20th century
The turn of the century brought the Progressive Era to Mobile and saw Mobile's economic structure evolve along with a significant increase in population.[36] The population increased from around 40,000 in 1900 to 60,000 by 1920.[36] During this time the city received $3 million in federal grants for harbor improvements to deepen the shipping channels in the harbor.[36] During and after World War I, manufacturing became increasingly vital to Mobile's economic health, with shipbuilding and steel production being two of the most important.[36] During this time, social justice and race relations in Mobile worsened, however.[36] In 1902 the city government passed Mobile's first segregation ordinance, one that segregated the city streetcars. It legislated what had been informal practice, enforced by convention.[36] Mobile's African-American population responded to this with a two-month boycott, but it did not change the law.[36] After this, Mobile's de facto segregation was increasingly replaced with legislated segregation as whites imposed Jim Crow laws to maintain dominance.[36]
World War II led to a massive military effort causing a considerable increase in Mobile's population, largely due to the massive influx of workers coming to Mobile to work in the shipyards and at the Brookley Army Air Field.[37] Between 1940 and 1943, more than 89,000 people moved into Mobile to work for war effort industries.[37] Mobile was one of eighteen U.S. cities producing Liberty ships. Its Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company supported the war effort by producing ships faster than the Axis powers could sink them.[37] Gulf Shipbuilding Corporation, a subsidiary of Waterman Steamship Corporation, focused on building freighters, Fletcher class destroyers, and minesweepers.[37]
The years after World War II brought about changes in Mobile's social structure and economy. Instead of shipbuilding being a primary economic force, the paper and chemical industries began to expand, and most of the old military bases were converted to civilian uses.
After World War II and their sacrifices in service, African Americans stepped up their efforts to achieve equal rights and social justice. Some residents of Mobile had considered the city to be tolerant and racially accommodating compared to other cities in the South, especially as the police force and one local college became integrated in the 1950s. Buses and lunch counters were voluntarily desegregated by the early 1960s. Mobile's African-American citizens were not as content with the status quo as such residents believed. In 1963 three African-American students brought a case against the Mobile County School Board for being denied admission to Murphy High School.[38] The court ordered that the three students be admitted to Murphy for the 1964 school year, leading to the desegregation of Mobile County's school system.[38] The Civil Rights Movement led to the end of legal racial segregation with passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In the late 1960s, Mobile's economy was dealt a blow with the closing of Brookley Air Force Base. This and other factors ushered in a period of economic depression that lasted through the 1970s. Beginning in the late 1980s, the new mayor, Mike Dow, and the city council began an effort termed the "String of Pearls Initiative" to make Mobile into a competitive city.[39] The city initiated construction of numerous new facilities and projects, and the restoration of hundreds of historic downtown buildings and homes.[39] Violent crime was reduced, and city and county leaders attracted new business ventures to the area.[40] The effort continues into the present under the current mayor, Sam Jones, and city council.[40] Shipbuilding began to make a major comeback in Mobile in 1999 with the founding of Austal USA