The Dora Franklin finley africanamerican heritage trail in mobile alabama includes over 40 Historical Markers the tell the history of the city from the former location of a slave market to the civil rights era. Previously unamerican artifacts, tour guide eric finley took us from the slave market to africatown, founded by captives of the slave ship clotilda. Up next on par to, we pick up the story after the civil war with mr. Finley describing how African Americans established build businesses on the north side of town. This is the first African American mortuary in the state of alabama. They originally opened in the 18 eighties and built this building in the 19 hundreds. The real story is mrs. Alan. She started a private school directly behind us in the 18 eighties. It was just called joseph fiend allen institute. Before the emancipation proclamation, that was against a lot for African Americans to be educated. After that, schools started opening everywhere. She opened one to educate young African Americans. This family actually came to mobile from virginia, so they were never slaves. They were free and they were somewhat elite because they had a big home down near the city. In the 1880s and 1890s did not have large homes. They had a lot of friends and some of their friends were booker washington, George Washington carver. Entrepreneurs and businessmen. These guys would go fishing. Because of that relationship, a lot of her students got to go to Tuskegee University in the 1890s and 19 hundreds and on. That meant that when they graduated, they became entrepreneurs. They became teachers. They became businesspeople. They became doctors and just very successful throughout the country. So that relationship was a great bonding that they had during that time. The funeral home closed two years ago when the last sibling of the alan family the past. Just recently, it has been announced that it is going to reopen under another family mortuary. That is to take place in the near future. From here we will visit some other entrepreneurs and we will eventually and the tour with a general by the name of wallace turn inch. He was a slave that runway four times and got caught and ultimately got to mobile. We will talk about how he eventually got his freedom. This is stone street baptist church. It is the Oldest Baptist Church in the state of alabama. It was established in 1806, which was 13 years before alabama was even a state. I did not say oldest African American church. It is the Oldest Baptist Church in the state of alabama. The story goes that the individuals who worshiped here, they would be singing spirituals with so much conviction and passion that their owners started having headaches and nightmares. Ultimately, he emancipated them. He set them free. They were warshiping not too far from here and they moved to this location. Not only was it against the law for African Americans to be educated in alabama, it was against the law for them to have property in their name. Fortunately, this was an integrated parish and the property was de did in the parishioners name. They continued to worship together here until somewhere around did 1860. They move the African American parishioners who continue to build the church and in 1930 they decided they would build a new church. We all know what was going on in the 1930s, the great depression. However, they felt so strong about their fate that they started the project and completed it. The church was one of the places few places during this period that African Americans could truly be themselves because they worked very hard all week. Oftentimes they wore uniforms and in sunday could dress up in their best and be themselves in their African American church. That is the experience that we read about with stone street that was established in 1806 and it is the Oldest Baptist Church. We are now in the heart of the African American community. During the civil rights days, back with Martin Luther king and when he came to mobile in 1959, this is the International Long sherman building. This is where the long sherman used to come to find out what jobs they had. There would be a big chart in there with the boats they were assigned to. Theres also an auditorium through these red doors. In 1959, back when Martin Luther king came to mobile, and this was the only time that he spoke in mobile was in this building in 1959. Local 14 ten. Because of the state docks, we had a lot of longshoreman eye prior to all of the equipment nowadays at the do all of that work. Theres still a significant number of longshoreman, 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 we are now approaching the African American archives museum. Unfortunately, it closed two years ago because of a mold problem. It started in the hvac system and moved to the walls and the ceiling. They had to close it and they moved the artifacts down to the History Museum of mobile. They are under lock and key there. The city has committed to make it compliant. They have restored the inside. They will then come to the community to see if we want to continue with the African American heritage museum, or maybe a cultural museum, so that is open for discussion in the future. When i was growing up this was the public library. This was the only library that African Americans could go in. Even though weve always been 47 to 50 of the population in mobile, and now there are four or five other libraries, this was the only one, regardless of where you lived, if you are black, but you could go in. What we did know was that, when we got new books, there were the old books from the Main Public Library. So we made lemonade from the lemons that we