Editing Mobile, Alabama (section)

===20th century===
[[File:Van Antwerp Building 1907.jpg|thumb|upright=0.75|The [[Van Antwerp Building]], completed in 1907]]
The turn of the 20th century brought the [[Progressive Era]] to Mobile. The economic structure developed with new industries, generating new jobs and attracting a significant increase in population.<ref name="progress1">Thomason, Michael. ''Mobile: The New History of Alabama's First City'', pages 154–169. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2001. {{ISBN|0-8173-1065-7}}</ref> The population increased from around 40,000 in 1900 to 60,000 by 1920.<ref name="progress1"/> During this time the city received $3 million in federal grants for harbor improvements to deepen the shipping channels.<ref name="progress1"/> During and after World War I, manufacturing became increasingly vital to Mobile's economic health, with shipbuilding and steel production being two of the most important industries.<ref name="progress1"/>

During this time, social justice and race relations in Mobile worsened, however.<ref name="progress1"/> The state passed a new constitution in 1901 that [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchised most blacks and many poor whites]]; and the white Democratic-dominated legislature passed other discriminatory legislation. In 1902, the city government passed Mobile's first [[racial segregation]] ordinance, segregating the city streetcars. It legislated what had been informal practice, enforced by convention.<ref name="progress1"/> Mobile's African-American population responded to this with a two-month boycott, but the law was not repealed.<ref name="progress1"/> After this, Mobile's ''de facto'' segregation was increasingly replaced with legislated segregation as whites imposed [[Jim Crow laws]] to maintain [[white supremacy|supremacy]].<ref name="progress1"/>

In 1911 the city adopted a commission form of government, which had three members elected by [[at-large]] voting. Considered to be progressive, as it would reduce the power of ward bosses, this change resulted in the elite white majority strengthening its power, as only the majority could gain election of at-large candidates. In addition, poor whites and blacks had already been disenfranchised. Mobile was one of the last cities to retain this form of government, which prevented smaller groups from electing candidates of their choice. But Alabama's white yeomanry had historically favored [[single-member districts]] in order to elect candidates of their choice.<ref name="vra">[http://www.protectcivilrights.org/pdf/voting/AlabamaVRA.pdf James Blacksher, Edward Still, Nick Quinton, Cullen Brown, and Royal Dumas, "Voting Rights in Alabama 1982–2006"], July 2006, RenewtheVRA.org, accessed March 12, 2015</ref>

[[File:Alabama - Mobile Bay through Mobile - NARA - 23934849 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|Warehouse district at the port, 1932]]
The [[red imported fire ant]] was first introduced into the United States via the Port of Mobile. Sometime in the late 1930s they came ashore off cargo ships arriving from South America. The ants were carried in the soil used as ballast on those ships.<ref name="FireAnts">{{cite web |url=http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/documents/FACT/RedImportedFireAntsJusttheFacts-Sep2007.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=September 10, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110617063432/http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/documents/FACT/RedImportedFireAntsJusttheFacts-Sep2007.pdf |archive-date=June 17, 2011 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> They have spread throughout the South and Southwest.

[[File:Liberty ship at sea.jpg|thumb|A [[Liberty ship]] of the type built at [[Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company]] during World War II. Twenty were completed in Mobile.]]
[[File:Type T2-SE-A1 tanker Hat Creek underway at sea on 16 August 1943.jpg|thumb|The [[SS Hat Creek|SS ''Hat Creek'']], a [[T2 tanker]] completed by Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company in 1943. The company built 102 of these oil tankers during WWII.]]
During [[World War II]], the defense buildup in Mobile shipyards resulted in a considerable increase in the city's white middle-class and working-class population, largely due to the massive influx of workers coming to work in the shipyards and at the [[Brookley Air Force Base|Brookley Army Air Field]].<ref name="thomason2">Thomason, Michael. ''Mobile: The New History of Alabama's First City'', pp. 213–217. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2001. {{ISBN|0-8173-1065-7}}</ref> Between 1940 and 1943, more than 89,000 people moved into Mobile to work for war effort industries.<ref name="thomason2"/>

Mobile was one of eighteen United States cities producing [[Liberty ships]]. Its [[Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company]] (ADDSCO) supported the war effort by producing ships faster than the [[Axis powers of World War II|Axis powers]] could sink them. ADDSCO also churned out a copious number of [[T2 tanker]]s for the War Department.<ref name="thomason2"/> [[Gulf Shipbuilding Corporation]], a subsidiary of [[Waterman Steamship Corporation]], focused on building [[Cargo ship|freighters]], {{sclass|Fletcher|destroyer}}s, and [[Minesweeper (ship)|minesweepers]].<ref name="thomason2"/> The rapid increase of population in the city produced crowded conditions, increasing social tensions in the competition for housing and good jobs.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Four Towns: Mobile |url=https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-war/mobile |access-date=2024-12-20 |website=The War {{!}} Ken Burns {{!}} PBS |language=en}}</ref>

