A Message from Mayor Stimpson - January 13
Jan 13th, 2021
Good evening,
It is 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 13, and I am writing to give you an update from the City of Mobile.
Today, the Mobile County Health Department reports 29,463 COVID-19 cases, an increase of 308 cases. To review the most recent detailed report, click here.
The City of Mobile is currently in the process of standing up a site for public vaccinations at the Mobile Civic Center as part of an ongoing partnership with USA Health. We plan to release more information about how this public vaccination site will be operated later this week.
In observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the City of Mobile will not be collecting curbside trash and yard debris on Monday, January 18 and our recycling drop-off centers will be closed. The collection of household garbage will be unaffected as garbage trucks do not operate on Mondays.
This weekend the Mobile Museum of Art will be opening a special exhibit, “Gordon Parks: Segregation Story in Mobile, 1956” featuring photographs captured by the prominent photographer during the Jim Crow era. His photos document the everyday activities and rituals of one extended black family, the Thorntons, in Mobile and Shady Grove, Alabama, during segregation.
The images were originally published in a 1956 photo essay as part of an assignment for Life magazine, but they have since come to be known around the world for helping to inspire the Civil Rights movement. They capture candid moments during a difficult time in the history of our City and the nation, but Parks believed they helped elicit something critical to undoing racial prejudice: empathy.
This exhibition was sponsored by Mobile County Commission President Merceria Ludgood, who helped bring these iconic photographs back to the city where they were first captured and helped create a timeline of “Civil Rights in Mobile” that will be displayed along with the Parks exhibit. Future programs related to the exhibition were also supported by members of the Mobile City Council. The grand opening of the exhibit will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, January 16 and will be free to the public.
A devotional I read this morning said, “try to view each day as an adventure.” Author Sarah Young writes that a life lived with purpose will not be dull or predictable, and we should expect surprises along the way.
“Resist your tendency to search for the easiest route through the day. Be willing to follow wherever God leads. No matter how steep or treacherous the path before you, the safest place to be is by His side.”
Sleep tight,