had. The whole thing i remember was that no one ever told me i couldnt talk or i had to be quiet. When we opened those doors, there were two little old ladies sitting behind a desk who would look at you like they had laser beams in their eyes and bring you up if you made any noise. Strictly zero tolerance. We go on a quick historical trip that, in the 1860s we had the 13th, 14th and 15th amendment passed. African americans were than in the fasttrack. We had alabama and mobile representatives in montgomery and 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 remember that happened was that when the guys set on the bus, the train car in new orleans and said im going to covington. They said you cant sit here, he was an African American. They said you cant sit here, he says yes i can. That case goes all the way up to the Supreme Court and that was plessy versus ferguson. The decision with separate but equal. At the time, blacks were considered colored. The first train car is going to be for whites, the one on the back is going to be four colors. So its separate and equal, but you cannot sit with us. And that started just an enormous amount of different disparities. Because right after that we had the jim crow laws. Jim crow laws, white entrances and colored entrances. White restaurants and colored restaurants. We then had the ku klux klan who intimidated African Americans from voting. In alabama, most of the men that had weapons where the confederate soldiers. They became the policeman. They then created all of these laws. If you are standing on the corner you could be arrested. They amended the state constitution to say that if you were incarcerated, you could be subcontracted out for labor. That meant they would arrest people and put them right back on the plantation to work. During the same time, we had all of the lynchings from 1860. Thousands of lynchings that took place from that time. We had all these things happening during that period right up until 1954 with brown versus board of education and things settled a little. It was another ten years before the civil rights bill was passed. After that happened, we could go to any library in the city, not just the one here. The signs were finally taken down and integration took place. Even the schools werent integrated or the segregated until 1970. So this facility kind of paints that story for us, of the things that took place during that time. When you see our brochure, you see what theyve done with this building to show the difference in the size, even though African Americans were 60 of the population. It was designed by George Rogers, he was a premier architect in mobile at that time. He designed the Main Public Library as well, as well as several other buildings, but that is the national African American archives museum. So lets walk down and im going to talk about during the 19 eighties, we had something come through mobile called urban renewal. Urban renewal removed a lot of buildings, but did not renew anything. As we go down this street, this is the African American Shopping Center of mobile. There was nothing but black businesses on this street. Any and everything that you needed, you could purchase on the street. It was kind of, during the jim crow days, either you were not accepted in the White Community or you were scared to go, so businesses opened up in the African American part of the community where you could shop and buy clothes and food or go to the movies. You could see your physician or the dentist. You could get your prescriptions filled, whatever you needed. You could purchase it on the street. Appliances, restaurants, hats, clothing, shoes, it was all on this particular street. When renewal came through here, there used to be a two Story Building right here. It was the Franklin Building and on the bottom floor was the drugstore. It was called finleys drugstore number three. Well dora father started the first chain of drugstores in alabama. My father was his oldest brother. They were both pharmacists. The younger brother had more energy and created five drugstores. My uncle was a member of a group of neighbors that started a Civil Rights Organization called norm neighborhood organized workers. Their philosophy was they wanted to increase the Living Standards of African Americans in the community and provide some racial reconciliation. Well in the fifties, there was a gentleman from mobile by the name of mr. John lafleur. He was a premier civil rights leader. I think this is the hundreds hundred hundred and 58 year of the amendment and allowing ladies to vote as well. Mr. Laflore was on this building on the second floor. They had been working with the city trying to get improvements in the neighborhood and trying to improve racial relations throughout the city. He was president of the naacp. Well, they outlaw the naacp in alabama in the 19 fifties. Mr. Lieu floor being the astute person that he was, he starter not organization started the national voting. We did have a national backing. They continue to work neighborhood organize workers. That acronym was now you. And in the sixties, things started to move a little faster. And they were wanting results. They were 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 of which had a majority of African Americans so there was never an African American city commissioner and because African Americans were 45 to 50 of the population, the Community Never failed to get their fail fair return being paid, street lights, community centers. But they were never at the table when the money was being allocated. So they had no idea. Ultimately, the city was sued and the case was called bolden versus the