Africatown by Nick Tabor

Author:Nick Tabor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

The bell, in other words, was regarded as a vestige of the neighborhood’s roots, but also had a central role in the ongoing life of the community.

In November 1972, a professor at Alabama State University, a predominantly Black school, wrote to the Alabama Historical Commission with a request. ASU’s History and Political Science Club had been trying for “some time” to obtain the bell, in hopes of displaying it on campus. He wondered if the state could help. Taking up this request, the historical commission composed a letter to the Mobile County school superintendent. “We understand that the bell now lies in neglect at the former Mobile County Training School,” it read. (In reality, MCTS was still functioning, but in the wake of desegregation, in 1970, it had been reduced to a middle school.) The letter suggested that putting the bell on the campus would be a powerful gesture. “Enshrined at a predominantly black institution, located at the State Capital which lies in the heart of the principal antebellum plantation and slavery (we speak, of course, in the past tense) area in Alabama, the bell would be a meaningful aspect of black history and Alabama’s heritage.” But in December, the school superintendent wrote back that the bell had been moved to Mobile’s history museum, and that it would stay there. Other correspondence shows the museum had received it in February of that year, and had cleaned it and put it on a mahogany base.

One year later, several dozen alumni from the MCTS class of 1958 met for a reunion. They were surprised to learn the school district had taken the bell—for repairs, as they understood—and had not yet returned it. They agreed to have Charles Porter, who was part of their class and was working as a publications editor at Northwestern University, ask the administrators what was going on. Porter composed a note, which he sent the administrators in January 1974. “When we visit the campus—or just in passing—we would like to see something that helps us recall the beautiful history of a school with which we have had a passionate love affair,” he wrote. “However, with the developments over the past few years, nearly all that we can grasp is purely nostalgia, and the missing bell appears to be an attempt to take part of that away.” He asked politely but firmly that it be returned. James Benson, an assistant superintendent, wrote back nine days later. “I know that you will be delighted to know that we have enshrined the bell in the City Museum,” he said, “so that the proper honor can bestowed upon it.” He mentioned the request to display it in Montgomery and the school district’s decision to keep it in Mobile. He closed by thanking Porter for his interest.

Porter, of course, was not delighted with this news. He followed up with a letter to the museum. “I understand that the Museum has purchased a bell from the Mobile County Public Schools that came to America on the slave ship Clotilde,” he wrote.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.