Dora Franklin Finley African-American Heritage Trail of Mobile Historical Markers
Originally formed as the "The Black Heritage Trail" in 2007, and was later renamed the current "Dora Franklin Finley African-American Heritage Trail of Mobile". The mission of the trail is to educate, preserve and mark the historic contributions of African-Americans in Mobile. The markers enlighten Mobile's culturally diverse heritage by linking historic contributions and events with significant locations. Forgotten chapters of history are remembered through stories of courage.
By Mark Hilton, December 5, 2020
View east from marker towards the Bay Bridge over the Mobile River.
On Bay Bridge Road (Alternate U.S. 90) at Magazine Road South, on the right when traveling east on Bay Bridge Road.
Near here in circa 1860, Timothy Meaher unloaded approximately 110 smuggled Africans of Yoruba ethnicity from the schooner Clotilda, the last known documented slave ship to force enslaved people of African descent to the United States. He shared his . . . — — Map (db m161845) HM
On Dauphin Street at North Lawrence Street, on the left when traveling east on Dauphin Street.
Andrew N. Johnson, born 1865 in Marion, Alabama, graduated from Talladega College in 1886, and taught in rural Alabama. On this site in 1894, he established the Mobile Weekly Press, a voice for African-Americans, "A.N.", a powerful member of the . . . — — Map (db m111347) HM
On St Francis Street, 0.1 miles west of North Lawrence Street, on the right when traveling west.
Built in 1878 in the Italianate style. In 1852, Bettie Hunter was born a slave in Dallas County, Alabama and later moved to Mobile after the Civil War. She and her brother, Henry Hunter, had a profitable carriage business in downtown Mobile. She . . . — — Map (db m86389) HM
On South Bayou Street at Church Street, on the left when traveling south on South Bayou Street.
This congregation originated in 1842 with a group of slaves who worshipped in their masters' church, a Methodist congregation. They were required to move to a small house provided for them. Their perseverance and faith held them together through . . . — — Map (db m86573) HM
On North Broad Street at Congress Street, on the right when traveling south on North Broad Street.
Opened in 1887 as Broad Street Academy, this was the site of Mobile's first public high school for African Americans. The building was razed in 1947, and a new elementary school was constructed and named in recognition of William Caldwell, the first . . . — — Map (db m111353) HM
On St. Anthony Street at North Hamilton Street, on the right when traveling west on St. Anthony Street.
Mrs. Pearl Johnson Madison was one of the early African-American women to own a funeral home in the state of Alabama in 1928. The funeral home and burial association served the African-American community when white mortuaries would not. Today, the . . . — — Map (db m111310) HM
On Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue at Peach Street, on the right when traveling west on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.
C. First Johnson was an entrepreneur, pastor of St. Louis Street Baptist Church, and lecturer. Johnson ran for political office in the 1890's. He founded the Union Mutual Aid Association, Mobile's first black-owned insurance company. By 1911, his . . . — — Map (db m111317) HM
On North Dearborn Street at St Francis Street, on the right when traveling south on North Dearborn Street.
This two-story brick structure was built in 1869 with James H. Hutchisson as architect to house the first volunteer fire company in Mobile. The company was founded in 1819. As descendants of the French, Spanish and Africans, the Creoles formed their . . . — — Map (db m86402) HM
On Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue at Hickory Street, on the right when traveling west on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.
Patton began his hauling business with two mules and grew to become a prominent real estate entrepreneur and contractor, building many area roads and schools. Patton purchased this site in 1900. According to oral tradition, he commissioned architect . . . — — Map (db m111313) HM
On Dauphin Street, 0.1 miles South Warren Street, on the right when traveling east.
Dr. Williams opened one of the early African-American drugstores- Live and Let Live on this site in 1901. Born on a sugar plantation in Louisiana, he graduated from Meharry Medical School in 1900 and was the second black physician to practice . . . — — Map (db m86393) HM
On North Ann Street north of Basil Street, on the left when traveling north.
This was the residence of Dr. Franklin, who served the medical needs of Mobile for fifty-three years. He never turned an indigent patient away. Franklin was the only African-American to graduate from the University of Michigan in 1911. He opened his . . . — — Map (db m111350) HM
On St Francis Street at North Warren Street, on the left when traveling west on St Francis Street.
Dr. Harris, born April 6, 1868, in Montgomery, Alabama was one of the earliest black physicians to practice medicine in Mobile. He graduated in 1899 from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee with dual degrees in dentistry and medicine. To . . . — — Map (db m86400) HM
Near Donald Street north of Gloria York Avenue, on the left when traveling north.
Front
Alabama's oldest African-American Episcopal congregation was fostered in Trinity Church by the Reverend J. A. Massey. The Right Reverend Nicholas H. Cobbs, D.D., Alabama's first Episcopal Bishop confirmed the seven founding . . . — — Map (db m112225) HM
On Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue at Tunstall Street, on the right when traveling north on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.
John L. Finley Jr. opened Finley's Pharmacy #1 in 1950. John and his brother, James, established Finley's #2 in 1959, which was later sold to Benjamin F. Jackson, Sr.
James H. Finley, Sr. eventually opened six stores, launching the first black . . . — — Map (db m151219) HM
On North Claiborne Street at Dauphin Street, on the left when traveling south on North Claiborne Street.
(front side)
Mobile’s Hidden Figures initiative originated from the Mobile United Leadership Mobile’s Class of 2017 inaugural Diversity and Inclusion team. The objective is to raise awareness of diverse community members . . . — — Map (db m117243) HM
On St Francis Street at North Warren Street, on the right when traveling west on St Francis Street.