city of mobile. Goes all the way to the Supreme Court. Supreme court looked at it, we want to act on this the lower coat center back to mobile. And it went to the capital was in the marietta act. Ultimately, it came back to the citizens to vote on. The citizens voted on it and it was approved. And when it was approved and split the city up into seven districts, three of them which were majority African American. So we had an African American representative at the table since 1984. And we have also had an African American mayor. So now, those individuals represent their district. Each district currently is getting 3 Million Dollars per district. If they dont spend the money like the constituents want, obviously they will vote someone else in. But, at least, we are sitting at the table now. When decisions are made, and when the money is allocated, which means that it can be spent in their communities, as opposed to other areas of the city. It is probably one of the most profound decisions ever made in the city. It took them Something Like ten years to get through the system. The judge that finally made the decision, there were articles in our press registry, they want him to leave the country. He was not well received after that. But things have moved. We are moving forward in the city. Theres still a lot of work to be done. But that was probably one of the greatest. Milestones of an African American community to benefit from during that time. It was as a result of neighborhood organizing. In most cases, in urban renewal it comes into a community, not only do they bomb a business but then they have a design for the renewal with financial plans to start those new businesses. If im living in a 250,000 dollar home that i built 20 years ago, and i want to replace it to the equivalent, its going to cost me probably 400, about 500,000 dollars today. A lot of these businesses, they purchased them, but they had no plan to restore them. As a result, this community has been in the state, ever since then. We are at a church which was established in 1899, originally a st. Anthonys. St. Anthony is the sign of hope, that was relevant during that period of time. African americans definitely needed hope. Someone made an anonymous donation for them to change the name to most pure heart of Mary Catholic church. That was done. It was initially established for the cradles and African Americans of the mobile community. Its been a Thriving Church in the community ever since. It has a parochial school. It has the first through the eighth grade. There was a high school, a two Story Building and a High School Closed in 1968. We had a national figure, alexis hermon, who became a secretary of labor during bill clintons administration. She came to school here. This is where she graduated from. Some of the reasons that its on the trail is that during the civil rights days, neighborhood organized workers had to have a place to meet. Ultimately, the School Cafeteria was the only place in the city that would allow them to meet, to strategize on how they were going to approach the problems that existed in the African American community, in trying to resolve them with the city. The nuns and the priests here, because this street was the main thoroughfare to the African American community, during the civil rights days, all of the marches would come down this street. And when those marches took place, these nuns and priests would be on the front lines. In fact, i remember door with me, she was about 15 at the time. The junior miss pageant was here, today its called the distinguished women of america, and there are 50 young ladies from all over the country. Quickly, they said this will be a good time to march, because we could get word out to the rest of the country on the problems that we are having in mobile, because there will be reporters from all over the country. They established a march, they marched down to the auditorium, a place that was frequently visited and supported by the African American community. But there were no African Americans that works there or on the board. To make these decisions. And as soon as they got their, they arrested them and they took them to jail in the paddywagon. On that particular occasion, mr. Leflore was on the sidewalk standing up, and he was not a part of the march, nor was he a part of the demonstrations. He was just basically observing what was going on. They arrested him. Theres a famous picture around town of him with the handcuffs on. And they took him to jail, the nuns were just standing on the sidewalk. They put him in the paddywagon and took him to jail as well. Police officers come down there and they said who are these ladies . Somebody said oh those are the nuns from the school. He said oh we dont have any nuns here he went to an open the cell door. The nuns looked at him and said were not going to everybody goes. That is how committed they were to the community and how much they supported the African American community during the civil rights days. As a result of that, they have always, school has always been involved with the disparities that took place in the community during that time. Most pure heart of mary church. We had three movie theaters on the street. There were three African American grocery stores. This was one of the few buildings that was preserved. A barbershop. Im not really sure why they didnt destroy this building, but it is an original. Next to it was a grocery store. There was a nightclub. You had businesses, clubs, any and everything that you needed to. There were service stations for gas and repair, mechanic shops. All of these vacant lots had businesses on them. There was only about ten houses on this whole street. Those are new, all of these vacant lots had businesses on them. We are now at the home of dave paton. Dave paton cut a wagon, hauling dirt around mobile. He became one of the richest realtors in the city. This was in the 18 eighties. 