Captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2008 that was the way it was. Well, they had a lot of friends and some of their friends were people like booker t. Washington, George Washington carver, af owens who was the principle of owens academy here in mobile and a. N. Johnson, an entrepreneur, and those guys would go fishing and because of that relationship, a lot of students got to go to Tuskegee University which meant when they graduated they became entrepreneurs, they became teachers, business people, doctors and very successful throughout the country. That relationship was a great bonding they had duke thring th time. The funeral home closed when the last sibling of the allen family passed, mrs. Gray, and just recently its been announced its going to reopen under the owen ford mortuary. From here were going to visit some other entrepreneurs and end the tour with a gentleman by the name of Wallace Turnage and he was a slave that ran away four times and got caught and ultimately he got to mobile and well talk about how he eventually got his freedom. This is stone street baptist church, and it is the Oldest Baptist Church in the state of alabama, established in 1806, which was 13 years before alabama was even a state. Now, i didnt say oldest africanamerican church, its the Oldest Baptist Church in the state of alabama. The story goes that the videos that worshiped here, they would be singing with so much conviction and passion that their owners started having headaches and nightmares and ultimately he he ma ultimately he emancipated them, set them free, worshipping not far from here and moved to this location. Not only was it against the law for africanamericans to be educated in alabama, it was against the law for them to have property deeded in their name. This was an integrated parish and the property was deeded in the white parishioners name and they continued to worship together here until somewhere around 1860 and they moved the deed to the africanamerican parishioners and they continued to grow the church and in 1930 they decided they would build a new church. We all know what was going on in 1930, the great depression, but they felt so strong about their faith, well start this project and complete it and they did. Its going to thrive in the community. The church was one of the few places that during this period that africanamericans could really truly be themselves because they worked hard all week, lot of times they wore uniforms and on sunday they could dress up in their best and be themselves in the africanamerican church. Thats the experience that we read about with stone street that was established in 1806 and its the Oldest Baptist Church in the state of alabama. We are now in the heart of the Africanamerican Community and during the civil rights days, dr. Martin luther king came to mobile in 1959, and this was the International Longshoremen building and this is where the longshoremen used to come to find out what jobs they had. They would look in this window and be a chart with what boats or ships were in and which ones they were assigned to. Theres also an auditorium through these red doors and in 1959, dr. Martin luther king came to mobile and this was the only time that he spoke in mobile, was in this building in 1959. Ila local 1410. Because of the state docks we had a lot of longshoremen. Prior to all of the equipment nowadays that does that work, theres still a significant number of longshoremen, but nowhere near what it used to be before you had the equipment that we have today to do a lot of that work. It was all manual labor. All right. So now we are approaching the africanamerican archives museum. Unfortunately it closed two years ago because of a mold problem, mold, and it started in the h vac system, to the walls and ceilings, they had to close it and moved the artifacts to the history of mobile so theyre under lock and key there. The city has committed to, right now making it ada compliant and they have restored the inside and then theyre going to come to the community to see if we want to continue with the africanamerican Heritage Museum or maybe a cultural museum. Thats open for discussion in the future. When i was growing up, this was the davis avenue public library, the only library that africanamericans could go in, even though weve always been 47 to 50 of the population in mobile and there were four or five other libraries, this was the only one, regardless of where you lived, if you were black that you could go in. What we did know when we got new books they were the old books from the Main Public Library. We made lemonade out of lemons that we had. Only thing i remember is that no one ever told me i couldnt talk, i had to be quiet, but when we opened those doors two little ladies that sat behind the desk they would look at you like they had laser beams in your eyes and burn you up if you made any noise while you were there. It was strictly zero toll laner. A real quick historical trip that in the 1860s we had the 13th amendment, 14th, 15th amendment passed, one abolished slavery, one gave us the right to vote and then said we were created equal. We had alabama, mobile representatives in montgomery in d. C. We had u. S. And local senators and everything was working like it was supposed to as far as a democracy. Then the most profound thing that we remembered that happened was when the guy sat on the bus, the train car in new orleans, and said im going to covington and they said you cant sit here. He was an africanamerican. They said you cant sit here. He says oh, yes, i can. No, yes. That case goes to the Supreme Court. That was plessy versus ferguson. The decision was separate but equal. At the time, black were considered