✊🏿🎨 Black Holocaust Memorial – James “Double Dutch” Kimble’s Powerful Savannah Folk-Art Memorial

Simba and I visited the Black Holocaust Memorial in Savannah, Georgia, a deeply personal and unconventional memorial created by local folk artist James “Double Dutch” Kimble to confront the brutality of American slavery. Unlike the grand monuments found throughout Savannah’s historic district, this installation is hidden away in an alley behind Kimble’s home near East Anderson Street.

There are no polished plazas, towering marble columns, or manicured grounds here. Instead, visitors encounter handmade figures created largely from wire and papier-mâché, arranged within the neighborhood where Kimble has spent decades creating art. At the center of the memorial is a shackled Black man portrayed as though he is being displayed for sale, accompanied by a woman and children whose presence evokes the devastating separation of enslaved families.

It is intentionally uncomfortable. Kimble created the memorial because he believed Savannah needed a depiction of slavery that confronted visitors with the suffering endured by enslaved people rather than presenting that history in a softened or distant way.

🕊️ Why James Kimble Created the Black Holocaust Memorial

The story behind the memorial is closely connected to Savannah’s African-American Monument, which was unveiled along River Street in 2002. That official monument commemorates the experiences and contributions of African Americans while acknowledging Savannah’s connection to slavery and the transatlantic slave trade.

Kimble believed something was missing.

In his view, the official monument did not communicate the full brutality of slavery or adequately depict what enslaved people experienced while the institution was still operating. He wanted visitors — particularly younger generations — to see a representation of slavery that made its violence, humiliation, and destruction of families impossible to ignore.

Rather than simply criticizing what already existed, Kimble created his own alternative. The result became the Black Holocaust Memorial, an intensely personal piece of folk art built not through a government commission or major fundraising campaign, but through the vision and labor of one Savannah artist.

⛓️ A Family Facing the Horrors of a Slave Auction

The centerpiece of Kimble’s installation is immediately disturbing.

A nearly unclothed Black man stands restrained by heavy shackles, his vulnerable position suggesting an enslaved person being displayed before prospective buyers at an auction. Nearby are a woman and two children, transforming the scene from the suffering of one individual into the threatened destruction of an entire family.

That family imagery addresses one of the cruelest realities of American slavery. Enslaved people could be sold away from spouses, parents, children, siblings, and other relatives, sometimes permanently separating families with little or no ability to find one another again.

Kimble’s figures place that possibility directly in front of the viewer. The chains are not subtle symbols, and the figures are not shown safely looking back on slavery from some later period of freedom. They are depicted as people still trapped within the institution and facing the possibility of being separated from one another.

That distinction is central to the memorial’s purpose.

🏛️ A Deliberate Contrast With Savannah’s River Street Monument

Savannah’s official African-American Monument depicts a Black family standing together after emancipation, with broken chains at their feet. It is an image ultimately centered on survival, liberation, and freedom.

Kimble deliberately chose another moment in the story.

His figures remain chained.

By depicting an enslaved family during the period of slavery rather than after emancipation, the Black Holocaust Memorial focuses attention on what freedom had to overcome. The vulnerable figures, shackles, and auction imagery are intended to make the viewer think about the human beings who were bought, sold, exploited, and separated from those they loved.

The two memorials therefore approach the history from dramatically different perspectives. One looks toward freedom after slavery; Kimble’s work forces visitors to look directly at people still experiencing its horrors.

🎨 James “Double Dutch” Kimble and Savannah Folk Art

The Black Holocaust Memorial is only one part of the unusual artistic world James Kimble has created.

Known as “Double Dutch,” Kimble began learning papier-mâché techniques when he was young and continued developing his skills over the decades. Rather than working primarily with conventional sculptural materials such as marble or bronze, he creates many of his figures using wire frameworks covered with papier-mâché before painting and varnishing the finished pieces.

The technique gives his work a handmade appearance that is completely different from Savannah’s traditional monuments.

Over the years, Kimble transformed the area surrounding his home into an evolving outdoor folk-art environment. Figures, characters, decorations, and sculptures appear throughout the property, creating an unexpected collection tucked into an otherwise ordinary Savannah neighborhood.

Some pieces carry serious historical or political messages. Others are colorful, playful, humorous, or created with children in mind.

That contrast is part of what makes visiting the site so unusual.

👧🏿📚 Teaching Younger Generations Through Art

Kimble’s work is not intended solely for tourists or adults interested in history. An important part of his motivation has been reaching children and young people living in the surrounding community.

The colorful characters and playful sculptures help draw attention to the property, but among them is the far more serious Black Holocaust Memorial. That combination gives Kimble an opportunity to introduce younger visitors to difficult history through visual storytelling.

Rather than presenting slavery as an abstract event buried deep in the past, the memorial gives that history recognizable human forms: a man, a woman, and children facing captivity and separation.

For Kimble, keeping that history visible is part of making sure it is understood and remembered.

