When the Africatown Neighborhood Plan was completed in 2016, the historic community north of downtown Mobile was known mostly to historians, descendants and residents. Three years later, the confirmed discovery of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to bring captive Africans to the United States, changed that almost overnight. Now Mobile County and the City of Mobile say the plan guiding the community’s future needs to catch up, and the county has taken the first formal step toward an Africatown neighborhood plan update.
Last week, the Mobile County Commission approved advertising a request for proposals seeking a firm to oversee development of the updated plan. The process is expected to include extensive public input, and the county will accept proposals through Oct. 19.
Mobile County Commissioner Merceria Ludgood said the existing document was never designed for the kind of attention Africatown now receives.
“That plan is kind of narrowly focused to neighborhood development,” Ludgood said last week. “Because so much has changed for that community since then, it’s in need of an update.”
A decade ago, Africatown’s future was largely framed around neighborhood revitalization. The Clotilda’s identification transformed the community from a largely overlooked neighborhood bordering heavy industry into an international destination for Black history and cultural tourism. Since then, a museum has opened, a new park honoring the Clotilda’s legacy has opened, festivals have drawn visitors, housing redevelopment efforts have gained momentum and a new Welcome Center is nearing completion. None of that was contemplated in the 2016 blueprint.
A County-Led, City-Supported Effort
County officials will lead the update, but the City of Mobile will also take part in what Mobile City Councilwoman Samantha Ingram described as a “collaborative process” between the two governments. Ingram called the update a “long-awaited and much-needed” step forward for a plan created before the Clotilda discovery stirred renewed interest and investment in the community.
“Our goal is to ensure the updated plan reflects the community’s current needs, priorities, and vision for the future,” Ingram said.
She said the effort remains in its early stages while the request for proposals process is underway, and no dates have been set for community meetings.
What the Consultant Will Be Asked to Deliver
According to the county’s request for proposals, the selected firm will be tasked with developing a plan that “must move beyond visioning.” Rather than producing a list of broad aspirations, the consultant is expected to identify concrete elements, including:
- Priority projects and their estimated costs
- Implementation phases and timelines
- Responsible parties for each piece of work
- Funding opportunities
- Governance recommendations
- Measurable action steps
The updated plan is intended to support “robust civil rights and cultural heritage tourism opportunities” while strengthening infrastructure, quality of life and economic opportunities for residents.
The RFP also calls for a public engagement effort that includes at least three meetings coordinated with the Africatown Steering Committee.
Ludgood said she could not predict how long the process will take. “I cannot tell you how long it will take,” she said. “But certainly, community meetings (will occur), and I expect the consultant will say, ‘This is what we started with in 2016, and this is what’s missing.'”
How the Request for Proposals Process Works
A request for proposals is a standard way for local governments to hire outside expertise for complex work. The county publishes a document describing the scope of the project and what it expects, and qualified firms submit written proposals explaining their approach, experience, staff and, in many cases, cost. After the submission deadline, county staff typically review and rank the proposals, sometimes interviewing finalists, before recommending a firm to the commission. The commission then votes on whether to award a contract.
For planning work like this, firms are often multidisciplinary teams of urban planners, landscape architects, engineers, economists and public engagement specialists. With proposals due Oct. 19, the selection and contracting steps would follow after that date, and the actual planning and community meetings would come later still.
What a Neighborhood Plan Typically Covers
Neighborhood plans vary from place to place, but most share common building blocks. They usually begin with an inventory of existing conditions, such as population trends, land use, housing stock, vacant property, streets, drainage and public facilities. From there, planners work with residents to set goals and then translate those goals into recommendations on topics like housing, parks and open space, transportation, economic development, historic preservation and environmental health.
A plan by itself does not change zoning or fund projects. Instead, it serves as a guide that elected officials, agencies and private partners can point to when making decisions and applying for grants. That is why the county’s emphasis on costs, timelines, responsible parties and funding sources matters: a plan with those details is easier to act on and easier to measure.
A Community Born From the Clotilda
Africatown’s history is inseparable from the ship at the center of this renewed attention. In 1860, more than half a century after Congress banned the importation of enslaved people in 1808, the schooner Clotilda illegally carried about 110 captives from the Kingdom of Dahomey, in present-day Benin, to Mobile. The voyage was financed by Mobile businessman Timothy Meaher. After the captives were unloaded upriver, the ship’s captain, William Foster, burned and scuttled the vessel to hide the evidence.
After emancipation, a group of the Clotilda survivors, unable to return to Africa, pooled their resources, bought land north of Mobile and founded their own community, which became known as Africatown. They governed themselves, built homes, a church and a school, and preserved elements of their West African languages and customs. One of the best-known survivors, Cudjo Lewis, whose African name was Kossola, told his story to author Zora Neale Hurston, whose account was published decades later as the book “Barracoon.”
For generations, the story of the Clotilda was passed down among descendants, even as the ship’s remains lay hidden in the muddy waters of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. In 2019, the Alabama Historical Commission announced that the wreck had been identified, confirming what descendants had long said about their history.
In the 20th century, Africatown was hemmed in by paper mills and other heavy industry, and residents have long raised concerns about pollution, highway construction and disinvestment that affected their neighborhood. The community was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Africatown Historic District in 2012.
The years since the Clotilda’s identification have brought visible change to the neighborhood. The Africatown Heritage House, which houses an exhibition devoted to the Clotilda and its survivors, has become a destination for visitors from across the country and abroad. A new park honoring the ship’s legacy has opened, community festivals have drawn crowds, and housing redevelopment efforts have gained momentum. The City of Mobile’s Africatown Welcome Center is nearing completion.
That growth brings both opportunity and pressure. Cultural tourism can bring new visitors, jobs and investment, but it also raises questions about traffic, infrastructure, housing costs and who benefits. A comprehensive plan is one of the main tools local governments use to sort through those questions, set priorities and position projects for state, federal and philanthropic funding.
“Bottom Up and Generated by the Community”
Both officials stressed that residents must drive the process. “Our hopes for this plan are straightforward: to support Africatown in a way that is community-driven, respectful of its history, and responsive to the aspirations of its residents,” Ingram said. “We expect public participation to be a major part of the process, and while we don’t have dates set yet, we will make sure the community and the media are well informed ahead of any public meetings or milestones.”
Ludgood said the success of the effort will depend on residents shaping the vision themselves.
“It’s important to me that this plan is bottom up and generated by the community and that (they say), ‘This is what we want,'” Ludgood said. “Communities like Africatown are marginalized, and they are accustomed to people coming in and saying, ‘This is what you ought to do.’ It’s important to me that this bubbles up from the community, which says, ‘This is what we want.'”
What Residents Should Know
- Proposal deadline: Mobile County will accept proposals from planning firms through Oct. 19.
- Public meetings: At least three public meetings will be coordinated with the Africatown Steering Committee. No dates have been set.
- Who is involved: Mobile County is leading the effort, with the City of Mobile participating.
- How to stay informed: Officials say they will notify the community and media ahead of public meetings and milestones, so residents who want a voice in the plan should watch for those announcements and plan to attend. Residents can also follow announcements from the Mobile County Commission, the City of Mobile and community organizations in Africatown.
For a community that has spent more than 160 years telling its own story, the coming planning process offers a chance to decide, in residents’ own words, what the next chapter should look like.