Clean, Healthy, Educated, Safe & Sustainable Community, Inc. (CHESS)

Clean, Healthy, Educated, Safe & Sustainable Community, Inc. (CHESS) addresses environmental and other concerns in the Africatown community of Mobile, AL. Africatown was founded by descendants of some of the enslaved people brought to the U.S. aboard the Clotilda, and was home to some of the last survivors of the transatlantic slave trade. In addition to other issues, CHESS is seeking to remedy environmental abuses in a community that is now surrounded by polluting industries. The group is working to halt the construction of additional hazardous industries and to hold industries already there accountable with the installation of air, water and soil monitors at strategic locations, with results regularly reported to the community. The group also opposes a proposed toll bridge that could cause motorists to reroute their trips through Africatown to avoid paying the toll, which would increase traffic, create noise and air pollution, and threaten community safety.

CHESS, operating with a staff and a board of directors, is a part of a coalition of organizations representing the interests of Africantown. In addition to tackling environmental issues, which includes establishing green spaces and alleviating the community’s food desert status, the group is seeking to bring tourism to Africatown. Africatown was founded by 30 formerly enslaved people in 1872. The population of Africatown peaked at 12,000 in the 20th century when paper mills operated there and now stands at about 1,800. An estimated 100 residents are descendants of the town’s formerly enslaved founders. In 2009, the community was designated as a site on Mobile’s African American Heritage Trail and as of 2012, is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Clotilda, the ship that illegally transported 110 Africans to Alabama after the transatlantic slave trade had ended, was located in 2019 in the Mobile Bay. In 2021, it was also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

For more information:

Black Residents Want This Company Gone. Will Alabama’s Environmental Agency Approve a New Permit?, Inside Climate News, April 2024

Take Me To the River: The Africatown Connections Blueway, Mobile Bay Keeper