The Dora Franklin finley africanamerican heritage trail reveals 40 historical markers, from the former location of a slave market through the civil rights era. Previously, tour guide eric finley took us from the slave market to africa town founded by captives of the slave ship cl i clotilda. With mr. Finley describing how africanamericans established businesses on the north side of town. This is the first africanamerican mothrtuary in e state of alabama. They originally opened in the 1880s, and they built this building in the 1900s. The real story is mrs. Allen. She started a private school directly behind us in the 1880s, it was called Josephine Allen institute. Again 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 somewhat elite, they had a big home down near dauphin island. And they had a big home in the city. In the 1880s and 90s, most africanamericans had shotgun homes. Unfortunately, that was the way it was. They had a lot of friends. Some of their friends were people like booker t. Washington, George Washington carver. A. F. Owens, who was the principal of owens academy here in mobile. Those guys would go fishing. And because of that relationship, a lot of her students got to go to Tuskegee University in the 1890s and 1900s and on. Which meant when they graduated they became entrepreneurs, they became teachers, business people, 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 allen family passed, mrs. Gray. And just recently, its been announced that its going to reopen under the mortuary. Thats to take place in the future. In here were going to visit some other entrepreneurs, we will eventually end the tour with a gentleman by the name of wallace turnidge, he was a slave that ran away four times and got caught. Ultimately he goat to mobile. Well talk about how he eventually goat his freedom. This is stonestreet baptist church. It is the Oldest Baptist Church in the state of alabama, established in 1806 which was 13 years before alabama was even a state. I didnt say oldest africanamericans church, its the Oldest Baptist Church in the state of alabama. The individuals that worshipped here, they would be singing spirituals with so much conviction and compassion the owner had nightmares. Eventually he emancipated them, set them free. They moved to this location. Not only was it against the law for africanamericans to be ed indicated in alabama, it was against the law for them to have property deeded in their names. Fortunately, this was an integrated parish. And the property was deeded in the white parishioners names. They continued to worship together here until somewhere around 1860, and they moved the deed to the africanamerican parishioners, they continued to move the church. We all know what was going on in 1930s, the great depression. They felt so strong about their faith, they said, well start this and complete it. Its 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. They worked hard all week, a lot of times they wore uniforms, and on sunday they could dress up in their best and then be themselves. Thats the experience that we read about with stonestreet that was established in 1806 and its the Oldest Baptist Church in the state of alabama. We are now in the heart of the Africanamerican Community. And during the civil rights days, dr. Martin luther king came to mobile in 1959, this was the International Longshoreman building. This is where the longshoreman used to come to find out what jobs they would have. They would be a big chart in there with what boats and ships they were in, and which ones they were asirened to. Theres also an auditorium through these red doors. And in 1959 dr. Martin luther king came to mobile, and this was the only time he spoke in mobile was in this building in 19 1959. Because of the state docs, we had a lot of longshoreman. Prior to all of the equipment nowadays, that do 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 the work, it was all manual labor. All right, so now were approaching the africanamerican archives and museum, unfortunately, it closed two years ago, because of a mold problem. And it started in the hvac system, moved to the walls and the ceiling. They had to close it, and they moved the artifacts down to the History Museum of mobile, theyre under lock and key there. And the city has committed to right now theyre making it ada compliant. And they have restored the inside and theyre going to come to the community to sigh if we want to continue with an africanamerican heritage museum, or maybe a cultural museum, so thats open for discussion in the future. When i was growing up, this was the davis avenue public library. This was the only library that africanamericans could go in. Even though weve always been 47 to 50 of the population in mobile. And there were 4 or 5 other libraries. This was the only one, regardless of where you lived, if you were black, that you could go in, so what we did know was that when we got new books, they were the old books from the Main Public Library. We made lemonade out of lemons that we had. The only thing i remember, no one ever told me i couldnt talk. When we opened those doors, there were two little ladies that sit behind the desk they would look at you like they had laser beams for eyes, they would light you up if you made any noise. We had the 13th, 14th, 15th amendment passed. Then africanamericans were in the fast track, we had alabama, mobile representatives in montgomery, in d. C. , we had u. S. And local senators and everything was working like it was supposed to as far as a democracy. The most profound thing that we remembered, that happened was, when the guy set on the bus of the train car in new orleans and said, im going to covering tone. They said, oh, no, you cant sit