It. He got to thinking on his way back, mobile which is close to 300 years old, and he heard his family discussed a lot of the contributions africanamericans had made, so i think this is something we could do in mobile and do it well. He started looking around the city for someone to take on the opportunity of a challenge just depending upon the perspective they looked at it from. After nine months of searching, he found a young lady that said, i will take on the opportunity. Her name was Dora Franklin finley. Dora was my double first cousin. Thats another tour. We wont take that one today, but she accepted the opportunity. She spent five years of her life doing research on places that africanamericans had made significant contributions to the city of mobile. When she finishes, she had 39 locations throughout the city. We will visit about 20 of those today. If i took you on all of them it would take us 6 hours. I would have to find out how you like your fish. Fried or broiled . Do you like your steak medium or well . Its five or six hours. We can cut it down to about two hours. I cant hold your attention much longer than that. But when she finished, we started the tour from this location because this is where it started from. It was in 1702 king louis the 14th contracted with two explorers out of quebec, canada. They were the lemoine brothers. Pierre and jean baptiste. He asked them to find a shortcut to new orleans and he wanted information about the Mississippi River for commerce, because it goes all the way up through wisconsin. They set sail and actually ended up in pensacola. Pensacola was occupied by the spanish. They didnt want that war, so they headed west. Our gulf of mexico is about 20 miles south of where we are right now. They took a little too sharp of a turn to the right and ended up in the mobile river. They actually passed through mobile, 27 miles north of here. We refer to it as 27 miles north bluff sometimes. They settled there for nine months a great flood and an outbreak of yellow fever came about and pushed them to this location where we are now. The first fort is probably about one mile east of here. Ultimately, the fort behind us was established. This is a replica of the original fort. It is done on a 4 5 engineering scale and it is one third the size. This was done in 1976 for the bicentennial celebration of the united states. In 1702 when the city was founded, king louis the 14th being the gracious king he was, he sent a couple more ships. They had females on them. He sent them over to mary the soldiers so that he could grow the community. A lot of them did marry the soldiers. We know now that they had nicknames. Some people called them caskets because they brought yellow fever here and some of the soldiers died. We found out also that they were orphans from the Roman Catholic church and their chaperones were nuns, but they married the soldiers and the community did grow. History is history, so we tell the story as it is. There were other ships that come. Some came from the Dominican Republic. Those ships had concubines on it. During this time, mobile being a seaport town, it was kind of loose and the wives would allow their husbands to have companions. A lot of the ladies that came from the Dominican Republic were companions. And they had children. Those children today, we refer to them as creoles. An africanamerican mom with a french and spanish dad, that offspring is creole. As you know, we have a lot of creoles here in alabama and louisiana. We wanted to give you a foundations to the city and how it got started in the fact that the city was in these walls that we see. That was the city. The moment you walked outside of those walls, you were out of the city. This is where we started. Now we will proceed to our first marker, the first historical marker, which is the slave market. The lemoine brothers founded mobile in 1702. New orleans was not founded until 1718. They had the first parade here in 1703. So when Pierre Lemoine founded new orleans, he took that celebration from mobile and started it in new orleans. This was a very diverse part. That guy looks like louis armstrong, he represents the bands that play in the parade. And then there is the africanamerican king and queen statue as well. That is how we stay with the birthplace of mardi gras, because we were founded 16 years before new orleans. I add my little footnote to say we are glad people think new orleans is the place to go, so we can have fun and all those crazy people can go to new orleans. [laughter] this is the Central Business district area. When i was growing up, we had no malls. This is where you would buy everything from socks to a hat. Now that has changed. Its all restaurants, clubs, entertainment, legal offices, hotels. The nature of the business changed. We will talk about that briefly, how that changed in the late 1980s. Ok, so this is the site of the slave market where illegally kidnapped individuals were auctioned off in the 1600s, 1700s, 1800s. Keep in mind we are two blocks away from the water. None of these buildings were here. The ships would come in and dock at the water and they would have traveled for two to three months from africa with the illegally kidnapped individuals in the bottom of the ship. Thats where they ate, thats where they slept, thats where they used the bathroom. Environmentally, it was unbelievable. In fact, they say the stench was so