Etymology The city is named after the Mobile tribe that the French colonists encountered living around
Mobile Bay. Although it is debated by Alabama historians, they may have been descendants of the Native American tribe from the small fortress town,
Mabila, in central Alabama. The Mobile tribe became allies with the French colonists and suggested the location for the original town of Mobile and a river fort. The tribe's language was the basis for
Mobilian Jargon, a Choctaw-derived
lingua franca widely used to facilitate trade among the various Gulf Coast peoples.
Colonial In 1702, French colonists founded the
Old Mobile Site south of existing Native American villages on the Mobile River. The
Fort Louis de la Louisiane was built on a bluff that today is upriver from the
Mobile River's mouth. The original town of Mobile was built on lower ground just downriver from the fort.
French Canadian brothers
Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and
Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville founded the site to establish control over France's claims to
La Louisiane. From 1702 to 1711, it was the French colonial capital. Mobile's Roman Catholic parish was established on July 20, 1703, by
Jean-Baptiste de la Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier,
Bishop of Quebec, and was the first French Catholic parish established on the
Gulf Coast. In 1704, the ship
Pélican delivered 23 Frenchwomen to the colony, but passengers had contracted
yellow fever at a stop in
Havana; though most recovered, many colonists and neighboring Native Americans contracted the disease and died. African
slaves were transported to Mobile on a supply ship from the French colony of
Saint-Domingue in the
Caribbean. Disease and flooding plagued French colonists at the Old Mobile Site. According to anthropologist Greg Waselkov, French colonists burned the Old Mobile Site to the ground, likely to prevent their enemies from occupying it. An earth-and-palisade Fort Louis was constructed at the new site. The capital of
La Louisiane was moved in 1720 to
Biloxi, In 1763, Britain defeated France in the
Seven Years' War. The
Treaty of Paris ceded French territories east of the Mississippi River to Britain, including Mobile. The city became part of the expanded British
West Florida colony. The British changed the name of Fort Condé to
Fort Charlotte, after
Queen Charlotte. The British promised religious tolerance to the French colonists, and 112 French colonists remained in Mobile. The first permanent Jewish settlers came to Mobile in 1763 as a result of the new British rule and religious tolerance; Jews were not allowed to officially reside in colonial French Louisiana due to the
Code Noir. Most colonial-era Jews in Mobile were merchants and traders from Sephardic Jewish communities in
Savannah, Georgia and
Charleston, South Carolina. By 1766, the town's population was estimated to be 860 people, although the borders were smaller than during the French colonial period. While the British were fighting rebellious colonists along the Atlantic coast, the
Spanish entered the war in 1779. captured Mobile during the
Battle of Fort Charlotte in 1780. Their actions were condoned by the revolting American colonies, partially evidenced by the presence of Oliver Pollack, representative of the American Continental Congress. Due to strong trade ties, many residents of Mobile and
West Florida remained loyal to the
British Crown.
19th century photo of the Southern Hotel on Water Street in 1934. It was completed in 1837 and demolished soon after this photograph was taken. When Mobile was included in the
Mississippi Territory in 1813, the population had dwindled to roughly 300 people. The territory was split in 1817, and the eastern half, including the Mobile Bay area, became the
Alabama Territory for two years before being admitted to the union as the state of Alabama. Mobile's population had increased to 809 by that time. Mobile was well situated for trade, as its location tied it to a river system that served as the principal navigational access for most of Alabama and a large part of Mississippi. River transportation was aided by the introduction of
steamboats in the early decades of the 19th century. By 1822, the city's population had risen to 2,800. Much land well suited to growing cotton lies in the vicinity of the
Mobile River, and its main tributaries the
Tombigbee and
Alabama Rivers. A
plantation economy using slave labor developed in the region and Mobile's population quickly grew. Mobile was the slave-trading center of the state until the 1850s, when it was surpassed by
Montgomery. The prosperity stimulated a building boom that was underway by the mid-1830s. This was cut short in part by the
Panic of 1837 and
yellow fever epidemics. The waterfront was developed with wharves, terminal facilities, and fireproof brick warehouses. The exports of cotton grew in proportion to the amounts being produced in the
Black Belt; by 1840 Mobile was second only to
New Orleans in cotton exports in the nation. s bound for inland Alabama and Mississippi being loaded at Mobile's dockyards By 1860 Mobile's population within the city limits had reached 29,258 people; it was the 27th-largest city in the United States and 4th-largest in what would soon be the
Confederate States of America. The free population in the whole of Mobile County, including the city, consisted of 29,754 citizens, of which 1,195 were
free people of color. Additionally, 1,785 slave owners in the county held 11,376 people in bondage, about one-quarter of the total county population of 41,130 people. One of the most famous
naval engagements of the
war was the
Battle of Mobile Bay, resulting in the
Union taking control of
Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864. On April 12, 1865, three days after
Robert E. Lee's surrender at
Appomattox Courthouse, the city surrendered to the
Union army to avoid destruction after Union victories at nearby
Spanish Fort and
Fort Blakeley. Federal
Reconstruction in Mobile began after the Civil War and effectively ended in 1874 when the local
Democrats gained control of the city government. The last quarter of the 19th century was a time of economic depression and municipal insolvency for Mobile. One example can be provided by the value of Mobile's exports during this period of depression. The value of exports leaving the city fell from $9 million in 1878 to $3 million in 1882.
20th century before WWII , 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. The population increased from around 40,000 in 1900 to 60,000 by 1920. 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. They have spread throughout the South and Southwest. , 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
Brookley Army Air Field. Between 1940 and 1943, more than 89,000 people moved into Mobile to work for war effort industries. 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 to restore order, but it was weeks before officials allowed African Americans to return to work.
Post-WWII 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. In 1963, three African-American students brought a case against the Mobile County School Board for being denied admission to
Murphy High School. 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. ended multiple forms of segregation, and allowed the NAACP to return to Mobile. However, the city's 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. Many forms of
de facto segregation persisted for decades. , Arthur C. Outlaw Convention Center, and the
RSA Battle House Tower. In 1969, the Department of Defense closed
Brookley Air Force Base, dealing a blow to Mobile's economy. It affected about 10% of workers in the city. In total, 16,000 people lost their jobs. 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. The city initiated construction of numerous new facilities and projects, and the restoration of hundreds of historic downtown buildings and homes. ==Geography==