were going to put the first train car for whites, the one on the back is for colors. Its separate and equal, but you cant sit with us. And that started just an enormous amount of different disparities because right after that we had the jim crow laws. The jim crow laws, colored entrance, white entrance. Colored restaurant, white restaurant. Then we had the ku klux klan that intimidated africanamericans from voting. Well in alabama, most of the men that had weapons were the confederate soldiers. They became the policemen. Then they created all of these laws like loitering, if you were standing on the corner you could be arrested and they amended the state constitution to say if you were incarcerated you could be subcontracted out for labor, which meant that they would arrest people and put them back on the plantation. Okay. To work. Then during this same time we had all of the lynchings from 1860 to 1950. Over 4,000 lynchings that took place during that time. So we had all of these things happening during that period right up until 1954 with brown versus board of education things settled a little and it was another ten years before the civil rights bill was passed. When that happened then we could go to any library in the city, not just this one, and the jim crow laws finally were taken the signs taken down, integration took place. Even the schools were not really integrated or desegregated in this area until 1970. This facility kind of paints that story for us of the things that took place during that time. When you see our brothchure, sh took this building and put it in the doorsteps of the main public line brayry to show the difference in size even though africanamericans were 50 of the population. It was designed by George Rogers, premier ac text in mobile during that time, and designed the Main Public Library and several other buildings, but thats the national africanamerican archives museum. Okay. So lets walk down and im going to talk about during the 1980s we had something come through mobile called urban renewal. Well, urban renewal removed a lot of buildings, but didnt renew nothing. Okay. As we go down this street, this was the africanamerican Shopping Center of mobile. There was nothing but black businesses on this street. Ne and everything that you needed you could purchase on this street. It was kind of during the jim crow days that either you were not accepted in the White Community or you were scared to go so businesses opened up in the africanamerican part of the community where you could shop and buy clothes, food, go to the movies, see your physician, your dentist, get your prescriptions filled, whatever you needed, you could purchase on this street. Appliances, the five and dime stores, restaurants, hats, clothing, shoes. It was all on this particular street. Urban renewal came through here. There housused to be a twostor building, it was the franklin building. It was called findleys drug store number three. Doriss father started the first chain of africanamerican drug stores in the state of alabama. He had five drug stores. My father john was his oldest brother and he started finleys pharmacy number one and two. They were both pharmacists. The younger brother, more energy, and created five drug stores. But my uncle james was a member are of a group of neighbors that started a Civil Rights Organization called neighborhood organized workers and their philosophy they wanted to increase the Living Standard of africanamericans in the community and provide some racial reconciliatio well, in the 50s, there was a gentleman from mobile by the name of mr. John leflore. His mission was to register people to vote. This is the 150th year of the 15th amendment and the 100th year of allowing ladies to vote. Mr. Leflore was in this building on the second floor and they had been working with the city trying to get improvements in the neighborhoods and improve racial relations throughout the city. He was president of the naacp. They outlawed the naacp in alabama in the 1950s. Mr. Lefleur being the astute person he was, he started the national partisan voter league, and they continued to work. Well, neighborhood organized workers their acronym was n. O. W. , and in the 60s, things started to move a little faster and they were wanting results faster like we want things to happen now. And one of the most profound legal things that happened was mobile was set up with three districts, none which had a majority of africanamericans, so there was never an africanamerican city commissioner, and because africanamericans were 45 to 50 of the population, the Community Never felt that they were getting their fair return as far as streets being paved, sidewalks, street lights, community centers, but they were never at the table when the money was being allocated. They had no idea. Ultimately the city was sued and the case was called boldin versus the city of mobile. It goes all the way to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court looked at it, judge stewart, said not for sure we want to act on this, sent it to the lower court. Lower court sent it back to mobile. It went to the capitol as the zagab. Marietta act and came back for the citizens to vote on it and the citizens voted on it and it was approved. When it was approved it split the city up into seven districts, three of them which were majority africanamerican. Weve had an africanamerican representative at the table since 1984. Weve also had an africanamerican mayor. Now, those individuals represent that district and each district currently gets 3 million per district. If they dont spend that money like the constituents want, they vote someone else in. But at least were sitting at the table now and when