bad that no one would go below to check on them. They would be shackled and chained in a slot about the size of a casket. If someone got sick or someone died, they stayed in that position until they got here. Eric knows he would not have been able to survive in that environment. Those had to be some very strongwilled individuals to make that journey. Once they got here, they would bring them over to this site. Naked in shackles and chains. They would keep them in this building for maybe a week to remove any of their marks from the shackles and the chains, get them looking somewhat healthy, and on a day like today, they would have passed out flyers that there would be an auction at john ragland slave market. The business would be out here, eating popcorn, drinking water, milling around, and then an auctioneer would step out of those black doors behind us with one of the illegally kidnapped individuals. Then they would start the auction. Black male, 18 years old, good health, all teeth. They would start the auction. 100, 200. Sometimes they would sell for as much as 1000. This was the First Time Ever of this type of slavery. Slavery had existed for centuries. Indentured servants. But this was something new. It was called chattel slavery. Chattel slavery is you were purchased like a piece of furniture or an animal and you became the property of that individual for the rest of your life. These individuals had no idea they were on a different continent. They didnt know where they were. They knew that they would be separated from their wife or husband and children. That in itself was creating a lot of anxiety and was very inhumane. Thats what took place here. Hopefully we will never, ever see anything like that again. But thats what transpired here at this location. The john ragland slave market. The building, just through deterioration over time, and then this is the side of alabama powers, so when they purchased it, they did leave the concept of two doors and a platform. That is where they would lead them out to the auctions. The next stop is africatown. So we are now traveling on land the same route that the last illegal ship with kidnapped individuals to come into the u. S. Back in 1860. It was the result of a bet made by a local rich, White Plantation owner by the name of timothy mayher. That bet was he could bring in 100 illegally kidnapped individuals in 1860. Keep in mind, in 1860, slavery was still legal, but the slave act of 1808 had passed and it said it was against the law to import anyone from outside of the u. S. , and if you were caught and found guilty by a jury, you could be hung. Timothy mather took this because he thought alabama would secede from the union and slavery would be legal again. He goes out and hires a guy by the name of captain foster. Captain foster had an 86 foot schooner called the clotilda. And then captain foster hires 11 crewmen and they leave out of the port of mobile with 75 yards of lumber on top of the clotilda. I want to show you something over here. This building closed about a year ago. Do you see who it is policed by . Meaher. There is a police sign on the side of the building. That is the same family. Fourth or fifth generation that owns the property and they have property from mobile, up to 27 miles from here. Actually around 25 million worth of property. Most of it for lease. Very seldom do they sell it. We are going to talk about that as well. I wanted to pointed out because we are in downtown mobile. Captain foster leaves out the port of mobile on the clotilda with 11 crewmen and the lumber. It looked normal when he left out of the port to the custom agents as if he was going to houston or south america to sell lumber. Alabama was known as a forestry state and still is. Instead, what they did on the way to africa, they built 130 slots underneath the boat to house the individuals that they were going to bring back from africa. Captain foster gets from africa and he gets to the country called the kingdom of dahomey. Today if we were to google that, it is the country of benin. He gets an interpreter. The interpreter takes them to a warehouse. There were 4000 naked individuals. The captain was shrewd. He said the bet was for 100, but i need 130 in case some of them die, if i have to kill some, or if they commit suicide. I want to make sure Timothy Meaher wins that bet. He tells the interpreter to get him individuals from four or five different tribes so that way, he would have less of a chance of a mutiny upon return because they did not speak the same language. And then he said for every man, get me a woman, and for every little boy, get me a girl. If you look to the right, you will see a bridge suspended like a ship. The clotilda was a two mast ship that bridge was constructed in 1995. Prior to that bridge, we had a little two lane bridge that would take us to the Eastern Shore. It crosses the mobile river. Captain foster is at the dock in the kingdom of dahomey, in the process of leaving, and some of the enslavers started to retrieve some of the individuals they had sold them and captain foster had to leave in a hurry. He actually left about 20. So hes returning with 110 illegally kidnapped individuals. Somebody leaked to the custom agents on the docks that someone was trying to sneak in 100 illegally kidnapped individuals, so they were on the lookout for the clotilda. And the clotilda was a very uniquely designed vessel