🔧 A Living Memorial That Continues to Change

Most historic monuments are intended to remain essentially unchanged once they are installed. Kimble’s Black Holocaust Memorial is different.

The materials themselves require continued attention. Exposure to Savannah’s heat, humidity, rain, and storms can damage papier-mâché sculptures, meaning pieces may need to be repaired, repainted, or reconstructed.

Kimble has also rearranged and added artwork over time.

As a result, the installation functions as a living folk-art environment rather than a static monument. Someone visiting years apart may encounter a different arrangement or discover sculptures that were not there before.

That evolving quality makes the site feel inseparable from the artist who created it. This is not simply a monument Kimble designed and then walked away from. It is part of an artistic environment he has continued to maintain and develop.

🏘️ A Memorial Hidden in a Savannah Neighborhood

The setting dramatically changes the experience.

Savannah is famous for monumental public spaces. Statues rise from landscaped squares, enormous memorials dominate portions of historic cemeteries, and carefully maintained landmarks fill the downtown district.

The Black Holocaust Memorial is almost the opposite.

It sits tucked away near East Anderson Street, behind Kimble’s home and surrounded by the everyday environment of a residential neighborhood. Finding it feels less like arriving at a conventional tourist attraction and more like discovering something that exists because one person decided the story needed to be told.

There is something powerful about that simplicity.

The absence of a grand setting means there is little separating visitors from the figures themselves. The memorial relies on its imagery rather than architectural scale to make an impression.

🧵 Folk Art Confronting a Painful History

The Black Holocaust Memorial also demonstrates how folk and outsider art can approach history differently from conventional public monuments.

Official memorials often involve committees, government agencies, donors, architects, professional sculptors, and years of planning. Every element may be debated before the final design is approved.

Kimble did not need institutional permission to express his interpretation.

He saw a version of history that he believed failed to communicate something important, so he used the materials and artistic techniques available to him to create another one.

The resulting memorial may lack the permanence of bronze or stone, but its handmade character reinforces its deeply personal message. Every figure exists because Kimble shaped it himself.

🐕 Exploring the Memorial With Simba

Simba and I explored the memorial along with Kimble’s surrounding collection of handmade artwork. Seeing the Black Holocaust Memorial within that larger environment provides important context because it reveals just how varied his work can be.

Colorful and humorous figures coexist with imagery dealing with one of the darkest chapters in American history. That combination might initially seem strange, but it reflects Kimble’s broader approach to using art as both entertainment and education.

The central memorial demands the most attention. Seeing the shackled man alongside the woman and children makes the subject immediately understandable even before learning the full story behind the installation.

It is not intended to be beautiful in the conventional sense.

It is intended to make people think.

🕯️ Why the Black Holocaust Memorial Matters

Savannah’s history cannot be separated from slavery. Enslaved Africans and African Americans played an enormous role in the economy, development, culture, and physical construction of Savannah and coastal Georgia, while enduring generations of forced labor and denied freedom.

Sites throughout the city preserve pieces of that history, but Kimble’s memorial approaches the subject from a uniquely personal perspective.

It doesn't attempt to tell every part of the story. Instead, it focuses on something immediate and human: captivity and the possibility of a family being torn apart.

That simplicity gives the installation much of its emotional force.

The memorial also raises broader questions about who creates public history and how difficult subjects should be represented. Kimble believed an existing monument did not adequately express the suffering he wanted people to understand, so he created a monument of his own.

Decades of artistic experience, neighborhood history, personal conviction, and historical memory all come together within this unusual Savannah installation.

🎥 Watch the Video

Join Simba and me as we visit James “Double Dutch” Kimble’s Black Holocaust Memorial in Savannah, Georgia, examine the powerful figures depicting enslaved people facing sale and family separation, and explore the colorful collection of folk-art sculptures surrounding this little-known neighborhood landmark.

👀 In This Video You’ll See

- James “Double Dutch” Kimble’s Black Holocaust Memorial
- The shackled figure representing an enslaved man at auction
- The woman and children representing threatened family separation
- Chains and other powerful details throughout the memorial
- Kimble’s surrounding collection of handmade folk-art sculptures
- Our visit to this little-known Savannah landmark with Simba

⭐ Why the Black Holocaust Memorial Is Worth Visiting

The Black Holocaust Memorial is unlike almost any other historic site I visited in Savannah. It wasn't commissioned by the city or created to decorate one of Savannah's famous public squares. It exists because James “Double Dutch” Kimble believed an important part of the story of slavery needed to be shown more directly.

His answer was raw, handmade, and deeply personal.

The shackled figures confront visitors with captivity, vulnerability, and the destruction of families, while the surrounding folk art reveals the personality and creativity of the artist responsible for creating them. Its humble neighborhood setting only makes the contrast with Savannah's grand official monuments more striking.

Whether you are interested in African American history, slavery history, folk art, outsider art, unusual memorials, or lesser-known Savannah landmarks, the Black Holocaust Memorial is an unforgettable and thought-provoking place to discover.

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