18 nineties, he pulled all of the dirt out of the bank head tunnel, the tunnel that takes us to the eastern shore. He laid the foundation for most of the streets of mobile, made the foundation for the Alabama State docks and one of the largest hospitals that we have, says and murphy high school. He initially wanted to build this house on government street government street is our main street. There are homes of this size about 5500 square feet. But because he was black, they would not let him build that house over on government street. Were talking, this is in the early 1900s. To be honest with you, most blacks were living in shock guns during that time. It was built by the premiere architect during that time. He had to have cash because my dad told me when he built his store in the 19 fifties, the banks were not loaning money. They did not loan black money. You for him to have George Rogers as an architect, and to build this house, he had to have plenty of cash during that time. Unfortunately, he died at a very young age from pneumonia. He was only about 47 years old. He never got a chance to enjoy the fruits of his labor. This church was on that street behind us. Eventually, they bought this vacant lots and placed that church here. They constructed the church. And then, they purchased the home. And it is now the partially nudge for their pastor. This entire area, they call it the campground. And the reason it is called the camp ground is because during the confederate war, there were over 10,000 confederate soldiers that lived in this area. With the confederates lost the civil war, the Union Soldiers moved into restore stability. It took them about five years to restore stability. Growing up, we call that the avenue, but the name was davis avenue. Today it is dr. Martin luther king. We didnt know until they changed the name that it was named after jefferson davis, the president of the confederacy right through the heart of the African American community. Reality, i guess it made sense, because African Americans did not come into this community until after the war, because it was close to the other parts of town, where they were working. They could walk to work and walk back home. You were at Franklin Primary Health care center. It is the namesake for dr. James franklin. Dr. Franklin actually grew up in tennessee and went to school at lincoln university. Then he attended the university of michigan in 1909. He had to sleep in the boiler room. Which was where the air conditioning and heating equipment was. He took his trunk, and that was his desk, and he slept on a cot. For four years. He 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. If i had no one i wouldve been doing this, i wouldve been asking him a lot of questions, but i had no idea that we would be doing this trail today. First of all, i wouldve wanted to know why evergreen . Why not montgomery, you tuskegee or birmingham . Community. That is where he started practicing medicine. There was an outbreak of flu. Says this gentleman came to his home and said, doctor franklin, my wife is dying. Please, come help me. He did. What he found out was that they would keep the house all closed up, which meant that they kept all the germs inside. And so he had them open the windows and continued to work with the patient. Ultimately, she was well. There had been a lot of people dying in the community. And so when people started to see her again, they were asking the husband, oh my goodness, how did she survive . He said, dr. Franklin came out to see her. They said, dr. Franklin . You mean the black doctor . And 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 decided to control them, he couldnt. He ultimately got doctor franklin on the train. At the time, he had two children and they came south and got off in africa town. That is how he got to mobile. You the stories in the mobile first register on the encounter. Once he got here, he started practicing. A lot of the patients from the flotilla were his patients. 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. Says and had an enormous practice, and he passed in 1972. He was 84 years old. When urban renewal took out his building, he built a little three room office right over in the parking lot behind us. And continued to practice medicine. Says at 84, he was still making house calls. He just enjoyed practicing medicine. He had a heart attack. When they closed the schools, there was none there by the name of sister marilyn. Sister marilyn and most of the nuns were admirers of him. He was a member of the most pure heart of mary church. Sister marilyn said she would go to met school, she was 37 years old. She goes to the university of South Alabama here in mobile, and the students are like, what in the world are youre going to do . Your 37 years old. She said im going to open up a Medical Clinic on the north side of town, because the one hospital that we had in this area is moving west. She said, i grew up in this community, ive been here since i was 21, at the most pure part of mary, i love the people, they love me. And that is what i want to do. And so she did. She finished met school. She came over and started practicing in his office, seeing his patience, because he had such a Large Patient base. And ultimately, she convinced her senior class, and then came over along with some of the other local doctors and started rotating