because it could travel and navigate in the Atlantic Ocean as well as in local bays where the water is shallow. So they had an idea of which vessel they were looking for. Timothy meaher, someone alerted him that authorities were looking out for the clotilda. He sent a paddleboat in the gulf of mexico to meet the clotilda, and when it did, they took those individuals and hid them in the cane break and snuck in during the middle of the night and all got out the load of the bridge, shackled and chained and naked. They then brought in the clotilda by towboatus and took it nine miles north of that bridge and set it afire. The reason they did that is because they said the stench was so bad it would have been impossible to clean it up and would have been evidence that is the boat those individuals came in on. During this short period of time, Timothy Meaher and captain foster were arrested, but they were never actually prosecuted because they could not find the clotilda. One third of those individuals that were on the vessel ended up in selma, alabama with one of Timothy Meahers brothers and associates and one third of them stayed here in this community and then there was a third scattered all over this area. Then 1861, not long after, the civil war breaks out. When the civil war breaks out, those agents leave mobile because it was a confederate hotbed and they knew their lives would not be worth a nickel. As a result, Timothy Meaher and captain foster were never prosecuted. Those individuals, they say, we dont know where they came from. They just appeared because they realized if they claimed them and if they were found guilty, they could be hung. 1863, the emancipation proclamation was signed. When it was signed, it freed all the slaves in the 10 confederate states. Abraham lincoln, the president , being very astute, he knew that the next president could expand the emancipation proclamation because it was an executive order. We know what some of the current president s have done to executive orders. They can resend it. Then most africanamericans could be slaves again so he vigorously worked to get the 13th amendment passed. Obviously it was passed, and of course we are entering africatown now. When the 13th amendment was passed, of course, abe lincoln had been assassinated. But when it did pass, it abolished slavery throughout the united states. When that happened, most of the individuals that were on the clotilda, they came back to this area, because they said, if we can get back to where we got off of that ship, we can get back home. Thats all they wanted to do, get back to africa. So they came back to this area. There was one gentleman that could always bring focus out of chaos. His name is he had an african name. His american name was kudrow lewis. That means monday morning. So they went to him and said, listen, we want to get back home. We want you to negotiate with Timothy Meaher and do whatever it takes to get us out of here. And of course he said, i have just the deal for you all. You work for me and you will earn enough money to go back home. It was like presharecropper days. Every friday when it went to get paid, that money went to food, clothing, and shelter. They never had discretionary money. They came to the resolve they were just have to stay in this community. They did not understand the language, the customs. But they made a way out of no way. They brought their customs, their culture to this community and they said this is our africatown and that is how it got its name. Zip code wise, it is a part of mobile. Its about a 12. 5 square mile area, and colloquially, there are three or four different communities out here. Theres plateau, magazine point, the hill, lewis quarters. They are all a part of africatown. So they ended up staying in this community. I tell you, i stopped right here, because about 18 months ago, one of our local journalists was out in the delta looking for the clotilda and fishing. It was in january. So the tide was low. He saw the bow of a boat sticking up and he said, i think thats the clotilda. We have been looking for it for 160 years. The meaher family said it never existed. They didnt know what happened to it. Well, when the journalist said this is it, we got attention from all over the world. National geographic picked up this story. They sent in one of their lead editors. He came in and in a short period of time, they said no, its not the clotilda. During that brief period of time, the community was awarded a 3. 5 million grant. That grant is to establish a Welcome Center. It could be right where we are today. Thats kind of where i stopped at this point. That Welcome Center hopefully will be Something Like an imax theater that will give us a view of the life of the countries these individuals came from. It would give us a place to have this history preserved for these individuals that came here 160 years ago. During that time, National Geographic also financed nine divers to come into mobile to go out into the delta. The delta is the second largest in the u. S. Absolutely beautiful. It is pristine. A couple of areas out there were the kids go out on wave runners and have fun, but for the most part, it is in its original state. They go out and they were out there for two weeks, 14 hours a day, looking for the clotilda. Not only did, at the time, they said we found 10 ships, they identified one. They said, we will present a