here, he was an africanamerican. You cant sit here. He said, oh, yes i can. Well, that case goes amount way to the supreme court. And that was plesi versus fergusen. The decision was 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 for coloreds. So its separate and equal, but you cant sit with us. That started just an enormous amount of different disparities, right after that, we had the jim crow laws, colored entrance, white entrance. Colored restaurant white restaurant. Then we had the ku klux klan that intimidated africanamericans from voting. Well, in alabama, most of the men that had weapons were the confederate soldiers, so they became the policemen. Then they created all of these laws like loitering, if you were just standing on the corner, you could be arrested. And they amended the state constitution to say that if you were incarcerated, you could be subcontracted out for labor, which meant that they would arrest people and put them right back on the plantation to work. And then during that same time, we had all of the lynchings from 1860 to 1950, over 4,000 lynchings that took place during that time. So we had all of these things happening during that period right up until 1954 with brown versus board of education. Would have taken the size or taken down. Integration took place. But even the schools werent really integrated or desegregated until 1970. In this area. So this facility kind of paints that story for us of the things that took place during that time. When you see this brochure, she took this building and put it in the main steps of our public library. To show the size, even though africanamericans were 50 of the population. It was designed by George Rogers. He was the premier architect in mobile during that time and he designed to Main Public Library in that area, as well as some other buildings. Thats the national africanamerican archives museum. Okay . All right. So, lets walk down, and im going the talk about during the 1980s, we had something come through mobile called you aurba renewal. Well, urban renewal removed a lot of buildings, but didnt renew nothing, okay . As we go down this street, this was the africanamerican Shopping Center in mobile. There was nothing but black businesses on this street. Any and everything that you needed. You could purchase on this street. And it was kind of, during the jim you days, you were not accepted during the White Community or were accepted to go, so businesses opened up where you could shop and buy clothes, food, go to the movies. See your physician, your dentist. Get your prescriptions filled, whatever you needed. You could purchase on this street. Appliances. The five and dime stores. Restauran restaurants. Hats, clothing, shoes. It was all on this particular street. Urban renewal came through here. There used to be a twostory building here. It was the franklin building, and on the bottom floor was a drugstore. And this was doris fathers drugstore. Finless drugstore number three. Well, doris father started the first chain of africanamerican drugstores in alabama. He had five drugstores. My father, john, was his oldest brother and he started finless pharmacy one and two. They were both pharmacists. The younger brother, more energy, and created five drugstores. But my uncle was a member of a group of neighbors that started neighborhood organized workers and their philosophy was they wanted to increase the Living Standards of africanamericans in the community and provide some racial reconciliation. Well, in the 50s, there was a gentleman from mobile by the name of mr. John la flor and he was the e premeier civil rights leader. From the 20s, his whole mission was to register people to vote. I think this is the 150th year of the 15th amendment. And the 100th year of allowing ladies to vote. So, mr. La flur was in this building on the second floor and they have been working with the city trying to get improvements, trying to improve racial improvements throughout the city. He was president of the naacp. Well, they outlawed it in alabama in the 1850s. Mr. La flur, being the astute person that he was, he started another Organization Called the national partisan voter league, which did the same thing. And they continued to work. Well, they organized workers. That was now. A and in the 60s, things started to move faster. We want things to happen now. And one of the most profound legal things that happened was mobileeyere3 sidewalks. Street lights. Community centers, but they were never at the table when the money was being allocated, so they had no idea. E cy of mobile. Goes all the way supreme court. Supreme court looked at it. Judge stewart said not for sure we want to act on this. They sent it to the lower court. Lower court sent it back to mobile and it went to the capital as the zygby marietta act and ultimately, it came back for the citizens to vote on it and the citizens voted on it and it was approved. When it was approved, it split up the city into seven districts. Three of which were a majority africanamerican. So weve had an africanamerican representative at the table sent 1984 and weve also had an africanamerican committee. So now, those individuals represent their district. And each district currently getting 3 million per district and if they dont spend that money like the constituents want, obviously they bring somebody else in. Were sit iting a at the table w and when decisions are made and when the money is allocated, which means it can be spent in their communities as opposed to other areas of the city. So it was probably one of the most profound areas of the city. Took the case Something Like ten years to get through the system and the judge that finally made the decision, judge pittman, there were articles in the