Revisited: AfricaTown, USA (1 of 2)

In observance of Black History Month we’ve re-edited opening and closing thoughts to these episodes that were first published back in September of 2019. A lot has happened since then, but we felt that the conversation and the history contained in these episodes is as relevant now as ever:

Now part of Mobile, Alabama, AfricaTown was founded by survivors of the last slave ship to bring Africans to the US. The shipwreck was discovered in 2019. Joe Womack (USMC-ret) was born and raised there and is now leading a fight to prevent its ongoing exploitation and pollution by toxic industries. It’s a story that goes to the heart, not only of the Deep South, but of America’s failure to reconcile itself to the darkest chapters of its history. It’s also a story of how those events might be used to breathe new life into a struggling community.