19-05-2025
‘I am full of joy': Africatown Welcome Center breaks ground
AFRICATOWN, Ala. (WKRG) — After years of planning and preparation, community leaders broke ground Monday on a new Africatown Welcome Center.
City of Mobile, Oak View Group set groundbreaking for new arena
'Right now, I am full of joy,' community leader Cleon Jones said.
The new welcome center will sit on Bay Bridge Cutoff Road just off Africatown Boulevard.
'A project of this size and this magnitude that encompasses the beliefs of everybody in the area brings about a feeling of hope and new beginnings,' Mobile City Councilman William Carroll said.
This project costs $5.1 million and is funded completely through the RESTORE Act.
The welcome center will be a starting place for visitors to learn about the Freedom Town created by the 110 slaves brought to Mobile Bay on the Clotilda, 50 years after the international slave trade was abolished in the U.S.
The center will have meeting rooms, exhibition spaces and outdoor areas for festivals and other performances.
'We have a story to tell and an obligation to tell that story,' Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson said.
The building will also kick off tours like the Africatown Freedom tour group.
'This is what you call world history, so by being world history, people need to know this little part of history needs to be told to the whole world,' Africatown Freedom tour organizer Chiquitta Clemons-Howard said.
October London coming to Mobile Saenger Theatre
Construction is expected to take about a year.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