press register, they wanted him to leave the country. He was not well received a after after that. But things have moved forward. Were moving forward in the city and still a lot of work to be done, but that was probably one of the greatest milestones for the Africanamerican Community. To benefit from that time as a result of neighborhood organized workers. In most cases, when an urban renewal comes into a community, not only do they buy the business, but then they have a design for the renewal with financial plans to start those new businesses. Obviously, if im living in a 250,000 home and that i built 20 years ago and i want to replace it to the equivalent, its probably going to cost me 400 or 500,000 today. So a lot of these businesses, yes, they purchased them, but they had no plan to restore them. And as a result, this community has been in this state ever since then. Were at the church which was established in 1899, originally as st. Anthonys. Its the saint of hope. So that was relevant during that period of time. Africanamericans definitely needed hope. And someone made an anonymous donation for them to change the name to heart of mary church and that was done and it was initially established for the creoles and africanamericans of the mobile community. Its been a Thriving Church in the community ever since. Theres a pe rokal school here that was first through eighth grade that was a high school. Twostory billing. The High School Closed in 1968. We had a national figure. Alexis herman. She became the secretary of labor during the clinton administration. She attended school here. This is where she graduated from. Some of the reasons its on the trail is that during the civil rights days, neighborhood organized work eers had to have place to meet and the schools cafeteria was the only place in the city that would allow them to meet. To allow them to strategize on how they would approach the problems that existed in the Africanamerican Community in trying to resolve them with the city. The nuns and the priest 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. And when those marches took place, these nuns and priests would be on the front line. In fact, i remember doris sharing a story with me, she wasnt but 15 at the time. The junior miss pageant was here. Today sh itthere was 50 young ladies from all over the country. They said this would be a good time to march because we could get word out to the rest of the country on the problems were having in mobile because there would be reporters from all over the country. So they established a march and they marched down to the auditorium. There were no africanamericans on the board to make these decisions. As soon as they got there, they arrested hem and took them to jail in the paddy wagon. Well, on that particular occasion, mr. La flur was on the sidewalk standing up and he was not a part of the march, nor a part of the temperatudemonstrat. They arrested him. There was a famous picture of him with a handcuffs on. Well, the nuns were just standing on the sidewalk. Put them in the paddy wagon and took them to jail as well. This Police Officer comes downstairs and says, who are these ladies . Somebody said those are the nuns. He said, we cant have any nuns in here. He gets the key, comes back, open the cell door. The nuns look at him and say, were not going till everybody goes. Thats how committed they were to the community and how much they supported the Africanamerican Community during the civil rights days. And so, as a result of that, theyve always, school has always been involved with the disparities that took place in the community during that time. Most pure hearted mary church. There were three africanamerican grocery stores. This was one of the few buildings that was preserved. Yorks barbershop. Im not really for sure why they didnt destroy this building, but its an original. There was a grocery store. A night lightbuclub. So you had businesses, clubs. Anything and everything that you needed to buy. Of course there were service stations for gas and repair. Mechanics shops. All these vacant lots has bids on them. There was only about ten houses on this whole street. Those are new. All of these vacant lots had businesses on them. So, were now at the home of dave patton. Dave patton had a wagon hauling dirt and mobile. He became one of the richest realtors in the city. And this was in the 1880s. All right . And 1890s, he pulled all the dirt out of the tunnel. The tunnel that takes us to the eastern shore. He laid the foundation for most of the streets in mobile. Laid the foundation for the Alabama State docks and one of the largest schools, hospital that is we have here, which is murphy high school. Now, he initially, he wanted to build this house on government street. Well, government street is our main street. If youve been down government, theres a will the of antibell lum homes over there. That are this size, which were talking probably about 5,500 square feet. But because he was black, they would not let him build that house on government street. This was in the early 1900s. To be honest with you, most blacks were living in shotguns during that time. This was a huge house when you look at it and it was built by the premier architect in the city, which was George Rogers, during that time. In 1950, the banks were loaning money. They didnt loan blacks money for businesses or for homes. So i know for him to have George Rogers as an architect abnd to build this house, he had to have plenty of cash at that time. Unfortunately, he died at a very young age from pneumonia. He was like 47 years old, so he never really got a chance to enjoy the fruits of his labor. This church was on that street behind us and eventually, they bought this va