through the office to see his patience. The family eventually, i guess you could say, donated to the facility, to the clinic for a dollar, and ultimately sister maryland writes a proposal, a grant. She started Franklin Primary Health care center in his name. Today, you can go in here, you can see a medical doctor, an ob gyn, you can see a dentist, one of trump on optometrist, a cardiologist, you can get your subscription prescription filled. You could have money, no money, insurance or no insurance. And there is now 23 of these clinics in this area. All from the dream of sister marilyn and the philosophy of dr. James franklin. He was an elevator operator in 1884. Do you know that Lehman Brothers started in mobile . And the reason being that cotton was the crash crop. It was the moneymaker in the u. S. This guy you stop with 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. He started an Insurance Company. What he would do is he would sell policies for people to provide a respectable burial for the relatives. He started the Insurance Company right around the time johnson and allen opened. It was very timely. He hired six other guys and they sold over 10 Million Dollars worth of insurance in the early 1900s. You run that in the calculator today, it would be close to 100 Million Dollars. So he was very wealthy in the 19 hundreds. Paid out over 3 Million Dollars worth of insurance. 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. When we tell the stories of mr. Johnson, hes a man who had no one, no mentor, no one encouraging him to do anything. He was an elevator operator. This is where we try to tell the kids, youve got to find your passion. And this is where you will get up running in the morning and this is how you become successful. Thats what this guy did back in the 18 nineties. Starting his own Company Called unity burial 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 that is somewhat blight it. 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 there is a big push in the community, by local governments to make that happen. Again, this area is the area that the confederate soldiers were in back in the 1800s. In fact, theres a lot of shotgun houses in this area. 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 and it goes through the back. Thats a shotgun house. Over here to the right, are some original confederate barracks. See those blue and green, right there . They have been back there since the 18 fifties. Somewhat renovated but those are the original barracks from that period of time. This is a shotgun house right here. Its one of those. Usually they are straight a narrow. And go straight back. This is the Vivian Malone jones marker. Her sister came to our board and said, you know, our sister accomplished a lot, but theres nothing in mobile to recognize what she did. She said, we would like to put Historical Marker. We said, thats a great idea, where would you like to put it . They said we would like to put it right in front of where our homestead was. This is where we grew up. From that block to the next block, there was nothing but homes behind this. Over to the left, is the Mobile County health department. And so ultimately, they bought this property and made it a parking lot. And they move these homes to other areas. This is where we grew up, this is where we would like to have it. Ms. Malone attended the university of alabama and thats when George Wallace stood in the door and said segregation today, tomorrow and forever. Robert kennedy was attorney general and sent in the National Guard and of course, he stepped out of the way, she entered the school and graduated. From stories with the sisters, she did not have any difficult times while she was there. And i must say, she was not the first African American to attend school there, but vivian was the first African American to graduate. So when she graduated, no one in alabama would provide her job. Lawyer so ultimately saw she was upset that she had gone to the school. She gets a job with the department of justice in washington, d. C. 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 that is the story of ms. The Vivian Malone jones, who opened a lot of doors. The city made this honorary Vivian Malone jones way as a complementary to the Historical Marker in place in front of where the homestead used to be. H Roger Williams grew up all in louisiana on a sugar plantation. He wants to be a pharmacist. He goes to pharmacy school, comes to mobile and opens up a drugstore right here. On dauphin street. 1896, he decides that he wants to be a physician. He goes to a harry medical school in nashville, tennessee. He becomes a doctor and opens up his Doctors Office upstairs. Doctors office upstairs, drugstore downstairs. Called live and let live. His home was over in the parking lot across the street. Lawyer the White Citizens Council comes to him and they said, well, i doubt they said doctor williams. Lawyers they told him he needed to put a sign up here that said colored, because this was in the jim crow days. He being the smart and independent person that he was, he found a picture of himself, blew it up about the size of that poster, and put it in the window. He was a brown skinned guy, and he said, do you think they will not colored . Lets talk to Roger Williams. He was very involved throughout the community, different medical societies and pharmaceutical associations. This is right in the heart of the community. It was on the edge of the city during that time. Because remember, fort whiting was the city, which was about two miles from here. We were on the outskirts at that time. This area was very heavily populated by