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Telling Our Origin Story
Girl Scout alum and former troop leader Shannon Browning-Mullis, the new Executive Director of the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace in Savannah, is passionate about social justice.
She believes that empowering women starts with understanding history.
“There is a lot of injustice in the world now and one of the reasons for a lot of it is because people don’t understand its roots,” she explains. “In this city in particular, we live with a lot of income, economic, and education inequality today … and we really needed to think about why.”
Shannon, who grew up in middle Georgia and has fond memories of her time as a Brownie, believes you can use the history of the empowerment of women and girls to continue empowering women and girls.
In her last position, as the Curator of History and Decorative Arts for the city’s Telfair Museums, she worked to fully incorporate the lives of enslaved people slave into the narrative of the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters. “This happened in 2018 and made national press. Now, so many other places are doing that,” she explains
The Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace highlights Juliette’s life from 1860 to 1927 and, while slavery ended when Juliette Gordon Low was four, Shannon explains that it is still a part of her story because racism didn’t end with the civil war.
Visitors to the birthplace are taken on a 40-minute tour of the house that talks about Juliette’s childhood, and how she founded Girl Scouts. In addition, a new program for troops – launching in 2022 — is designed to focuses on accessibility and how girls can be good citizens and good leaders,
“We help girls build the skills that will continue that work,” she explains. “Through games, girls gain confidence in public speaking and performance.”
There will also be public programs in 2022 focusing on accessibility, disability, and inclusions, at least partially inspired by the fact that Juliette herself was partially deaf.
Shannon has been studying the social justice history of the time period, reading about the Progressive Era and Savannah during that time. Her research is designed to inform future tours of the birthplace. After studying the period, she reads primary documents, such as letters and correspondence, and uses them to frame Juliette’s story in relationship to society.
“Girl Scouts was founded in 1912, when people were starting to work on justice issues and how to make the world a better place for people who aren’t extremely wealthy, who aren’t white, and who aren’t men,” she explains. “A lot of these movements were led by women.”
Girl Scout Alum Adventures
Interested in learning more about the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace? In partnership with Club Adventures, a AAA-owned tour operator, we’ve rolled out a suite of travel experiences for alums and supporters—and one of them is to Charleston and Savannah. This small-group tour includes an after-hours visit to the Birthplace and a special tour with Shannon Browning-Mullis.
Booking is open now.
