This week, Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Nedra Rhone and her 12-year-old daughter Layla are on the road, traveling to five Black history museums in five days.
When Rhone was growing up in Chicago, her parents took her on similar summer trips. And, just like them, she has a mission — to educate her daughter about significant moments in American history and culture.
Fourth Stop: Mobile
Driving into this port city, we crossed the Mobile River, the waterway where the sunken wreck of the last known ship to bring enslaved Africans to the United States was uncovered.
The Clotilda’s discovery was the impetus to establish a museum that will tell stories — not of the ship, but of the community that was formed by the 110 enslaved Africans who took that final trip to American shores. The Clotilda’s journey is perhaps the best documentation of the middle passage that exists.
When the museum opens July 8, it will tell the story of Africatown’s history, starting from the West African origins of the men, women and children who were on the ship.
Visitors will then learn the story of the Clotilda, which made an illegal trip to bring human cargo across the Atlantic more than 50 years after the slave trade had been banned. The trip from Ouidah, Benin to Mobile is told via primary sources, said Meg McCrummen Fowler, director of the History Museum of Mobile.
There are biographies of known persons on the Clotilda, and their stories lead visitors to the heart of the exhibit: the founding of Africatown.
Credit: Nedra Rhone
Credit: Nedra Rhone
Joycelyn Davis, a resident and descendant of Africatown, left us with something to think about as the history of the community will be shared with a larger audience. “As a people, we have gone through segregation, colorism and been ostracized for everything. We have been ashamed to be who we are. I hope that shame is no more.”
Also of interest:
We enjoyed a light lunch at the relatively new Ginger & Spice, a raw and vegan café on Dauphin Street that opened four months ago. Smoothies, wraps and more are on the menu. We tried the Nefertiti, a mix of peach, mango, strawberry, pineapple, lemon, coconut water and chia seeds.
Another must do: the Dora Franklin Finley African-American Heritage Trail, which highlights forgotten chapters in history and the contributions of heroes from the city’s past.
If you go
Credit: ArLuther Lee
Credit: ArLuther Lee
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