Africatown Heritage House: Heritage Lecture Series, Darron Patterson “Remember what they taught us…”
Date/Time
Date(s) - November 20, 2025
5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Location
Africatown Heritage House
Categories
Africatown Heritage House is hosting its November 2025 Heritage Lecture Series event, a collection of speeches designed to touch on topics related to the Black experience, on Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 5:30pm.
The November lecture will feature Darron Patterson. His lecture is entitled Remember what they taught us ….
ABOUT DARRON PATTERSON:
Africatown native Darron Patterson (www.darronepatterson.com) is the founding president of the Clotilda Descendants Association, serving in the role from 2019 to 2022, and is now the organization’s vice president.
He is the great, great grandson of Clotilda slave ship survivor “Kupollee,” one of the last 110 Africans illegally enslaved and brought to the coast of Alabama in 1860.
The University of Texas at El Paso alumni was the first African American sportswriter at the Mobile Press Register, and is a four-time Associated Press and Alabama Press Association award winner for “Best Story of the Year.“
Darron later wrote for one of the largest newspapers in the country, The Detroit News, covering that city’s four major sports teams: the National Football League’s Lions, NBA’s Pistons, Major League Baseball’s Tigers, and the National Hockey League’s Red Wings. He was also the first African American in the country to cover NASCAR and Indy Car racing circuits for a major metropolitan daily newspaper, and was later named Director of Communications for the City of Detroit’s Resource Management System.
He is the owner of WriteStuf Communications, Inc., a sports media consulting firm in Mobile, mentors Auburn University Journalism and Communications students, and has spoken at several colleges and universities, including Auburn, The University of Virginia, Springhill College, and the University of South Alabama.
Darron is now a Senior Technical Writer and Document Control Specialist for Airbus Space and Defense in Mobile; serves on board of directors of Kinfolkology (https://www.kinfolkology.org/people), an international database dedicated to documenting descendant communities worldwide; the Mobile Sports Hall of Fame, and is on the advisory board of the Mobile Sports and Entertainment Group.
A member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, Darron is married to the former Sandy Grimes.
ABOUT THE LECTURE:
“Hebrews 12:14 says ‘Make every effort to live in peace with everyone.’ As descendants of some of the greatest ancestors to ever walk this earth, we, their children, were always taught to love and respect one another, cherish true friendships, and make a way out of no way. Sometimes, I wonder if all that they taught us has slowly been forgotten over time. But WE ARE Black people, with the strength of millions ingrained into our spirits and raised to do whatever it takes to survive. We can never let the world forget who we are.”
The History Museum of Mobile and Africatown Heritage House invite the public to attend this FREE Heritage Lecture Series event.
Capacity is limited and guests are required to RSVP to attend by calling (251) 206-5268.
For more information on the Heritage Lecture Series, contact Jessica Fairley, Africatown Heritage House Manager, by email at j.fairley@historymuseumofmobile.com.