comprehensive report in an open meeting, but not today. And they did, ultimately. They came back nine months later with an open meeting and they said, we found the clotilda, thats it. Its 25 feet under water in sand. We are not sure if we can bring it up. It might disintegrate. That is to be determined. They have engineers right now that are trying to determine if they can bring it up. They did bring up some artifacts. They are doing dna testing on those artifacts. It has been announced that ultimately, they will be on display in one of the museums in the city somewhere. But the most profound thing that took place was the fact that they validated that was the clotilda. There are about 300 fourth and fifth generation descendents living in this community. They were finally able to bring closure that that is the ship their ancestors came on. For 160 years, it has just been a rumor. The meaher family never ever validated and never presented a manifest, and never stated they had anything to do with it. It was always rumored, we dont know where those people came from, they just appeared in the woods in shackles and chains. This was the moment, even though they knew from stories, but the community and nationwide, it was always a rumor and not validated that these individuals came in on the clotilda. That brought closure to these families. We are now at the old Plateau Cemetery established by cudjo lewis and descendents of the clotilda. When doris started the tour, this area looked like what we see over to the left. You could not get in here. The trees and the brush had grown six feet tall. Doris writes a grant, and the grant was approved. She brings in the college of william and mary, the second oldest in the u. S. Originally the anthropology department, dr. Neill norman, the archaeology department. The lead sentence the senior class. They borrowed heavy duty equipment from the Eastern Shore and they came in and cut down the trees and the brush the way you see it tapered like it is today. Well, if you look, there is a headstone back there thats about six feet tall. That is a commemorative headstone that was put back for cudjo lewis. He helped establish the cemetery, the church across the street, Union Baptist church, and the training school. That was put in his honor. Hes buried in the cemetery my but not necessarily dead. If you will look, some of the gravesites do not have headstones. So that peaked doriss interest. They borrowed Ground Penetrating equipment from the Eastern Shore. Anywhere they saw a body in the ground, they put a flag. When they finished, they had over 1800 flags in this cemetery. Because some of them dont have names on them, you have to have known doris, they didnt get a group of Community Leaders and some of the universities and then goes to probate court, and they go to the health department. They find the name of every person that was buried in that cemetery. They found the date they were born, the date they died, their name, and in some cases, what they died from, and military experience. There is a buffalo soldier buried here. There are world war i and world war ii veterans. When they finished, they had all 1800 names on the spreadsheet. When you go to the website and click on old Plateau Cemetery, there is a pdf file with all of that information on it. They did an enormous amount of work. It is a very spiritual cemetery. There are gravesites in here that are from the mid1800s. You can go 20 yards past cudjoe lewisheadstone and they could not get the equipment past that, but they could not cleared out because of the terrain. You can see how the property over the last 100 years, because we are surrounded by creeks, and there are probably springs running underneath, and the terrain has dropped down. This cemetery actually closed in the 1970s. There are no burials being made as we speak. There is a newer cemetery to the south of us that opened right after that, and there are burials currently being made in that cemetery today. Old Plateau Cemetery, when these individuals first came to the u. S. , they did not practice christianity. They practiced voodoo, the primary religion of africa and haiti. They have a creole version in haiti. Ultimately, they were converted to christianity and worshiped in several churches in the community. Most of the descendents are buried here. Up until five months ago, we always said that cudjoe lewis was the oldest surviving member of the clotilda. He was 95 and died in 1935. However, there was an author in the United Kingdom that had been doing research on the group that went to selma. She found that there was a lady that was on the clotilda, when she got here, they forced her to get married to another enslaved individual. They renamed her and she worked for a rich White Plantation owner who ultimately became president of a bank. She lived until 1937. So we had to put a footnote on everything that she lived, she was younger than cudjo lewis. Most of them were somewhere between the ages of 12 years old when they came in. She was one of the younger ones that came over during that time. But we will go to lewiss and theres still some people that practice voodoo and every now and then, when i am doing tours, i can see they have had a celebration. Used to be around his headstone, they would leave silver dimes which is symbolically significant in their practice. Every now and then, i will see candles strategically located. I happened