AFRICATOWN conducts 2nd Groundbreaking in 6 days – Africatown Welcome Center

On May 14th, The Africatown Community conducted the Groundbreaking Event for the first tourist site, LEWIS LANDING, along The Africatown Blueway Water Trail and 6 days later The Africatown Community celebrated the Groundbreaking of the long anticipated and all important AFRICATOWN WELCOME CENTER, the first site along The Africatown Walking Trail, on May 19th, 2025.

After graduating from The Historic Mobile County Training School in 1968, I spent 4 years in college and a short stint on active duty with The Marine Corps before returning to Africatown around 1975. The first thing I did was put on my Marine Corps Dress Blue Uniform, pin on my 2nd Lt. Officer Bars, strap on my Sword, jumped in my brand new Buick Century Car and drove down to talk to Mr. Henry C. Williams, The Godfather of Africatown. I drove to his Wielding Shop to talk to him about what I had learned in college and my Marine Corps Leadership experience. We talked for about 2 1/2 hours. 30 minutes about my time away and 2 hours about his vision about what Africatown could and should be. In particular he talked about an Africatown Welcome Center. The second document below contains a design of what he thought The Welcome Center should look like. He thought that it should educate visitors about the history of Africatown and at the same time be a monument for its historic school which had managed to survive and educate so many blacks in Mobile County since 1910. Although the design of his vision would not pass today’s building code on the Gulf Coast because of the strength of today’s Hurricanes, it is important to point out that his vision of the Welcome Center would have an Afro-Centric Design thus denoting AFRICATOWN. Using Africatown as an example, revitalizing and remolding of Mobile’s under served communities might be one way of reducing violence in Mobile. When our kids are proud of the communities they are a part of might help them feel good about themselves and others. They might begin to see value in the phase “All Life Matters”.

Now the $5.1 million center is set to come to life. City leaders say it will serve as a place for the local community to come together, but most of all it will be the first stop for people coming to Africatown and hopefully where they’ll learn the history behind it.

“People that are not from here that don’t know the story can come and see the story and be welcomed to a community that now has multiple places where they can enjoy and learn the history of those Africans that were brought here,” said District 2 Councilman William Carroll. It’s a history that dates back to 1860 when Africatown was founded by freed slaves who were illegally brought into the country. Those who live here say the center will give people the full story of Africatown. “It’s an opportunity for people to see the people and get the full story out even before the Clotilda,” said Charles Williams. “The people that were here that worked the soil, that did the work that even welcomed the people from the Clotilda to this community.”

The welcome center was designed with input from the community to make sure the town’s legacy is being represented as best as possible. With the heritage house already up and running, many feel the center is another step towards the long-term goal of revitalizing Africatown.

“A project of this size and magnitude that encompasses the belief of everybody in the area brings about a feeling of hope and new beginnings. This community is re blossoming and re blooming,” said Councilman Carroll.

“The pride, that’s the one thing that never left. It went from 16,000 people to less than 1,000 and it’s still maintaining so that’s the story of the welcome center,” said Williams.

The city expects construction to take around a year.

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