Transcripts For CSPAN3 American Artifacts Mobile Alabama African American Heritage Trail - Part 2 20240711

Sworn in. Finds he spends the weekly where you get your podcasts. Previously, on american artifacts, tour guide eric finley took us from the safe slave market to africa town founded by captives of the slave ship clotilda up next in part two, we pick up the story after the civil war with mr. Finley describing how African Americans established businesses on the north side of town. This is the first African American mortuary in the state of alabama. They originally opened in 1880s. They built this building in the 1900s. But the real story is mrs. Allen. She started a private school directly behind us in the 1880s. It was called the Josephine Allen institute. Because in the 1800s before the emancipation proclamation, it was against the law for africanamericans to be educated. After the emancipation proclamation, schools started opening everywhere. She opened one to educate young africanamericans. This family actually came to mobile, from virginia. They were never slaves, they were elite. They had a big home near Dauphin Island and they had a big home in the city. In the 1880s and 1890s, they had shotgun homes, that was the way it was. They had a lot of friends. A lot of friends were people like booker t. Washington. George washington carver the principle of ellens accounting they would go fishing. Because of that relationship, a lot of her students got to go to Tuskegee University. That meant that when they graduated, they became entrepreneurs. They became teachers, business people, doctors and very successful, throughout the country. That relationship was a great bonding that they had during that time. The funeral home closed a few years ago when the last sibling of the allen family passed, mrs. Gray. It has been announced that it will reopen under the onford family mortuary. Owenford mortuary. Here we have some other entrepreneurs and we will in end the tour with a slave who ran away four times and got caught. Ultimately, he got to mobile, and we will talk about how he eventually got freedom. This is stone Street Baptist Church this is the oldest Baptist Church in the state of alabama. It was founded 13 years before alabama was even a eight. I did not say oldest africanamerican church. It is the oldest activist church in the state of alabama. The individuals who worshiped here, they would be singing spirituals with so much conviction and passion that their owners started having nightmares and headaches. Eventually, he set them free and they 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 in their name. This was an integrated parish. The property was deeded in the white parishionersnames. They continued to worship together until 1860, they moved to the africanamerican parishioners and continued to build the church. In 1930, they decided to build a new church. We know what was going on during 1930, it was the great depression. It has been a Thriving Church in the community, ever since. The church was one of the few places that during this period, africanamericans could truly be themselves because they worked hard all week. A lot of times they wore uniforms and on sunday, they could dress in their best and then be themselves in the africanamerican church. That is the experience that we read about with stonestreet, established in 1806, the oldest Baptist Church in the state of alabama. We are now in the heart of the Africanamerican Community. During the civil rights days, dr. Martin luther king came to mobile in 1959. This was the International Longshoreman building. This is where they came to find out what jobs they had. They would look in this window and there would be a chart of what boats and ships they were assigned to. There is also an auditorium through these red doors. In 1959, dr. Martin luther king came to mobile. This was the only time that he spoke in mobile, was in this building in 1959. Because of the state docks, we had a lot of longshoreman, prior to all of the equipment nowadays. There is 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. Now we are approaching the africanamerican archives museum. Unfortunately, it closed two years ago because of a mold problem. It started in the hvac system, moved to the walls and ceilings. They had to close it and moved the artifacts down to the History Museum of mobile. They are under lock and key there. The city has committed to making it ada compliant. They have restored the inside. They are going to come to the community to see if we want to continue with africanamerican Heritage Museum or maybe a cultural museum. When i was growing up, this was the davis avenue public library. This was the only library africanamerican could go in. Even though we have always been 47 to 50 of the population and mobile, there were four or five other libraries, but this was the only one, regardless of where you live, if you were black, that you could go in. What we didnt know was that when we got the new books, they were the old books from the Main Public Library. We made lemonade out of the lemons that we had. No one ever told me that i could not talk, i had to be quiet. When we opened those doors, the ladies behind the desk would look at you like they had laser beams in their eyes and they would burn you up if you made any noise. A real quick historic trip. In the 1860s, we had the 14th and 15th amendment passed. Africanamericans were in the fast track. We had alabama, mobile representatives in montgomery and d. C. We had u. S. And local senators. Everything was working as it was supposed to come as far as a democracy. What happened was, when the guys sat on the bus of the train car in new orleans and said i am going to covington. They said, you cannot sit here. Dykyk the decision was separate but blacks were considered colored. They said the first train car will be for whites. The one in the back will color people. It was separate but equal. After that, we had the jim crow laws. Colored restaurants and white restaurant. Then we had the ku klux klan, that intimidated africanamericans from voting. In alabama, most of the men who had weapons were the confederate soldiers, so they became the policeman. They created all of these laws, like a lottery. If you were standing on the corner, you could be arrested. 