According to the Columbus, Ohio, State Journal of June 19, 1917, the professional wrestler Matty Matsuda was teaching jujitsu in Troy, Alabama, between 1912 and 1917. Matsuda was first spotted winning a sumo tournament in Vancouver, BC, in 1905, and he died in Michigan in 1927. So he got around.

Anyway, who has access to Troy, Alabama, papers of that era? I didn't know that anybody was teaching Japanese martial arts in Alabama that early.