In May 1943, a [[race riot]] broke out between whites and blacks. ADDSCO management had long maintained segregated conditions at the shipyards, although the Roosevelt administration had ordered defense contractors to integrate facilities. That year ADDSCO promoted 12 blacks to positions as welders, previously reserved for whites; and whites objected to the change by rioting on May 24. The mayor appealed to the governor to call in the [[National Guard (United States)|National Guard]] to restore order, but it was weeks before officials allowed African Americans to return to work.<ref name="addsco">[http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1475 Scotty E. Kirkland, "Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company (ADDSCO)"]. ''Encyclopedia of Alabama'' online, 2008, update August 10, 2015</ref>

In the late 1940s, the transition to the postwar economy was hard for the city, as thousands of jobs were lost at the shipyards with the decline in the defense industry. Eventually the city's social structure began to become more liberal. Replacing shipbuilding as a primary economic force, the paper and chemical industries began to expand. No longer needed for defense, most of the old military bases were converted to civilian uses. Following the war, in which many African Americans had served, veterans and their supporters stepped up activism to gain enforcement of their constitutional rights and social justice, especially in the [[Jim Crow]] South. During the 1950s the City of Mobile integrated its police force and [[Spring Hill College]] accepted students of all races. Unlike in the rest of the state, by the early 1960s the city buses and lunch counters voluntarily desegregated.<ref name="thomason2"/>

The Alabama legislature passed the Cater Act in 1949, allowing cities and counties to set up industrial development boards (IDB) to issue municipal bonds as incentives to attract new industry into their local areas. The city of Mobile did not establish a Cater Act board until 1962. [[George E. McNally]], Mobile's first Republican mayor since Reconstruction, was the driving force behind the founding of the IDB. The Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce, believing its members were better qualified to attract new businesses and industry to the area, considered the new IDB as a serious rival. After several years of political squabbling, the Chamber of Commerce emerged victorious. While McNally's IDB prompted the Chamber of Commerce to become more proactive in attracting new industry, the chamber effectively shut Mobile city government out of economic development decisions.<ref>Bill Patterson, "The Founding of the Industrial Development Board of the City of Mobile: The Port City's Reluctant Use of Subsidies", ''Gulf South Historical Review'' 2000 15(2): 21–40,</ref>

In 1963, three African-American students brought a case against the Mobile County School Board for being denied admission to [[Murphy High School, Alabama|Murphy High School]].<ref name="murphy1">Thomason (2001), ''Mobile'', pp. 260–261</ref> This was nearly a decade after the United States Supreme Court had ruled in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' (1954) that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. The federal district court ordered that the three students be admitted to Murphy for the 1964 school year, leading to the desegregation of Mobile County's school system.<ref name="murphy1"/>

The [[civil rights movement]] gained congressional passage of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]] and [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]], but maintaining the city commission form of government with [[at-large]] voting resulted in all positions being elected by the white majority, as African Americans could not command a majority for their candidates in the informally segregated city.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}

[[File:Downtown Mobile 2008 03.JPG|thumb|Downtown in 2008, as seen from Cooper Riverside Park. Buildings include (L to R): The Renaissance Mobile Riverview Plaza Hotel, [[RSA–BankTrust Building]], Arthur C. Outlaw Convention Center, and the [[RSA Battle House Tower]].]]
In 1969, the [[Brookley Air Force Base]] was closed by the Department of Defense, dealing a severe blow to Mobile's economy. The closing resulted in a 10% unemployment rate in the city.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}}

Mobile's city commission form of government was challenged and finally overturned in 1982 in ''[[City of Mobile v. Bolden]]'', which was remanded by the [[United States Supreme Court]] to the district court. Finding that the city had adopted a commission form of government in 1911 and [[at-large]] positions with discriminatory intent, the court proposed that the three members of the city commission should be elected from [[single-member districts]], likely ending their division of executive functions among them. Mobile's state legislative delegation in 1985 finally enacted a [[mayor-council]] form of government, with seven members elected from [[single-member districts]]. This was approved by voters.<ref name="vra"/> As white conservatives increasingly entered the Republican Party in the late 20th century, African-American residents of the city have elected members of the Democratic Party as their candidates of choice. Since the change to single-member districts, more women and African Americans were elected to the council than under the at-large system.<ref name="vra"/>

Beginning in the late 1980s, newly elected mayor [[Mike Dow]] and the city council began an effort termed the "String of Pearls Initiative" to make Mobile into a competitive city.<ref name="progress2">{{cite web |title=Mobile Wins Title of All American City |work=City of Mobile |url=http://www.cityofmobile.org/mapsnfacts/all_america.php |access-date=November 15, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071017135508/http://cityofmobile.org/mapsnfacts/all_america.php |archive-date=October 17, 2007 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> The city initiated construction of numerous new facilities and projects, and the restoration of hundreds of historic downtown buildings and homes.<ref name="progress2"/> City and county leaders also made efforts to attract new business ventures to the area.<ref name="progress3">{{cite web |title=2005 State of the City |work=City of Mobile |url=http://www.cityofmobile.org/news.php?view=full&news=679 |access-date=November 15, 2007}}</ref>