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 plantations to work. During this same time, we had all the lynchings from 1860 to 1950, over 4000 lynchings that took place during that time. We had all of these things happening during that period, right up until 1954 with brown v. Board of education and things settled a little. Another 10 years before the civil rights bill was passed. We could go to any library in the city, not just this one. The jim crow laws were taken down. Immigration took place. Even the schools were not desegregated until 1970, in this area. 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 dora did. Showing the different in the size, even though africanamerican were 50 of the population. It was designed by George Rogers, the premier architect and mobile during that time. He designed the Main Public Library as well. That is the national africanamerican archives museum. Lets walk down and i will talk about time during the 1980s. We had something come through mobile called urban renewal. It renewed a lot of buildings on the but it did not renew nothing. This was the africanamerican Shopping Center of mobile. There was nothing but black businesses on this street. Anything you needed, you could purchase on this street. It was kind of during the jim crow days. Either you were not accepted in the white, or go to businesses opened in the africanamerican part of the community, rate you could shop, you could buy clothes, get your prescription filled. Whatever you needed, appliances, five and dime stores, restaurants, hats, clothing, shoes. It was all on this particular street. Urban renewal came through. There used to be a twostory building right here. On the bottom floor was the drugstore. Doras father started the first chain of africanamerican drugs doors in the state of alabama. He had five drugstores. My father, john, was his oldest brother. The younger brother had more energy and created five drugstores. My uncle, james, he was a member of a group of neighbors that started a civil right movement. Philosophy was they wanted to increase the Living Standards of africanamericans in the community and provide racial reconciliation. In the 1950s, there was a gentleman who was the premier civil rights leader. His whole mission was to register people to vote. I think this is the 150th year of the 15th amendment. It is the 100 year of allowing ladies to vote. So he was in this building on the second floor. They had been working with the city, trying to get improvements in the neighborhood, trying to improve racial relations through the city. He was president of the naacp. They outlawed the naacp in alabama in the 1950s. So being the astute person he was he started another legislation that did the same thing, but it did not have national backing. They continued to work. The neighbor organized workers, that acronym was now. In the 1960s, things started to move faster and they wanted results faster. They wanted things to happen now. One of the most profound legal things that happened was mobile was set up with three districts, none of which had a majority of africanamerican. There was never an africanamerican city commissioner. Because africanamericans were about 4550 percent of the population, the Community Never failed to say they were getting their fair return as far as sidewalks, streetlights and community centers, but they were never at the table when the money was being allocated. Ultimately, the city was sued and the case was olden sorry bolden versus the city of mobile. The lower court sent it back to mobile and it went to the capital. Ultimately, it came back for the citizens to vote on it. The citizens voted on it and it was approved. When it was approved it split the city into different districts. Because of that we have had an africanamerican representative at the table since 1984. We have also had an africanamerican mayor. Each district is currently getting 3 million per district. If they do not spend the money like the constituents want, they will vote somebody else in. 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. One of the most profound decisions ever made in the city. It took Something Like 10 years to get it through the system. The judge who finally made the decision, there were articles and they wanted him to leave the country. He was not well received after that. Things have moved. We are moving forward in the city. Still a lot of work to be done, but that was one of the greatest milestones for the Africanamerican Community to benefit from during that time. In most cases with an urban renewal coming into a community, not only did they buy the business but they have a design for the renewal with financial plans to start those new businesses. If i am living in a 250,000 home that i built 20 years ago, and i want to replace it to be equivalent, it will cost me about 400,000 to 500,000 today. And so a lot of these businesses, they purchased them, but they had no plan to restore them. As a result this community has been in this state, ever since then. We are at heart of mary church established in 1890 1889, originally as saint anthonys. Saint anthony was the saint of hope. Africanamericans definitely needed help. Somebody made a donation for them to change their name to most pure heart of Mary Catholic church. It has been a Thriving Church in the community ever since. There is a Parochial School here that has the first through eighth grade. There was a high school. The High School Closed in 1968. We had a national figure, alexis hermon, she became a secretary of labor during bill clintons administration. She came to school here. This is where she graduated from. During the civil rights days, neighborhood organized workers had to have a place to meet. Ultimately, the schools 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 Africanamerican Community, trying to resolve them with the city. The nuns and the priests here, because this street was the main thoroughfare through the Africanamerican Community during the civil rights days, all of the marches would come down this street. When those marches took