Franklin finley africanamerican heritage trail. This is our fourth year doing the tours here in mobile. Actually they got started five or six years prior to that when one of our africanamerican city councilman took a trip to boston honesty business. While he was there, he saw a sign that said africanamerican heritage trail. He thought that sounded interesting, because it was kind of a novelty. It was prior to most of the museums we see today and the trails. He took the tour and he enjoyed it. He got to thinking on his way back to mobile mobile was close to 300 years old. And he had heard his family discuss about a lot of the contributions africanamericans had made. He said i think this is something we could do in mobile and do it well. He started looking around the city for someone that would take on the opportunity or the challenge, just depending on the prospective that they looked at it from. After nine months of searching, he finally found a young lady that said i will take on the
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 y
Founded businesses on the east side of town. 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 came to mobile from virginia so they were never slaves. They were somewhat elite because they had a big home in the city. And 1890, most africanamericans had shotgun homes unfortunately. That was just the way it was. They had a lot of friends, people like booker t. Washington, George Washington f. Owens and a a. N. Johnson, who was an entrepreneur. Those guys would go fishing. Because of that relationship, a lot of her students got to go to Tuskegee University in the 1900s and on, which meant that when they graduated they became entrepreneurs, teachers, business people, and very successful throughout the country. That relationship was a great bond that they had during that time. The funeral home closed
Finley took us from the sleeve market to lafayette africatown from the ship close clotilda. We pick up after the civil war with mr. Lawyer finley speaking about how african businesses flourished. They originally open in the 18 eighties and they built this building in the 19 hundreds. But the real story is mrs. Allen. She started a private school directly behind us in the 18 eighties. It was called joseph fiend allen institute. Again, in 18 hundreds it was against the law for African Americans to be educated. After the emancipation proclamation, shoot School Started opening everywhere. She opened one to educate young African Americans. But this family actually came to mobile from virginia, so they were never slaves. They were free. They were somewhat elite, because they had a big home yuck. They had a big home in the city. In the 18 eighties and nineties most African Americans had shotgun homes. Unfortunately, that was the way it was. They had a lot of friends, and some of the friends w
We return to the Mobile County Training School to record parts of the spirit of our ancestors festival. We spoke with organizer joscelyn davis. The spread of our ancestor festival is a day set aside to commemorate the descendants of the clotilda. There are festivals that started back in the eighties from the original founders of the descendants association, and i guess it stopped for a while, so i decided to start it up again. I was reading doctor natalie robertsons book, the slave ship clotilda, and the makings of africatown, thats how i came up with the title. I was looking for a title but a lot of things werent ringing a bell, but when i read her book i said, all, while spirit of our ancestors just jumped at me. You greeted everyone, and then there is a point when you had descendants speak. How did you come up with your program . Well, growing up here in africatown and attending Union Missionary baptist church, there was a bus of cudjo lewis in front of our church all my life. Back