to meet some of them and they invited me to their services, so i am reading up on voodoo so i will have a basic knowledge when i go to the service. I will not be totally oblivious. So i can talk about it more intelligently when i do the tours. This headstone was put back here in the year 1992. The mayor at that time was michael dow. We had a city council or councilman by the name of frederick richardson. He is still a city councilman. And dr. Yvonne kennedy assisted with the financing. It was put back here to commemorate everything that he did in the city. We can walk back here and i can kind of show you. Theres not a lot of descendents left for these individuals. We can go back here and this gravesite beyond this area. They just cannot get the trees back there. Military, private first class u. S. Army. Here is one with no name on it. I just this is heartbreaking. I do not know what you can do. Not much you can do without a lot of money. This is a descendent. He was not born in africa, but he is a descendent of the lewis family. Theres some we will walk up here. This is the keeby. 1834. She was a descendent. She died in 1906. Wait a minute. Does that say the was 70 . Age was 70 . That would mean she was on the clotilda. Family in this area. We concentrate on that ship, but there were others that came from other parts of africa. Because we do not have a lot of manifests, it is a challenge to know what part of africa they came from, but we do know that there were african plays here prior to the flotilla. It was the last one to come. Born, 1834. This was a buffalo soldier. 1834. He would have been 26 when he got here. In 1859. What do you think should be done here for this cemetery . You know, that is a good question, and when i think about the family, 25 million worth of property in this area, and not that anyone has ever asked for reparations, but i think this would be a Worthy Investment if that family could invest money in this cemetery to bring it up to standards. That would be a good, good investment. The community would appreciate it. Most people just want to talk to them just to find out what they know about their ancestors. I think it would be rewarding to see them invest in this community in areas like the cemetery. There is other work to be done as well but this is a good place to start. We will go to the church. This is Union Baptist church. It was established by the descendents of the clotilda. They practiced voodoo and then they started worshiping at a Church Called stonestreet Baptist Church on the south side of town, and then they moved here. The first two churches faced the east. The third church, they expanded the highway and they had to face the south. I neglected to point out to you in this cemetery, in the new cemetery, all the headstones based the west. In the old cemetery, they face the east, so symbolically, all they ever wanted to do is to get back home to africa and to get back to africa, you would go east, so whether they were in george or whether they had passed on, they wanted to get back home. It is just interesting that that is the way that is done. When she wrote the script for this, she wrote the history of the church. Some of the previous pastors and how the church involved from stonestreet Baptist Church to this location, and now, on the others, what she did was when she initially started this, these were some of the descendents of the clotilda. And what she did in the first column, she put their american name. He was from yoruba. She took polly allen. His african name from yoruba. Peter lee his african name was gumpa and he actually lived right there where they are working on the property. That was his homestead. There are no original structures in the Community Today as a result of deterioration, hurricanes, tornadoes, but there is a chimney on that property. Thats one of the few original structures in the Community Today. Peter lee that was his homestead. He was a descendent of the clotilda. There are some fifth generation descendents that still live in the community. I have met some descendents of them. Peter lee, cecelia lewis, charles lewis, and the turners. Probably close to maybe 300 descendents that live in the Community Today. Cudjo lewis was always that iconic person in the community that not only was he a mover and shaker, but he was that person who just made things happen, and so, as a result, even today, when decisions are being made, sometimes, people say, lets go about this a minute, think about what he would have done. As a result of that, these are the original bricks from the descendents of the clotilda and this was done just two years ago, actually, about three years ago, by a local soldier by the name of april livingston. Livingston actually volunteered to do this and started a fundraiser to complete it. It is beautiful. I put it right there with nefertiti as far as the finished product. Community of 1900 people today and a little unknown fact is that mobileproduct. We are third with the highest number of Baseball Players in the hall of fame right behind new york and california. Hank aaron, billy williams, isaac smith, gerald williams, they all play ball in mobile and in this community, and they are all in the hall of fame. Today, living in the community is jones, who was with the mets in 1969. The Mobile County training the High School Closed in 1970 with integration, as a lot of other black high schools closed