place, those nuns and priests would be on the front lines. In fact i remember dora was sharing a story with me and she was about to teen at the time. Today it is called the distinguished women of america and 50 young ladies from across the country come. This will be a good time to much because we could get word out to the rest of the country on the problems that we are having in mobile because they will be reporters from all over the country. They marched down to the auditorium, a place that was frequently visited and supported by the Africanamerican Community. But there were no africanamericans who worked there or on the board. As soon as they got there, they arrested them and took them to jail in the paddy wagon. Mr. Leflore was not part of the march or demonstration. He was just basically observing what was going on. They arrested him. There is a famous sure of him with the handcuffs on. The nuns were just standing on the sidewalk. They took him to jail in the paddy wagon as well. A Police Officer comes downstairs and asked who are these ladies . They said, oh those are nuns from most pure heart of mary. We cannot have nuns here but they would not leave, they were committed to the community. As a result of that, the school has always been involved with the disparities that took place during that time in the community. We had three movie theaters on this street. There were three africanamerican grocery stores. This was one of the few buildings that was preserved. A barbershop. All of these vacant lot had is on them. There was only about 10 houses on this whole street. All of these vacant lots had businesses on them. We are now at the home of dave patton. He had a wagon, hauling dirt around mobile. He became one of the richest realtors in the city. This was in the 1880s. 1890s, he pulled all of the dirt out of the bankhead 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 docs and one of the largest hospitals that we have largest high schools that we have, murphy high school. He wanted to build this house on government street. Government street is our main street. There are homes of this size about 5500 square feet. Because he was black, they would not let him build that house over on government street. This was in the early 1900s. To be honest with you, most blacks were livingin shotguns during that time, it was built by the premier architect, George Rogers, during that time. He had to have cash because my dad said when he built his store in the 1950s, the banks were not loaning money for him to have George Rogers as an architect, to build this house, he had to have plenty of cash during that time. Unfortunately, he died at an young age because of pneumonia. 47 years old. Eventually, they bought this again lot and placed that church here. And then, they purchased the home. It is now the parsonage for their pastor. This entire area, they call it the campground. The reason it is called campground, during the war, there were about 10,000 confederate soldiers that lived in this area. When the confederates lost the civil war, Union Soldiers moved in to restore stability. It took about five years to restore stability. Growing up, we called it the avenue, but the name was davis avenue. Today it is Martin Luther king. We did not know until they changed the name, that it was named after jefferson davis, right through the heart of the Africanamerican Community. In reality, i guess it made sense because africanamericans did not come into the 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. We are 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. He took his trunk, which was his desk, and he slept on a cot. For four years. He finished second in his medical class. That was my maternal grandfather. He came back to alabama to Practice Medicine in evergreen. If i had known i would be doing this, i would have asked him a lot of questions. I would have wanted to know why evergreen . Why not montgomery, tuskegee or birmingham . Evergreen is a small community. That is where he started practicing medicine. There was an outbreak of the flu. This gentleman came to his home and said dr. Franklin, my wife is dying. Please help me. He did. What he found out is, they would keep the house closed up, which meant that they kept all the germs inside. He had them open the windows and continued to work with the patient. Ultimately, she was mild. There had been a lot of people dying in the community. When people started seeing her again, they were asking the husband, my, how did she survive . He said, dr. Franklin came out to see her. They said, dr. Franklin . The black dr. He said yes and they said, oh no. A black man cannot touch a white woman. They were going to lynch him. The man ultimately got dr. Franklin on the train. He had two children and they came south and got off in africa town. That is how he got to mobile. Once he got here, he started practicing. A lot of the patients were from the clotilda. Ultimately, he moved his practice down on the other end 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 three room office in the parking lot behind us. And continued to Practice Medicine. At 84, he was still making house calls. He just enjoyed practicing medicine. He had a heart attack. When they closed the school, there was a nun by the name of sister maryland. Sister maryland and most of the nuns were admirers of him. He was a member of the church. Sister marilyn was 37 years old. She goes to the university of South Alabama and the students are like, what are you going to do . She wanted to open up a Medical Clinic on the north side of town because the one hospital was moving west. She said, i grew up in this community, i have been here since i was 21, i love the people and they love me and thats what i want to do. So she did. She finished medical school. She came over and started practicing in his office, seeing his patients, because he had such a Large Patient base. And ultimately, she convinced the senior class, and they came over along with other local doctors and 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 marilyn writes a proposal, a grant. She started Franklin Primary Health care system in his name. Today, you can go in here, you can see a medical doctor, ob gyn, you can see a dentist, optometrist, you can get a prescription filled. You can have money, no money, insurance or no insurance. And now there are 23 of these in the area all from the dream of sister marilyn and philosophy of dr. James franklin. He was an elevator operator in 1884. Do you know that Lehman Brothers started in mobile . The reason being is that cotton was the cash crop. It was the moneymaker in the u. S. This guy used to operate the elevator and he would hear the brokers talking in between the floors. So he said, i want to do something more with my life. He started an Insurance Company. He would sell policies for people to provide a respectable burial for their relatives. He started the Insurance Company around the time johnson and allen opened. It was very timely. 