After the NAACP was outlawed in 1956, LeFlore and the Non-Partisan Voters League took a more active role in civil rights in Mobile. LeFlore served as its director of casework. He was a plaintiff in Bolden vs. Mobile and the judgement changed . . . — — Map (db m86391) HM
On Chestnut Street east of Armistead Street, on the left when traveling east.
The funeral home was purchased in 1906 by Clarence Allen and Edgar Harney. They buried people of all races. Harney died in 1911, and A.N. Johnson became a partner. Johnson and Allen is the oldest African-American funeral home in Alabama that has . . . — — Map (db m111301) HM
On Michael Donald Avenue north of Old Shell Road, on the right when traveling north.
On March 21, 1981, 19-year-old Michael Donald was abducted, beaten, killed and hung from a tree on this street by members of the Ku Klux Klan. He was randomly selected in retaliation for an interracial jury failing to convict a black man for killing . . . — — Map (db m111384) HM
On Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue at Sengstak Street, on the right when traveling west on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.
Organized in 1899 as St. Anthony's Mission by Creoles of African descent. By 1901, Josephite priests Revs. Joseph St. Laurent and Louis Pastorelli had established a small school. The
present church was completed in 1908 and dedicated as Most Pure . . . — — Map (db m111302) HM
On Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue west of North Lawrence Street, on the right when traveling west.
George B. Rogers, a prominent architect, designed this smaller replica of the main library in 1931. It is a classically inspired white structure with linear lines. It was the only library for blacks until desegregation in the mid-1960s. Today it is . . . — — Map (db m111308) HM
On Bay Bridge Cutoff Road, 0.1 miles north of Chin Street, on the left when traveling south.
The Old Plateau Cemetery, known as the Africatown Graveyard, is the final resting place of enslaved Africans, African-Americans, and a Buffalo Soldier. The burial ground dates back to 1876, sixteen years after Africans arrived on the Clotilda . . . — — Map (db m86308) HM
On South Broad Street, 0.1 miles south of Shawnee Street, on the right when traveling south.
Restoring Justice
Henry Williams, Johnny Williams, Ennis Bell, Theodore Wesley Samuels, Prentiss McCann, and Rayfield Davis all died at the height of the segregation era in Mobile. Mobile's Black community protested each of these deaths at the . . . — — Map (db m188735) HM
On Springhill Avenue at Knowles Street, on the right when traveling west on Springhill Avenue.
Sand Town, the oldest African American neighborhood in the area of Spring Hill, in Mobile, Alabama, was established before 1845 by former enslaved and free, indigenous people of color. Sand Town residents built their own homes, school and places of . . . — — Map (db m179993) HM
On North Dearborn Street at St Louis Street, on the right when traveling north on North Dearborn Street.
The church was organized in 1853 by ten African-Americans who were former members of Stone Street Baptist Church. It is the second oldest Missionary Baptist Church in Alabama. The first three pastors were Caucasian; however, following passage of the . . . — — Map (db m86578) HM
On South Washington Avenue north of Virginia Street, on the right when traveling north.
Established in 1947 by the Catholic Archdiocese of Mobile for the black community because segregation prevented black doctors from admitting patients to the City Hospital. Present building erected in 1950 and named for St. Martin de Porres, who was . . . — — Map (db m111355) HM
On Dauphin Street west of South Claiborne Street, on the right when traveling east.
(front side)
The origin of this Cathedral was established on July 20, 1703, by Jean-Baptiste de La Croix de Chevrieres de Saint Vallier, Bishop of Quebec at Fort Louis de la Mobile, the city’s first permanent settlement. The Bishop also . . . — — Map (db m117245) HM
On North Royal Street, 0.1 miles St Anthony Street, on the right when traveling south.
After the abolition of international slave trading in 1808, dealers transported slaves from all over the South into Mobile. On this site, Africans were sold as chattel to southern planters through public auction. Between auctions, a three-story . . . — — Map (db m86312) HM
On Bay Bridge Road (Alternate U.S. 90) at Bay Bridge Cutoff Road, on the right when traveling west on Bay Bridge Road.
Union Baptist Church
Organized in 1869 as the Old Landmark Baptist Church by Rev. Henry McCrea and the following survivors of the slave ship, Clotilda: Pollee Allen, Rose Allen, Katie Cooper, Anna Keeby, Ossa Keeby, Josephina Lee, Peter . . . — — Map (db m86299) HM
On Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue at Patton Avenue, on the right when traveling east on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.
Vernon Crawford established the first African-American law firm in Mobile. He successfully argued the Birdie Mae Davis case that desegregated Mobile schools. He stood before the Supreme Court and won the landmark case of Bolden vs. the City of . . . — — Map (db m111319) HM
On St. Anthony Street west of North Scott Street, on the right when traveling west.
Side 1
On May 30, 1965, Vivian Malone, became the first African-American to graduate from the University of Alabama. To achieve admission at the all-White university, she was forced to confront then Governor, George C. Wallace, in what has . . . — — Map (db m111392) HM
On Conti Street at South Joachim Street, on the right when traveling west on Conti Street.
In 1864, Wallace Turnage, a seventeen year old slave was owned by a merchant, Collier Minge, whose house stood on this site. Turnage escaped wartime Mobile by walking 25 miles down the western shore of Mobile Bay. After surviving three weeks in the . . . — — Map (db m193903) HM