during that time with integration. There is a middle school, and that middle school is still open. This bell was on the clotilda and they would ring that bell at certain ceremonies. This is our latest marker. We just placed this marker right here, and it has all the updated information on it about africa town. This is the africatown bridge that was constructed in 1995. We are going to go down to the end of this road to show you where the park is going to be, but i found something interesting. See that sign over there that says for lease, chippewa lake, llc . That is the meahar family. You will see those strategically in this area with property for lease, and this is kimberlyclark, paper manufacturing company. Prior to that, it was scott paper, and right next to it was International Paper company. Both of these facilities opened in the 1950s. Now, these are two large corporations, brought a lot of jobs, good benefits, good pensions, good health plans, into the city. A lot of people in the community worked at scott, kimberlyclark now, and International Paper company. A lot of people all over the city worked at these two facilities. A lot of people all over the city worked at these two facilities. Well, prior to that, africa town was kind of like a settlement. When these two facilities were constructed, the city of mobile annexed this area. Tax revenue. Ok . And there were jobs that were provided. However, at most paper manufacturing companies, they have these large smokestacks that go up into the air, and one of the products that is used for paper manufacturing is chloroform. And that product would be burned and released, but sometimes, it would not all dissipate, and and up end up coming out of those smokestacks like little snowflakes. And chloroform is a toxic, carcinogenic product, and as a result of that, it would of course get into the air, the water, and the ground. Well, a lot of people in this community have died from cancer. There are some class action suits against International Paper company, and theres been some awards, and there still some last action suits that are open today, so i do not know the details or the outcome, but we do know that in the 1980s, the Environmental Protection agency came out to International Paper company and they did a study, found out that they were violating a voluminous number of regulations p or they said you have to clean this place up. When they did their own internal study and when it finishes, it would be over 500 million. They closed and moved out. Scott paper closed sections that were in violation of most of the regulations, and they kept open one division that makes a big roll of paper. And they met all of the epa standards. Keep in mind that when these facilities opened, we did not have an Environmental Protection agency. The epa was not established until 1970. So they have been in operation through the 1950s, 1960s, 19 70s, and the mid1980s, before there was even studies done, and as a result of that, as i said, there were a lot of people that died from cancer. They used to be over 12,000 people that lived in this community. Now, its less than 2000. I am not saying they all died from cancer, but the younger generation, they are not coming back to this kind of environment. Somewhere in this area, the paddleboat pulled up, and those 110 illegally kidnapped individuals got up and hit in the woods for two days, naked. Until they were retrieved. Somewhere on this water. This is the mobile river. But at this point in time, the National Park service has announced that they are going to put fishing piers, they are going to put boat ranmps, and they are going to redesign this area for a National Park, so the people in the community can walk to the water and enjoy environmentally this area. We have a lot of waterways in mobile, and we all enjoy the water. It is peaceful. It is very relaxing, so that has been announced. I do not have the start dates and anticipated finished dates, but they did have a workshop out here and celebration for the announcement, and it is a part of a grant we have for the city that is going to also clean up a creek that we have that starts at the delta and goes throughout the city for 18 miles called the three mile creek. We will talk about that further into the tour. Because its going to be constructed, designed by the National Park service, that means it will not look good for just one year, because they have to maintain it. It will be wellkept for the community to enjoy. That is i think the plus side of that. But if we go north, we run into our delta, and that is where we found the clotilda. This was the first of a twopart tour of mobile, alabama. You can watch this at cspan. Org history. You are watching American History tv. Every weekend on cspan 3, explore our nations past. Weeknights as months, we feature American History tv programs different preview whats available every weekend speed spent three. Wednesday night, a panel of historians analyze the secret white house tapes of john f. Kennedy and richard nixon. The tapes provide an inside look into how president s conducted their daytoday business and we hear their candid assessments. Watch beginning at 8 pm in eastern and enjoy American History tv every weekend on cspan 3. Listen to cspans podcast the weekly. Our guest is don richie, Senate Historian americas. He discusses the constitutional steps thats only to be finalized before joe biden