decisions are made and the money is allocated, which means that it can be spent in their communities as opposed to other areas of the city, so its probably one of the most profound decisions ever made in the city. It took that case Something Like ten years to get through the system and the judge that finally made the decision, judge pittman, there were articles in our press register, they wanted him to leave the country. He was not well received after that. But things have moved. Were moving forward in the city and still a lot of work to be done, but that was probably one of the greatest milestones for the Africanamerican Community to benefit from during that time as a result of neighborhood organized workers. In most cases when an urban renewal comes into a community, not only do they buy the business, but then they have a design for the renewal with financial plans to start those new businesses. Honestly, if im living in a 250,000 home that i built 20 years ago and i want to replace it to the equivalent, its going to cost me probably 400,000 or 500,000 today. A lot of these businesses, yes, they purchased them, but they had no plan to restore them. As a result, this community has been in this state ever since then. So were at the church established in 1899 originally as saint anthonys. Saint anthony is the saint of hope so that was relevant during that period of time. Africanamericans needed hope. Someone made an aanonymous donation to change the name and that was done. It was initially established for the creoles and africanamericans of the mobile community. Its been a Thriving Church in the community ever since. Theres a Parochial School here that has the first through the eighth grade. There was a high school. The twostory building. The High School Closed in 1968. We had a national figure, alexis herman, became secretary of labor during bill clintons administration, she attended school here. This is where she graduated from. Some of the reasons that its on the trail is that during the civil rights days, the neighborhood organized workers had to have a place to meet and ultimately the schools cafeteria was the only place in the city that would allow them to meet and straj guitegize an they were going to approach the problems that existed in the africanamerican and how they were going to resolve them in the city. The nunses and priests because the street was the main thoroughfare in the Africanamerican Community, during the civil rights days all of the marches would come down this street and when those marches took place the nuns and priests would be on the front line. I remember sharing a story with me, and she wasnt but 15 at the time, the junior miss pageant was here. Today its called the distinguished women of america. Theres 50 young ladies all over the country. This would be a good time to march because we could get word out to the rest of the country on the problems that were having in mobile. Because there would be reporters from all over the country. They established a march and marched down to the auditorium, a place frequently visited and supported by the Africanamerican Community, but there were no africanamericans that worked there or on the board to make these decisions. As soon as they got there they arrested them and took them to jail. Well on that particular occasion mr. Lefloor was on the sidewalk standing up and not part of the march or demonstration. He was just basically observing what was going on. They arrested him. Theres a famous picture around town with him with the handcuffs and took him to jail. The nuns were sitting on the sidewalk, they took them to jail as well. The Police Officer comes down stairs and said who are these ladies . They said those are nuns. He goes up to get the keys and opens the cell doors the nuns said were not going until everybody goes. Thats how committed they were to the community and how much they supported the Africanamerican Community during the civil rights days. As a result of that, the school has always been involved with the disparities that took place in the community during that time. We had three movie theaters on this street. There were three africanamerican grocery stores. This is one of the few buildings that was preserved yorks barber shop. Im not for sure why they didnt destroy this building, but its an original. Next to it was a grocery store. There was a night club. So you had, you know, businesses, clubs, any and everything that you needed to buy. There were service stations, you know, for gas and repair. Mechanic shops. All these vacant lots had businesses on them. There was only about ten houses on this whole street. Those are new. All of the vacant lots had businesses on them. So were now in the at home of dave patton. Dave patton had a wagon hauling dirt around mobile. Okay. He became one of the richest realtors in the city. This is in the 1880s. All right. And 1890s, he pulled all of the dirt out of the tunnel that takes us to the eastern shore. He laid the foundation for most of the streets in mobile, laid the foundation for the Alabama State docks and one of the largest high schools we have here which is murphy high school. Now, he initially he wanted to build this house on government street. Well government street is our main street if youve been down government, theres a lot of antebellum homes over there that are on this size which were talking about 5500 square feet. Because he was black they would not let him build that house over on government street. And were talking this was in the early 1900s. To be honest with you, most black were living in shotguns during that time. This is a huge house when you look at it. It was built by the premier architect in the city which was George Rogers during