The Cornerstone They Almost Threw Away

In 2015, a construction crew demolishing an old church in downtown Savannah, Georgia, pulled a massive granite block from the foundation and tossed it into the debris pile. It was cracked, moss-covered, and seemingly worthless. But a local historian named Margaret Chen recognized markings on the stone — it was the original 1856 cornerstone, laid by freed Black congregants who had pooled their wages for years to build a place of worship.…