Biohazard Cleanup Near Neely Prichard, AL

Prichard is a city in Mobile County in southwestern Alabama, bordering the north side of the city of Mobile, with a population of 19,322 at the 2020 census.

Prichard began as a settlement in the 1830s along Telegraph Road, now U.S. Highway 43, and remained largely unsettled until after the Civil War.

The city is named for Cleveland Mason Prichard, who bought land beside the railroad in 1879 and developed it into a vegetable-shipping point for northern and eastern markets, earning him the newspaper nickname 'The Vegetable King.'

Prichard's history is tied to the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to reach the United States, which arrived in Mobile Bay in July 1860 carrying 110 captive Africans; survivors of the voyage founded the self-governing community of Africatown, and the Plateau and Magazine Point area they settled was later split between Mobile and Prichard.

Prichard was incorporated on September 16, 1925, after Mobile shipbuilding companies began building company housing for their workers in the town.

During World War II Prichard became a shipbuilding company town, and at the 1960 census it reached its peak population of 47,371 residents.

In 1972 the majority-white city of Prichard elected Algernon Johnson (A.J.) Cooper as its first Black mayor, and he served two terms.

The 2020 census counted 19,322 people in 7,458 households in Prichard, and about 85 percent of residents are Black or African American.

Prichard students attend Mobile County public schools, including Vigor High School and Blount High School, which was established in 1956 as the city's predominantly African American high school during segregation.

Baseball Hall of Famer Billy Williams, the Chicago Cubs outfielder, was raised in Prichard.