MOBILE, Ala. — Have an idea for telling Africatown’s story? The Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation has opened a second round of funding for its Sharing the Africatown Story community initiative, and applications are due Oct. 23.
The foundation will explain the program and answer questions at an informational meeting Thursday, Oct. 1, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Robert Hope Community Center, 850 South Edwards Street, in the heart of the Africatown community.
Round Two at a Glance
- Program: Sharing the Africatown Story, round-two project funding
- Offered by: Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation
- Informational meeting: Thursday, Oct. 1, 5–7 p.m., Robert Hope Community Center, 850 South Edwards Street, Mobile
- Application deadline: Friday, Oct. 23
- Who can apply: Individuals, nonprofits, religious organizations, community groups and partnerships serving Africatown
- Communities served: Magazine Point, Lewis Quarters, Plateau, Happy Hill and Kelley Hills
What Projects Must Do
The foundation has set three requirements for projects seeking funding. Each project must:
- Benefit the Africatown communities of Magazine Point, Lewis Quarters, Plateau, Happy Hill and Kelley Hills
- Contribute to sharing the Africatown story
- Create a resource that is freely accessible to the public
That last requirement is central to the initiative. Whatever form a project takes, the finished product is meant to belong to the public rather than sit behind a paywall or in a private collection.
How the Initiative Began
Sharing the Africatown Story is funded by a two-year, $500,000 Humanities in Place grant awarded to the foundation earlier this year. The grant is managed in collaboration with Oberlin College, Penn State University and the University of South Alabama.
The project’s principal investigators are Africatown natives Joycelyn Davis and Dr. Major Joe Womack, both members of the foundation’s board of directors. According to the foundation, the grant supports public gatherings, community-led research and community-based organizations in Africatown.
Its main focus is projects led by community members, local organizations and Africatown supporters, carried out in and for the community, that tell Africatown’s story in the community’s own words. More than $110,000 is set aside over the two years for competitively selected projects proposed by Africatown natives, residents and supporters.
When the grant was announced in May, the foundation said a 10-member Project Award Committee would choose the proposals to fund, and that those who submit projects must be able to carry them out themselves, with help from a project manager hired by the foundation. That project manager is Chiquitta “Kita” Howard, who is well known throughout the community. The foundation also said it plans a public conference at the end of the grant’s second year.
The first public meeting about the grant was held in May at the Robert Hope Community Center, the same site as the Oct. 1 session.
About the Foundation
The Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation was established in 2019 to steward and promote the historic, cultural and economic value of Africatown. The foundation says its work also includes supporting healing and collaboration within the community, and the Sharing the Africatown Story grant draws on its long-standing partnerships with academic institutions.
Why Africatown’s Story Matters
Africatown, about three miles north of downtown Mobile, holds a singular place in American history.
In 1860 — more than 50 years after Congress outlawed the importation of enslaved people — the schooner Clotilda carried about 110 captives from West Africa to Mobile in an illegal voyage. It is the last known ship to bring enslaved Africans to the United States. To hide the crime, the ship was burned and scuttled in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta.
After the Civil War and emancipation, a group of Clotilda survivors, unable to return to Africa, pooled their resources, bought land north of Mobile and built a community of their own. They governed it by their own customs, founded a church and a school, and kept their language and traditions alive for decades. That community became Africatown.
One of its founders, Cudjo Lewis, whose African name was Kossula, lived until 1935 and was among the last known survivors of the transatlantic slave trade. His account, recorded by author Zora Neale Hurston in the late 1920s, was published in 2018 as the book “Barracoon,” bringing new national attention to Africatown.
The Africatown Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012. In 2019, the Alabama Historical Commission announced that the wreck of the Clotilda had been identified in the Mobile River, confirming a story descendants had passed down for generations.
A Community Still Telling Its Story
Much of Africatown’s history has survived because residents and descendants kept it alive through oral history, church records, family photographs and community gatherings. The Sharing the Africatown Story initiative builds on that tradition by putting funding directly in the hands of the people who know the community best.
The neighborhoods named in the program — Magazine Point, Lewis Quarters, Plateau, Happy Hill and Kelley Hills — each carry their own history within the larger Africatown community. Lewis Quarters, for example, is associated with the Clotilda survivors who settled there, and Plateau and Magazine Point are home to longtime families, churches and landmarks tied to the community’s founding.
Over the past several years, public and private investment in Africatown has grown. The Africatown Heritage House, which displays artifacts from the Clotilda alongside the stories of its survivors and their descendants, opened in 2023. The city of Mobile has been planning an Africatown welcome center, and Mobile County has been seeking help updating the neighborhood’s long-range plan.
Community leaders have long said that the story should be told by the people who inherited it. The grant’s emphasis on community-led projects reflects that view.
What Kinds of Projects Could Qualify
The foundation has not published a list of approved project types, and applicants should confirm details at the Oct. 1 meeting. Based on the program’s requirements, projects must be rooted in the five Africatown neighborhoods, help share the community’s history and produce something the public can freely use.
Anyone considering an application should come prepared to explain:
- Which Africatown communities the project will serve
- How it helps tell the Africatown story
- What free, public resource it will create
- Who will carry out the work and how they will complete it
How to Get Involved
Potential applicants are encouraged to attend the informational meeting on Oct. 1 at the Robert Hope Community Center to learn about the application process, timeline and requirements before the Oct. 23 deadline. Individuals, nonprofits, religious organizations, community groups and partnerships that serve Africatown are all eligible to apply.
Residents who aren’t planning to apply can still take part by attending, sharing the opportunity with neighbors, church members and community groups, and supporting the projects that are chosen once they are completed and shared with the public.