creoles. Record this is the volunteer creole fire station, which was established in 1890. The building was constructed in 1869. In order to work here, you 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 families volunteered at the fire department. You can see thats where the carts and buggy would come out with the water on it. They put out fires for everybody. You just had to be a creole if there was a fire. Upstairs was like a great room. There was a pole and they would bring you down to the first floor. This right now is the home of a private individual. He left the front of it like it did, like it was to honor and preserve the story of the creole fire station. But back in the 18 eighties, they used to have community parties because the top floor is like a great room. There was this guy having a party in 1882, by the name of john pope, and he breaks out a hornet and starts playing it. And somebody else goes up and gets the saxophone, trombone, clarinet, drums, and they have a jam session going on. That was the beginning of a band that we had here. They had been playing in front of every parade since 1882. They will be in the parades tonight. They will be a league ban. And so this is where they started. Well if you are kriel, you are considered free. You could be educated. You could own your own property, business you had all the rights and freedoms of a white person, except that you could not vote. That was the only thing it created a disparity for many years between African Americans and creoles. You had a decision to make. During that time if you were a creole, you had all that freedoms, but if not, you are going to be working at somebodys kitchener plantation. All of that change in 1964 with the passage of the civil rights bill. This is the creole fire station that just celebrated 200 years. This year. And the establishment of this fire station. Theres one family that is had a Family Member in this fire station since 1869. There are three of them right now that are members of the mobile fire department. It is an amazing story that their great grandfather and father and dad and now the children, are still firemen in the mobile fire department. Myiti here we are at it takes a village. This marker was done in conjunction with mobile united leadership. We have collected from hidden figures, kind of similar to the movie about the ladies that worked for nasa. The first person that we see is a lady by the name of dr. Regina benjamin. Doctor benjamin grew up over near the most pure heart of mary church. She goes to Xavier University and ultimately becomes the Surgeon General of the United States during president Barack Obamas administration. Says right here for mobile. She now has a clinic out in the western section of the city, says so she is still getting back to the community all the time. The next gentlemen went to one of the local high schools here, williamson high school. Look he used to blow up things in the Chemistry Lab and said his moms kitchen on fire. Ultimately, he goes to Tuskegee University to become a ph. D. Engineer. Works on the beat two stealth bomber. Then he invented the super soak or, the water gun that shoots over buildings and across the street, and he sold over a billion dollars worth. And recently, he returned to mobile about eight months ago, presented a check to the Mobile County Public School system for 7. 5 Million Dollars to start a robotics school. Interesting enough, the same high school that he attended finished third in the overall presentation of robotics at the state contest a couple of years ago. So hes given back all the time. His lab is in atlanta, georgia. The third gentlemen you Major General Garrett Cooper. Major general Garrett Cooper also attended the heart of mary school. He finished and attended notre dame. When he graduated, he decided he would volunteer and join the marines. Upon entry, they wanted to make him a supply officer. He said, i think i will see if i can maybe find my way into another avenue in the military. Ultimately, he becomes an infantry commander. The first africanamerican ever to be. He was on the frontlines during the vietnam conflict. The two stints, returns to mobile. The air force called him back as a deputy administrator. He goes back, to the air force for a couple years, comes back to mobile. They appoint him ambassador to jamaica for several years. He returns back home and he becomes, appointed head of the department of Human Resources in montgomery, alabama. He returns back home and becomes a District Representative for the area that he lived in, here in mobile. He returns back to mobile as ceo and president of Commonwealth National bank. Recently retired, now he just manages his familys funeral business. So those are our hidden figures. Those are just a few. There are many, many more in the city. Its pretty busy here tonight. Why is that . This is mardi gras. Let the good times roll. Mardi gras is kind of synchronize with the little trickle catholic here. 