Burnt Orange Report

Mobile, AL Elects First Black Mayor

By Phillip Martin

On Tuesday, Sam Jones was elected as mayor of Mobile, Alabama, making him the first African American to serve as mayor of that community. From the Mobile Register:

"This is a new era," Jones told an enthusiastic throng at the Ashbury Hotel and Suites along Interstate 65, where he made his entry behind a brass band playing Mardi Gras tunes. "People throughout this community have come together to chart a new direction for the city of Mobile...this is no time to be divided."

The article points out that Mobile's population is about 50 percent white and 46 percent black, making it an even balance for the community. Mobile joins Birmingham and Selma as other Alabama cities to have elected black mayors.

"I'd really like to see us get to the point where race is not an issue for us, not just in voting, but in how we live in Mobile," Jones said Tuesday while the polls were open. "We're still some ways away from that. I'm realistic about that. But that should be our goal."

One of the first jobs of Mayor-Elect Jones will be to help Mobile rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. A brief article in Industry Week points out that, while much of the national attention has been paid to New Orleans and Louisiana, both Alabama and Mississippi are facing significant economic losses from the storm.

In Alabama, the hurricane "devastated the Alabama state docks in Mobile, smashing barges, flooding warehouses and inundating piers at the 12th largest port in the country. . . . The damage also puts a temporary crimp in the $9-billion-a-year export business that sends Alabama's coal, medical instruments, chemicals and timber around the globe."

Mobile is located right on the Gulf Coast. FEMA has earmarked $5.2 million in disaster aid for Mobile and surrounding areas, as well as 1.17 million liters of water, 9.7 million pounds of ice, and 1.26 million MREs throughout the disaster area.