a diorama of a local lunch counter, complete with tapes showing the server's disparate reactions to white and black customers. The museum also features photographs, portraits and newspapers from the era, chronicling the courageous and successful struggle for equality under the law.

The final stop on the tour is the King-Tisdell Cottage. Also overseen by the Rev. Law, the cottage stands in the last predominantly black neighborhood in the Historic District. Inside, there is a small museum with craftwork, utensils and documents that illustrate the lives of Lowcountry blacks in the 19th century. Its most remarkable piece might be a bright quilt stitched in antebellum days. On first glance it appears to be covered with folk art, but the colorful embroidery is actually a map for the Underground Railroad.

As much of the history of the African-American has been carried and developed orally, the documents, artifacts and places on display in the Negro Heritage Trail Tour are invaluable for a further understanding of the black's rich, proud place in Savannah's culture.

The Negro Heritage Trail Tour departs from the Visitors Center at 1 and 3 p.m. daily. Call 912-234-8000 for more information.