Town of Hobson City, Alabama
Posted by: 
hoteltwo
N 33° 37.208 W 085° 50.585
16S E 607315 N 3720637
Marker describes Alabama's first self-governed all-black municipality and second in the U.S. south. Located in Calhoun County, near Oxford, the town only has a total area of one square mile.
Waymark Code: WMWB45
Location: Alabama, United States
Date Posted: 08/06/2017
Views: 3
Marker text:
Front
Hobson City is Alabama's first incorporated black city. The area was first known as Mooree Quarter, a black settlement that was part of Oxford, Alabama. After a black man was elected Justice of the Peace in Oxford, one mayor promised, if elected, he would stop blacks from participating in elections. After his election, he went to the State Capitol in Montgomery and had the corporate boundaries of Oxford redrawn to exclude Mooree Quarter. With the help of Ross Black, an Anniston attorney, the colored citizens filed a petition on July 20, 1899 with the Calhoun County Probate Judge to become a separate municipality. After proper legal proceedings, the town was incorporated August 16, 1899. The municipality was called "Hobson City," after the Spanish American war hero Richard P. Hobson. Thus, Hobson City became the second municipality in the South controlled and governed entirely by colored people. At the time of incorporation, its population was 135 people consisting of 12 families.
Rear
Education was priority for the early leaders of Hobson City. In 1905 Professor C. E. Hanna organized the first school known as the Hobson City and Oxford Academy. A fire destroyed the school building in 1923. Hobson City led the way to build a new school named Calhoun County Training School, the first school in the county for African American students. This school has many distinguished alumni, including Dr. David Satcher, the 16th Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Bobby Wright, Dr. Alfonzo Atkinson, Col. Ret. Franklin Todd, Major Ret. Benny Boyd, Col. Ret. Ronald Andrews, and Yvonne Grixsby, Ret. Army; mayors: Willie Maude Snow, Robert Pyles, Ralph Woods and Alberta McCrory; and educators: Jessie E. Bowens, Willie, Bailey, Charles McRath, William Hutchins, Aileen Howard, Georgia Calhoun, Mary Ransaw, and Betty Mason.
Marker Name: Town of Hobson City, Alabama
Marker Type: Urban
Addtional Information::
Erected by the Alabama Tourism Department and the Town of Hobson City.
Date Dedicated / Placed: August 2010
Marker Number: N/A
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Visit Instructions:
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