that time. I know that he had to have cash because my dad told me when he built his store in 1950, the banks wouldnt loan him money, not because he had bad credit. They did not loan black money for businesses or homes. I know for him to have George Rogers as an architect and build this house he had to have cash. He died at a very young age from pneumonia. He was like 47 years old. He never got a chance to enjoy the fruits of his labor. This church was on that street behind us and eventually they bought this vacant lot and placed their church here, constructed the church, and then they purchased the home and it is now for their pastor. This area they call it the campground and the reason its called the campground is because during the confederate war there were like over 10,000 confederate soldiers that lived in this area and when the confederates lost the civil rights, the Union Soldiers moved in to restore civility and took them about five years to restore civility. Growing up, we used to call this the avenue, but the name was davis avenue. Well today its dr. Martin luther king. We didnt know until they changed the name that it was named after jefferson davis, the president of the confederacy through the heart of the Africanamerican Community. In reality, i guess it made sense because africanamericans didnt come into this community until after the war because it was close to the other parts of the town where they were working and they could walk to work and walk back home. Were at Franklin Primary Health care center thats the namesake for dr. James franklin and dr. Franklin actually grew up in tennessee, went to school at Lincoln University and then he attended the university of michigan in 1909. Upon arrival he had to sleep in the boiler room which was where the air conditioning and heating equipment was. He took his trunk, that was his desk with a night lamp and slept on a cot for four years. Finished second in his medical class. Dr. Franklin was our grandfather. That was my maternal grandfather. So he comes back to alabama and starts practicing medicine in evergreen and if i had known i would be doing this i would have been asking him a lot of questions, but i had no idea we would be doing this today. First of all i wanted to know why evergreen, why not montgomery or tuskegee or mobile or birmingham. Evergreen is a small community. But thats where he started practicing medicine and there was an outbreak of flu and this generalman came to his home and said dr. Franklin my wife is dying and please come help me. He did m s. What he found out they would keep the house closed up which kept all the germs inside so he had them open the windows and continued to work with the patient and ultimately she was well. And there had been a lot of people dying in the community. When people started to see her again, they were asking her husband, oh, my goodness, how did she survive the problem and he said well, dr. Franklin came out to see her. They said dr. Franklin . You mean the black doctor . He said yes. They said oh, no, a black man cant touch a white woman. And they were coming to kill him. They were going to lynch him. And the husband tried to control them but he couldnt. So he ultimately got dr. Franklin on the train. At the time he had two children. They came south and got off in africatown and thats how he got to mobile. Theres stories in the mobile press register on the encounter. Once he got here he started practicing. A lot of the patients were his patients because he was here in 1914. He continued to practice and ultimately moved his practice down on the other end of dr. Martin luther king boulevard and had an enormous practice and he passed in 1972. He was 84 years old. When, when urban renewal took out his building he built a threeroom office right over in the parking lot behind us and continued to Practice Medicine and at 84 he was still making house calls. He just enjoyed practicing medicine. Well, he had a heart attack. When they closed the school, most pure heart of mary, there was a nun by the name of sister mary lainds and sister maryland and most of the nunses admired him and he was a member of most pure heart of school. Sister maryland says im going to med school. She goes out to university of South Alabama in mobile and the students are like what are you going to do, youre going to be 40 something when you finish. She goes im going to open up a Medical Clinic on the north side of town because the one hospital we had in this area was moving west. I grew up in this community, ive been here since i was 21 at most pure heart of mary, i love the people, they love me, and thats what i want to do. So she did. She finished med school and she came over and started practicing in his office, seeing his patients because he had such a Large Patient base. Ultimately she convinced the senior class and they came over along with some of the other local doctors an started rotating through the office to see his patients. The family eventually i guess you could say donated the facility to the clinic for a dollar and ultimately sister maryland write a proposal, a grant, and she started Franklin Primary Health care center in his name. And today you can go in here, you can see a medical doctor, an obgyn, you can see a dentist, optometrist, audiologist, get prescriptions filled, you can have money, no money, insurance, no insurance and theres now 23 of this clinic in this area all from the dream of sister maryland and the philosophies of dr. James franklin. He was an elevator operator in 1884. Do you know that Lehman Brothers started in mobile and the reason being is that cotton was the cash crop. It was the money maker in the u. S. So this guy used to operate the elevator and he