AFRICATOWN – C.H.E.S.S. Community Meeting Recap for 3/30/2023

 

  Africatown’s C.H.E.S.S.(Clean, Healthy, Educated, Safe & Sustainable) Community Non-Profit Environmental Organization recently conducted its first community quarterly meeting since the Covid Pandemic broke out over 2 years ago. Within 30 minutes after the meeting started, an additional 20 chairs had to be added to the 50 chairs already set up as a near capacity audience showed up to hear about Africatown’s environmental news since the finding of America’s Last Slave Ship, The Clotilda, and the worldwide fame it has brought The Africatown Community.

 

  The theme of this meeting was “We Want You To Know What We Know” as C.H.E.S.S. goal was to reintroduce itself to the community, talk about what we concentrate on doing and educated the community on things going on they might not be aware of.

 

  The meeting was very lively and audience participation was extraordinary. It showed C.H.E.S.S. That more of these community meetings are needed to keep the community informed as to what is true and what is not. C.H.E.S.S. mission is not to build or repair houses but to protect ALL OF AFRICATOWN’s RESIDENTIAL AREA’s (Plateau, Magazine, Happy Hills, Kelly Hilly & Lewis Quarters) from being eliminated and keep AFRICATOWN’s INDUSTRIAL AREA (Hog Bayou) from being turned into a Bayou of dirty, nasty & dangerously polluted bunch of industries.

 

  The slide presentation,(see below at the bottom of this article), shows that those in charge of keeping C.H.E.S.S. on a successful work plan all have Africatown Blood running through their veins and the various organizations we collaborate with are very successful organizations especially the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice. THE AFRICATOWN PLANNING AREA slide depicts how large Africatown is. THE AFRICATOWN LAND USE MAP shows the breakdown between residential and industrial areas in addition to Africatown’s closeness to three bodies of water: Hog Bayou, The Mobile River & Three Mile Creek. The AFRICATOWN HISTORIC DISTRICT  slide shows that only Plateau and Magazine have been placed on the National Register for Historic Places. THE AFRICATOWN SAFETY ZONE slide shows the results of the successful lobbying efforts of C.H.E.S.S. and MEJAC and the cooperation of Councilman William Carroll to have the Community Residential Safety Zone Ordinance part of Mobile’s new Zoning Code Laws voted and approved by Mobile’s City Council this year. That ordinance placed ALL of Africatown’s residential area’s within a safety zone for protection against harmful industries.

 

Due to the success of C.H.E.S.S. in Africatown, we will be extending our services and knowledge to other communities in Mobile, Prichard and other parts of Alabama and other surrounding states.

 

Major Joe Womack USMCR (ret.)
Executive Director of africatown-chess.org

Co-Founder of africatownhpf.org

251-404-9558
Leader, Doer, Storyteller