View full sizeRobert Battles, executive director of the Africatown Welcome Center, discusses the damage vandals caused to the busts of Cudjoe Lewis, background, and Prichard Mayor John Smith, foreground, Tuesday, March 22, 2011, in Mobile, Ala. The busts were donated to the center in 2007. Battles said he is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the damage. (Press-Register/Mike Kittrell) MOBILE, Alabama -- Vandals damaged two busts at the Africatown Welcome Center, and a $500 reward is being offered for information that will lead to an arrest of those responsible.
Robert Battles Sr., the center’s executive director, said he discovered the damage to the busts of Cudjoe Lewis and former Prichard Mayor John Smith about 3 p.m. Monday. He said he last stopped by the center about 2 p.m. Saturday, and the busts were intact.
Smith’s bust was pulled down and had come to rest about 10 feet from its stand. Lewis’ bust remained on the stand. The heads of both busts were knocked off.
Battles estimated the damage at $10,000, according to Officer Christopher Levy, Mobile police spokesman.
The busts were donated in May 2007 by filmmakers Thomas Akodjinou of Benin and Felix Eklu of Togo.
Lewis was the last survivor of a group of Africans brought to Mobile aboard the slave ship Clotilda in 1860. Smith played a major role in the establishment of the Africatown Folk Festival.
“That’s really sad,” Battles said Tuesday of the vandalism. “It only illustrates the conscience of those people. It’s not showing any love. It’s showing destruction.”
The Africatown Welcome Center is located across Cut-Off Road from the Plateau Cemetery, just off Bay Bridge Road.
Battles said the center has been burglarized three times in the last two years. The gate at the parking lot entrance remains open, Battles said, so that buses visiting the cemetery — a stop on the African-American Heritage Trail — can turn around.
“It’s disturbing, but it’s not going to be an inhibitor for us to try to move on,” he said.
Battles said he and the welcome center’s board of directors plan to meet to discuss the vandalism.