would hear the brokers talking in between the floors and so he said, i want to do something more with my life and started an Insurance Company and what he would do, he would sell policies for people to provide a respectable burial for their relatives. He started the Insurance Company right around the time johnson and allen opened. It was very timely. Well, he hired six other guys and they sold over 10 million worth of insurance in the early 1900s. You run that in the calculator today, and that would be close to 100 million. So he was very wealthy. All right. In the 1900s. Paid out over 3 million worth of insurance. So heres where we try to inspire children. We dont live in the past on this trail. We tell the past to help us try to reconcile where we are today. Okay. And when we when we tell the stories of johnson, heres a man that had no one, no mentor, no one encouraging him to do anything. Hes an elevator operator. This is where we try to tell the kids, you have to find your passion and this is where you will get up running in the morning and this is how you become successful, okay. Thats what this guy did back in the 1890s. Starting his own Company Called unity barrel life and Insurance Company. Made a lot of money during his life. This is where he initially lived in this home. So we are in a part of the town thats somewhat blighted, and there are some programs that have been recently approved for individuals to bring their houses up to code. There are several grants that are available and theres a big push in the community to by local government to make that happen. Again, this area is the area that the confederate soldiers were in in the 1800s. In fact, theres a lot of shotgun houses in this area, you know. A shotgun house is just a colloquial term that if you open the front door and the back door is open you can shoot straight through. Thats the shotgun house. Now over here to the right are some original confederate barracks. They are see the blue and green back there . They have been back there since the 1850s. Somewhat renovated but those are original barracks from that period of time. This is a shotgun house right here. So its one of those. Usually theyre straight and narrow and go straight back. This is the Vivienne Malone jones marker. Her sisters came to our board and said, you know, our sister accomplished a lot, but theres nothing in mobile to recognize what she did. We would like to put a Historical Marker. Thats a great idea. Where would you like to put it . We would like to put it right in front of where our homestead was where we grew up. From that block to the next block, there were nothing but homes behind this. Now, over to the left is the Mobile County health department. So ultimately they bought this property and made it a parking lot and moved the homes to other areas in the city. Okay. But they said this is where we grew up and this is where we would like to have it. Miss malone attended the university of alabama and that was when George Wallace stood in the door and said segregation today, tomorrow, and forever, Robert Kennedy attorney general sent in the National Guard and stepped out of the way and she entered the school and graduated. From stories with the sisters she did not have any difficult times while she was there. She was not the first africanamerican to attend school there. Vivienne was the first africanamerican to graduate. So when she graduated, no one in alabama would provide her a job. This upset they had gone to the school. Ultimately she gets a job with the department in washington, d. C. , and the school did ask her to come back to do the commencement address and she did. And to make a long story short the theme of her commencement address was that you must always be prepared because you never know what door you may have to walk through. And thats the story of miss Vivienne Malone jones who opened a lot of doors. The city made this honorary Vivienne Malone jones way as a complimentary to the Historical Marker being placed in front of where their homestead used to be. Dr. H. Rogers williams grew up in louisiana on a sugar plantation. Decides he wants to be a pharmacist. He goes to pharmacy school. Comes to mobile and opens up a drug store right here 607 dauphin street. 1896 he decides he wants to be a physician. He goes to medical school in nashville, tennessee, becomes a doctor and opens up his Doctors Office upstairs. Doctors office upstairs, drug store downstairs called live and let live. His home was over in this parking lot across the street. Citizen council comes to him and they said, i doubt if they said dr. Williams, they told him he needed to put a sign up here that said colored because this was during the jim crow days. He being the smart independent person that he buzz he found a picture of himself, blew it up about half size of that poster and put it in the window. He was a brown skinned guy. You think they will know im colored. That was dr. Roger williams. He was very involved throughout the community. Different medical societies and pharmaceutical associations and this is right in the heart of the community, but it was on the edge of the city during that time because remember, fort was the city about two miles from here. We were on the outskirts at that time. This area was heavily populated by creoles. Okay. This is the volunteer creole fire station which was established in 1819 and this building was constructed in 1869. In order to work here, you had to be a creole and you had to be authenticated by one of the original creole families. A lot of them still live in the community today. Those members, those families volunteered at this Fire Department and you can see thats where the horse and buggy would come out with