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, it would be close to 100 million. So he was very wealthy in the 1900s. Paid out over 3 million worth of insurance. Heres where we try and inspire children. We dont live in the past on this trail. We tell the past to help us try and 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 tell kids, you have to follow your passion. This is how you become successful. Thats what this guy did back in the 1890s. Starting his own Company Called unity burial life and agent skirt company. Made a lot of money. This is where he initially lived. This is where he initially lived. So we are in a part of the town that there are some programs that have been recently approved for individuals to bring houses up to code. There are several grants that are available. 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 in 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. You can see the blue and green. They have been back there since the 1850s. Somewhat renovated, but those are the original barracks from that time. This is a shotgun house right here. Usually they are straight and narrow. This is the Vivian 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. She said, we would like to put a Historical Marker. We ask, where would you like to put it . We would like to put her in front of where our homestead was. This is where we grew up. From that block to the next block, there were nothing but homes behind this. Over to the left, it is the Mobile County health department. Ultimately, they bought this property and made it a parking lot. They moved these homes to other areas in the city. They said, this is where we grew up and 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 sister, she did not have any difficult times when she was there. And i must say, she was not the first africanamerican to attend school there, but vivian was the first africanamerican to graduate. So when she graduated, nobody in alabama would provide her job. So ultimately, she gets a job with the department of justice and washington, d. C. The school did ask her to come back to do the commencement address, and she did to make a long story short, the theme of her commencement address was you must always be prepared because you never know what door you may have to walk through. And that is the story of ms. Vivian malone jones, who opened a lot of doors. The city made this and that is the story of honorary Vivian Malone jones ms. Vivian malone jones, who way as a complementary to the opened a lot of doors. The city made this honorary Vivian Malone jones way as a complementary to the Historical Marker in place in Historical Marker in place in front of where the homestead front of where the homestead used to be. Used to be. H Roger Williams grew up in louisiana on a sugar plantation. He wants to be a pharmacist. He goes to pharmacy school, comes to mobile and opens a pharmacy right here. 1896, he decided he wants to be a physician. He goes to a medical school in nashville, tennessee, becomes a doctor and he opens up the Doctors Office upstairs. Doctors office upstairs, drugstore downstairs. His home was over in the parking lot across the street. The White Citizen Council comes to him and they said well, i doubt they said dr. Williams. They told him he needed to put a sign up that said colored because this was in the jim crow days. Being the smart and independent person he was, he found a picture of himself, blew it up the size of that poster, and put in the window. Hes a brown skinned guy, and he said, do you think they will know im colored . He was very involved in the community, medical associations. This is right in the heart of the community. It was on the edge of the city during that time. 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. This is the volunteer creole fire station fire which was established in 1890. The 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 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 it 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 1880s, they used to have community parties because the top floor is like a great room. There is a man named john pope and he breaks out the hornet. Somebody else told him to get the saxophone, clarinet, and they have a jam session going up. That was the beginning of a band that we have here. They have played in front of every parade since 1882. They will be in the parade tonight. They will be 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 freedoms of a white person except that you could not vote. It created a disparity for many years between africanamericans and creoles. You had a decision to make. During that time, if you were a creole, you would be working in somebodys kitchen or plantation. It changed in 1964 with the passage of civil rights. This is the creole fire station that just celebrated 200 years. There is one family that had a Family Member in the fire station since 1869. There are three of them right now that are members of the mobile fire department. Its an amazing story. Their greatgrandfather and father and dad are now the children still firemen in the mobile fire department. Here we are at it takes a village. This marker was done in conjunction with mobile united leadership. We have selected some hidden figures, 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. Dr. Benjamin grew up near the heart of mary church. She goes to Xavier University and ultimately becomes the Surgeon General of the United States during president Barack Obamas administration. She now has a clinic in the western section of the city, so she is still giving back to the community all the time. The next gentleman went to one of the local high schools here, williamson high school. He used to blow up things in the Chemistry Lab and set his moms kitchen on fire. Ultimately, he goes to Tuskegee University to become an engineer. Works on the b2 stealth bomber. Then he invented the super soaker, the water gun that shoots over buildings and across the street that has sold over 1 billion worth. Recently, he returned to mobile about eight months ago, presented a check to the Mobile County Public School system for 7. 