Historic Franklin House and Gallery opens to public

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Mobile celebrated one of its trailblazers Saturday as the family of the late Dr. James Alexander Franklin opened his home on South Ann Street to the public.

The home will now serve as the Historic Franklin House Gallery, showcasing not only Franklin’s legacy, but the many contributions African Americans have made to the city of Mobile. Franklin, who graduated from the University of Michigan, was one of the first African American doctors here in the Deep South.

“The unique thing about his medical school class was not only was he the only black person in that class, there was a woman in that class -- which was even rarer than that, in terms of having people understand how far we’ve come as a country,” said Dr. Coleridge Franklin, treasurer of the Dora Franklin Finley African American Heritage Trail.

Karlos Finley, president of the DFFAAHT’s board of directors, said. “So as you know this has been a wonderful weekend. Yesterday we honored the Excelsior Band. Today, we are giving a preview of the Historic Franklin House Gallery.

“Tomorrow, we will have the National Underground Railroad Bike Tour. It will start from Heart of Mary School at 2 p.m.,” Finley said. “You can register on site. We are going to ride out to Africatown. We’ll come back to the City of Mobile. And we’ll have a great celebration afterwards.”

Visit www.dffaaht.org to keep up with all their events or register for one of the heritage trail tours.

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