the water on it. They put out fires for everybody. Just didnt you didnt have to be a creole if there was a fire. Upstairs was like a great room and there was the pole that would bring you down to the first floor and this right now is the home of a private individual. He left the front of it like it is, like it was, to honor and to preserve the story of the creole fire station. But back in the 1880s, they used to have community parties because that top floor is like a great room and there was this guy having a party in 1882 by the name of john a. And he breaks out a horn and starts playing it. Somebody gets the saxophone, trombone, clarinet, symbols, have a jam session going on. That was the beginning of a band we have here. They had been playing in front of every parade since 1882. They will be in the parade tonight the lead band. This is where they started. If you were creole, you were considered free. You could be educated, you could own your own property, business, you had all the rights and freedom of a white person except that you could not vote. That was the only thing. So kind of created a disparity for many years between africanamericans and creoles. Because you had a decision to make. Back during that time, if you were a creole you had all those freedom, if not you were going to be working in somebodys kitchen or plantation. All that changed in 1964 with the passage of the civil rights bill. But thats this is the creole fire station that just celebrated 200 years this year in the establishment of this fire station. And theres one family thats had a Family Member in this fire station since 1869 and they are the treneers and three right now thats a member of the mobile Fire Department. Its an amazing story that their great grandfather, grandfather and dad and children are still firemen in the mobile Fire Department. Here we are at it takes a village, and this market was done in conjunction with mobile united leadership and so we have selected some Hidden Figures, kind of similar to the movie about the lady that worked for nasa, and the first person that we see is a lady by the name of dr. Regina benjamin. Dr. Benjamin grew up over near most pure heart of mary church, okay, and she goes to Xavier University and ultimately becomes a Surgeon General of the United States during president Barack Obamas administration. Right here from mobile. She now has a clinic out in the western section of the city, an area, shes still giving back to the community all the time. The next gentleman is a gentleman that went to one of the local high schools here, williamson high school, and he used to blow up things in the Chemistry Lab and set his moms kitchen on fire, so ultimately he goes to Tuskegee University and becomes a ph. D. Engineer. Works on the b2 Stealth Bomber and then invents the super soaker the water gun and he sold over a billion dollars worth and recently he returned to mobile about eight months ago, presented a check to the Mobile CountyPublic School system for 7. 5 million to start a robotics school. Interesting enough, the same high school that he attended, finished third in the overall presentations of robotics at state contest a couple years ago. Hes given back all the time. His labs are in atlanta, georgia, and the third gentleman is Major GeneralJarrett Cooper. Major general Jarrett Cooper attended most pure heart of mary school. He finished and attended notre dame and when he graduated he decided that he would volunteer and join the marines. Upon entry they wanted to make him a supply officer and he said well, i think ill see if i can maybe find my way into another avenue in the military and ultimately he becomes an infantry commander. The first africanamerican ever to be an infantry commander which could be up to managing 10,000 men. He was on the front lines during the vietnam conflict. Did two stints. Returned to mobile. The air force called him back as a deputy administrator. He goes back to air force for a couple years, comes back to mobile. They appoint him ambassador to jamaica for several years. He returns back home and then he becomes he was appointed head of the department of hume an resources in montgomery alabama, returns back home, becomes a District Representative for the area he lived in here in mobile. He returned back to mobile as ceo and president of Commonwealth National bank. Recently retired and now he just manages his familys funeral business, christian benevolent funeral home. Those are our Hidden Figures and those are just a few. There are many, many more in the city. Its pretty busy here in mobile tonight. Why is that . This is mardi gras. Let the good times roll. And you know, mardi gras, it is kind of synchronized with the liturgical catholic year. We have parades from 12 days after christmas right up to fat tuesday. Of course mardi gras means fat tuesday in french and fat tuesday is the culmination of the year. Usually its about five weeks, which is always the tuesday before ash wednesday, which is 40 days before easter. Then we start the process all over again. Of course that was the celebration was brought to mobile by the founders of mobile, the brothers jeanbaptist and pierre. So we like to say that mobile is the birthplace of mardi gras because those gentlemen founded mobile in 1702 and they did not pierre founded new orleans in 1718, 16 years after. They brought that celebration to the new world and then they took it to new orleans, and so thats our stake to the birth place of mardi gras. Its a fun time and its in the air and you will see the people, everybody is excited and having fun. Tonight is the first parade of the year. Wallace turnage was a 17yearold slave that was in north mississippi. Wallace tried to runaway four