5 million to start a robotics school. The same high school he attended finished third in the overall presentation of robotics at the state contest a couple years ago. So hes given back all the time. His lab is in atlanta, georgia. The third gentleman is 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 an infantry commander. He was on the front lines during the vietnam conflict. Did two stents. Returned to mobile. The air force called him back as a deputy administrator. He goes back to the air force for a couple years and then back to mobile. They appoint him, and he was ambassador to jamaica for several years. He returned back home and he was appointed head of the department of Human Resources in montgomery, alabama. Returned back home and becomes a District Representative for the area 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. We have many more in the city. Its busy here tonight. Why is that . This is mardi gras let the good times roll. Mardi gras 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 a culmination of the year. Its about five weeks. So its always the tuesday before Ash Wednesday which is 40 days before easter. Of course, the celebration was brought to mobile by the founders of mobile, the lemoyne brothers. So we like to see mobile is the birth place of mardi gras because they founded mobile in 1792, and pierre founded new orleans in 1718. 1692, and pierre founded new orleans in 1718. So they started it here and took it to new orleans. Its a fun time and it is in the air. You will see the people, everyone is excited and having fun, the first parade of the year. Wallace was a 17yearold slave in north 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. Wallace was walking one of his horses down the dauphin street and something spooked the horse and he took off. He had to come home and say that the horse took off and he couldnt catch him. And she said, you go downstairs because collier wants to talk to you when you get home. He knew what that meant. He was not quite to take another beating. Instead of running north this time, he ran south. In mobile, if you run south, you will run into water. He ran for a day and a half all the way to the end of the county. He was down at Dauphin Island. He could see the Union Soldiers over at the port. The water was 40 or 50 feet deep. He saw the confederate soldiers. Every day they would look out at a lookout booth to see with the Union Soldiers were doing. At night, they would leave. So he ran through alligators, water moccasins, snakes, mosquitoes, bugs, everything. He would go into the booth to shield himself from the bugs and leave the next morning before the post got back. Ultimately he found a little eight foot boat, jumped in, and he was just rowing trying to get over there. The union boat comes along and sees him. They think they are hallucinating. They bring him aboard and take him over to the fort. They say, we will get you free. We need one or two things from you. We need you to either go back to mobile and plot out everything confederate soldiers are doing or tell us what you know. Wallace was smart enough to say, i will tell you what i know. Im getting out of here. He did. He got to North Carolina where he got to his mother and sister where he had not seen them for 20 years. Then he ended up in new york city. He just had regular jobs working in hotels. Then he passed from a kidney infection. Years later, his niece found a manuscript. People didnt know he could read and write. He had kept notes on his life in mississippi, his life in mobile, and she provided that to an author, who wrote the story of slave no more. As a result of that, the National Park service did come to mobile a couple years ago. Dr. Joselyn finley did research on the original home on this site along with the family lineage, and that was presented to the National Park service. As a result, this site is now on the underground railroad, the story of wallace turnage, a slave no more. We saw where it would begin, we saw where the 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 p this 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 will help us reconcile with the reasons that these things exist or help us with racial reconciliation by helping us deal with the past. It is motivation and inspiration for young adults. When we talk about what these individuals accomplished, 15 to 20 years after the emancipation proclamation, with no mentors, and today we have mentors and today we have different resources. It is creating a desire for them to accomplish and to see what was done 100, 200 years ago, going back to the 1690s. That is our mission with the trail and telling the story, to help with racial reconciliation, and also for inspiration and motivation for young adults. [drumbeats]. Weeknights this month, we feature American History tv programs to preview what is available every weekend on cspan 3. 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 day to day business and we hear their candid assessments. Watch beginning at 8 pm eastern and enjoy American History tv every weekend on cspan 3. The day after our African American heritage tour with eric finley, we returned the Mobile County Training School in africa town to report parts of the spirit of our ancestors festival. We spoke with organizer joscelyn davis. The spirit of our ancestors festival is a day to set aside to commemorate the descendents of the clotilda. Various festivals that