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 combination of the year. Its about five weeks. So its always the tuesday before ash wednesday, which is 40 days before easter. And then we start the process all over again. Of course, the celebration was brought to mobile by the founders of flynn mobile, the lemoyne brothers. So we like to see mobile is the first place from mardi gras because they founded mobile in 1792, and pierre founded new orleans in 1718. They brought the celebration to the new world, and then they took it to new orleans. John its the best place for mardi gras, its a fun time and that is in the air. You will see the people, everybody is excited and having fun, tonight is the first parade of the year. Wallace was a 17yearold slave in mississippi. He tried to run away four times. Each time he would run north, and he would get caught. They would bring him back and beat him unmercifully. During that time, you could get jobs beating slaves by the number of lashes or by the hour. Finally, unbelievably, his owner became sympathetic and brought him to mobile and had him auctioned off at john ragland slave market. The guy that purchased him before this building here, that was an antebellum home. He was a merchant marine. He purchased wallace. All he wanted wallace to do was to walk his horses. He was fond of horses. Wallace was walking one of these horses down dawson street one day and somebody spoke to him and couldnt catch him. He had to come home and tell his men. He couldnt catch him, he said wallace, go downstairs because theyre going to want to talk to you when he comes home. He was not gonna take another beating. He was out the door and started running instead of running north here and south. In mobile, when you run south, you run into water. He ran for a day and a half all the way to the end of the county. He was down in dauphin island. And you could see the Union Soldiers over at the port. He couldnt figure out how to get there. Because the water was 40 or 50 feet deep. He saw these confederate soldiers, every day they would go on to this look out and look over and see what the Union Soldiers were doing. At night, they would leave. He ran through alligators, snakes, mosquitoes, bugs. Everything. He would go up into the booth to shield himself from the bugs and then leave the next morning before the post got back. Ultimately, he found a little eight foot boat, jumped in, slip gets to branches off a tree and he is just rowing trying to get over there. The union vote comes along and sees him. They think they are hallucinating. They bring him aboard, they take him to the fort. They say, wallace, we are going to get you free. We need one or two things from you. We need you to either go back to mobile and plot out everything the confederate soldiers are doing or tell us what you know. Wallace was smart enough to say, im going to tell you what i know. Because im getting out of here. And he did. And he got to north carolina, where he saw his mother and his sister that he had not seen for 20 years. Spent some quality time with them. Then he ended up in new york city. He just had regular life, regular jobs working in hotels, and things of that nature. He passed from a kidney infection. Lears later, his niece finds a manuscript. People didnt know that wallace could read and write. He had kept notes on his life in mississippi, his life in mobile, and she provided that to an author, by the name of doctor david blake, and he wrote the story of slave no more. As a result of that, the National Parks service, they came to mobile a couple years ago. Doors sister, dr. Finley, did research, found the original home that was on the site along with all the lineage, family lineage. And that information was presented to the National Park service. As a result, this site is now on the underground railroad, the story of what wallace turnage, a slave no more. We saw where it would begin, we saw where that you illegally kidnapped people were sold, out to africa town where they lived, and we have seen entrepreneurs throughout the city, and we end here with wallace turnage, a slave no more. This history is not in the history books. There are multiple purposes. One is that, as our founder said, you have to know where you have been in order to know where youre going. We talk about the past to help us understand why some things are the way they are today. And maybe, it would help us reconcile with the reasons that flip these things exist, but will help us with racial reconciliation. By understanding what took place in the past. The other thing is that it is a motivation and inspiration for young adults. Because when we talk about what these individuals accomplish, 15 and 20 years after the emancipation proclamation. With no mentor, we have mentors. We have different resources. And its just creating a desire for them to accomplish and to exceed what was done 100, 200 years ago. We go back to 16 19. So that is our mission. With the trail and with telling the story we and its to help with racial reconciliation and also for inspiration and motivation for young adults. [drumbeats]. Each week, real america brings archival films that provide content for todays Public Affairs issues. Each week, American History tvs reel america brings archival films that provides context for todays Public Affairs issues. Beginning with professor gary armstrong, discussing the u. S. Rejection of the u. S. Treaty of versailles and world war i, which president Woodrow Wilson had spent several Months Overseas negotiating. Watch tonight beginning at eight eastern. Enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend, on cspan three. I. Weeknights this month were featuring previews of whats available on cspan three. From americas history bookshelf series, american authors on the rise of andrew jackson. Mixed manipulation and the making of modern politics. The book examines Andrew Jacksons 1828 election to the nations highest office. Watch thursday night, beginning at eight eastern. Enjoy American History tv this weekend every weekend on cspan three. Gerald ferraro is the first woman nominated for a Vice President ial ticket. She accepted the Vice President ial nomination at the 1984 Democratic National convention in san francisco. She and nominee lawn deal would lose the election to gop is Ronald Reagan and george h. W. Bush