times. Each time he tried to runaway he would run north and get caught. They would bring him back and they would beat him unmercifully. During that time, you could got jobs beating slaves by the number of lashes or by the hour. Finally unbelievably, his owner became sympathetic and brought him to mobile from north mississippi and had him auctioned off right there at john ragline slave market. The guy that purchased him, before this building was here, there was an antebellum home, his name was collier. Collier was the merchant marine. Well, he purchased wallace and all collier wanted wallace to do was to walk his horses because he was fond of horses. Wallace was walking one of his horses down dauphin street one day and something spooked the horse and he took off and he couldnt catch him. He had to come home and tell him that the horse took off and he couldnt catch him and she said, well, wallace, go downstairs because collier is going to want to talk to you when he comes home. He knew what that meant. He was not going to take another beating. He runs out of the door. Instead of rung north he runs south. In mobile when you run south you ran into water. He ran all the way until the end of the county down in Dauphin Island and he could see the Union Soldiers over at the fort but couldnt figure out how to get there because the water was 40, 50 feet deep. He saw the confederate soldiers. Every day they would go in the lookout booth to see what the Union Soldiers were doing. At night they would leave. Hes run through alligator, water moccasins, snakes, mosquitos, bugs, everything. He would go up into the booth to shield himself from the bugs and then leave the next morning before the soldiers got back. Well ultimately he finds this little 8 foot boat, he jumps in it, gets two branches off a tree and he is just rowing trying to get over there. This union boat comes along and sees him. They think theyre hallucinating and bring him aboard and take him over to the fort and they say wallace, were going to get you free. We need one or two things from you. We need you to either go back to mobile and find out everything that the confederate soldiers o the confederate soldiers. And wallace was smart enough to say im going to tell them everything i know. He spent some quality time with them and then he ended up in new york city with a niece. And he had a regular life, regular job working in hotels and things of that nature. And then he passed from a kidney infection. And years later his niece finds a manuscript. People didnt know wallace could read and write. And he had kept notes on his life in mississippi, his life in mobile, and she provided that to an author by the name of dr. David blight. And he wrote the story of a slave no more. As a result of that the National Park service did come to mobile a couple of years ago. Dr. Joycelen finally did research, found the original home that was on this site along with all the family lineage and that information was presented to the National Park service. And as a result this site is now on the underground railroad, the story of wallace, a slave no more. And that is the tour. We start where the city began. We saw where the illegally kidnapped people were sold. We go out to africa town where they lived and we see entrepreneurs throughout the city and end here. This history is not in the history books. So theres multiple purposes. One is that as our founder said you have to know where youve been in order to know where youre going. Okay . We talk about the past to help us understand why some things are the way they are today and maybe will help us reconcile, okay, with the reasons that these things exist or will help us with racial reconciliation by understanding what took place in the past. The other thing is that its a motivation and an inspiration for young adults because when we talk about what these individuals accomplished 15 and 20 years after the emanseination proclamation with no mentors and today we have mentors and we have defer resources. And its just creating a desire for them to accomplish and to exceed what was done 100, 200 years ago. Or we go back to 1619. So thats our mission with the trail and with telling the story is to help with racial reconciliation and also for inspiration and motivation for young adults. Tonight on American History tv starting at 8 00 eastern on july 23rd, 1967, detroit erupted in five days of rioting and violence sparked by a police raid on an illegal bar and fueled by long simmering racial tensions. This halfhour wxyz documentary is courtesy of the archives of michigan. Watch American History tv tonight and over the weekend on cspan 3. Every saturday night American History tv takes you to College Classrooms around the country for lectures in history. Why do you all know who lizzy borden and raise your hand if you had ever heard of this murder, the gene harris murder trial before this class . The deepest cause where well find the true meaning of the revolution was in this transformation that took place in the minds of the american people. So were going to talk about both of these sides of the story here, right, the tools, the techniques of slave owner power and well also talk about the tools and techniques of power that were practiced by enslaved people. Watch history professors lead topics with their students. Lectures in history on cspan 3 every saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv. And lectures in history is available as a podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. And live on cspan 3 we take you to capitol hill for a hearing on the governments procurement and distribution strategies in response to the coronavirus pandemic mchb youre watching live coverage on cspan 3