Africatown Graveyard & Union Baptist Church

Local advocates are working to preserve these places and build up sustainable heritage tourism infrastructure around the unique history of their home. World Monuments Fund (WMF) has partnered with the community to support these efforts and highlight key sites like the Africatown Graveyard.

Anderson Flen, who cofounded the Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation, remembers the different “personalities” of the town’s three Baptist churches and the distinct roles they played in the community when he was a child.

"The school had the support of the families, of the church, of all the institutions. Of course, we did not have a gymnasium on campus until 1955, and so the graduations were held at other places like churches.… You had certain ceremonies and graduations and certain chorus concerts that took place at the churches that came from the school. So you had this intertwinedness; the church and the school and the community was just one."

Anderson Flen
Founder, Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation

"The churches especially during the summertime would have ice cream for the ones that attended, those little ice cream cups.… During the summer they had the summer Bible school. And then of course we had our own playground that we had carved out of the vacant land out there. And that field became a breeding ground for athletes in the community.… We've had a couple of them go onto the Hall of Fame, and a couple of other players that played on the World Championship team in baseball. And we had a Black Minor League team, and most of the Black kids in the area played out there on the field.”

Joe Womack
President and CEO, CHESS

Womack’s Sunday school teacher, Henry Williams, was a local historian who not only inspired the children in Africatown to take an interest in their town’s stories but tried to advocate for government aid in preserving the town’s monuments.

Africatown Graveyard was established not long after Union Baptist Church and became the final resting place for Africatown’s founding generation.

“All headstones in the cemetery face east. And that was because they always wanted to go back home. If they had got in a boat, my money would've been on them.”

Darron Anderson
President, Clotilda Descendants Association

As Mobile has redirected more traffic away from its core and towards Africatown, the once-peaceful area around Union Baptist has been flooded with large vehicles going at high speeds. Womack says the resulting vibrations are steadily damaging the headstones.

This heavy traffic, says Womack, has proven dangerous not only for the graves but for parishioners attempting to cross the road to see them.

Of particular concern is a proposed new bridge, which if completed would bring even more cars through streets that were not laid out to accommodate such large volumes of traffic. Soil erosion is another challenge that will cause continued deterioration if left unchecked.

“In about 1960, when it became crowded, they bought another section next to it. And that's now the New Cemetery, but it just so happened that right in between that the road is eroding. There was a drainage ditch put right in the middle of it, and so when it rains a lot of time, the drainage ditch would overflow, and it actually overflows over the grave sites and runs down to the river. And so we may have lost a few bones going to the river.”

Joe Womack
President and CEO, CHESS

Many envision the cemetery and the church taking on a central role in the revitalized Africatown of the future. Womack believes that the sites, once properly conserved, could be a hub of historic tourism to the area.

Vickii Howell, who has organized an international design competition in the town, hopes that in turn Africatown can be a blueprint for other historic Black communities looking to strengthen their economic base through heritage tourism.

Conserving the cemetery would also entail fostering the necessary craft skills, which could bring job opportunities to young people in the community.

“We wanna get to a point where the cemetery reflects the richness of the people who made Africatown, that when you see that cemetery, you’re just in awe. It's almost like a halo around it that says, ‘Wow, they really respect that their elders. And they're making sure their elders know that they care.’ That's what I want the cemetery to say.”

Anderson Flen
Founder, Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation