It is not often that you find a community as rooted in its history as Africatown. Furthermore, it is even rarer to find people who are so dedicated to preserving the life and legacy of their ancestors that they fail to recognize that they are trailblazers themselves. I have had the pleasure to work with the Africatown community for the last year and a half, seeing not one but two annual lantern walks come to fruition through widespread community collaboration and engagement. Over the course of my three visits, I have come to learn that Africatown is a palimpsest of history, filled by a vibrant, kind community of people dedicated to the past, present, and future.
During AARN’s visit in November, Mobile County Training School opened its doors to us and the surrounding community to celebrate its long history of education, perseverance, and national achievements. It was very exciting to see MCTS alumni from the 50s and 60s learning alongside current students in the same classroom. We listened to Stephanie Deutsch discuss her research on the historic collaboration between Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald, who built MCTS and many other schools across the south with the support of surrounding historic Black communities. It is always powerful to see how central MCTS and education more broadly to the community – and we see that reiterated through the Lantern Walk itself, a tradition that began at MCTS and ended in the historic Plateau Cemetery at the close of every school year.
The second annual lantern walk welcomed a lot of young, new faces, who were eager to listen to MCTS alumni and teachers from across the decades speak to the school’s significance to Africatown’s history. Walking with a crowd of laughing kids, smiling adults, and observant older folks through the neighborhood was a sight to behold – and it truly reiterated what I call Africatown’s palimpsest of history, where the past meets the present and the future. When we arrived at Plateau Cemetery, a drummer quietly walked down the pathway beating a constant rhythm that seemed to match that of the wind in the trees. That day, I listened to Mr. Anderson Flen and others speak about the importance of ending the event there. But the following day, I was given the opportunity to listen to the sacred space itself.
At 6am sharp, the AARN team gathered at Plateau Cemetery with a small group of community members for a sunrise service. We stood in a circle, opened and closed with a prayer, and honored the past, present, and future of Africatown. As I closed my eyes and listened, I heard the wind, the leaves, the birds, and nature simply existing around me. Taken together, these sounds quickly became whispers of those who came before me; and under the warmth of the Alabama sun, the historical significance of the space overwhelmed me with emotion. I will never forget the way I felt that morning, realizing that I was lucky enough to stand in Africatown’s palimpsest of ever-growing history.