AFRICATOWN’s School Alumni Association 3RD Annual Lantern Walk Festival
AFRICATOWN’s Mobile County Training School conducted it’s 3rd Annual Lantern Walk Festival weekend on November 2nd & 3rd 2024. This year’s Lantern Walk was dedicated to one of the school’s favorite teacher, Mr. Isaiah O. Pinkney who recently passed. Mr. Pinkney was a scholar and a man of God who gave his best to all in a caring and gentle way. Mr. Pinkney represented the best qualities of an educator you would find in a teacher. We will always work to honor education and educators that strive to bring out the best from every student they encounter in memory of Mr. I. O. Pinkney. This year’s Lantern Walk Theme was: Moving Past Fear – to Healing – Through Truth, Justice, Education and Love.
This third annual Lantern Walk is a revival of an annual school event that ended in the late 1940’s when Dr. Gaines was moved as principal of Mobile County Training School to become the first principal of the brand new Central High School located on what used to be Davis Avenue. This event would spotlight the seniors only as they would assemble at the school with their parents and other family members and walk from the school to the cemetery to honor those that came before them and made things possible for them.
The walk would begin as the Sun was setting in the evening. Everyone would light their Lantern thus lighting the way for those behind them. They would begin at the school with stops at all the churches in the Plateau Neighborhood. At each church they would stop to pray, sing and pause a moment for a break. All along the route they would be singing and giving praise to the lord. The stops would be at The First Hopewell Baptist Church, Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church, Yorktown Baptist Church and Union Baptist Church. Their last stop was the Cemetery where there were speeches, prayers and songs to thank all, especially those that came here as captives aboard the last slave ship The Clotilda.
Dr. Major Joe Womack USMCR(ret)Executive Director of africatown-chess.org251-404-9558 & jnwomack1@yahoo.com