We should have a place
in history for this being
the last slave
ship, that they recognize that
coming to Mobile, Alabama.
We've heard about 1619, but
there's another date overlooked in
U.S. history: 1860,
the year the last leave ship ever
known to land in North America, the
Clotilda arrived in Alabama.
Descendants formed the small
community of Africatown, which is
based economic and environmental
ruin. Now area residents
hope the discovery of the ship will
revitalize the town and help
preserve its history.
This back here, that's the little
mini museum I started from
Africa and I carried
over until today.
Lorna Woods is a descendant of
enslaved Africans who arrived on the
Clotilda.
Over her lifetime, she has collected
her family heirlooms and artifacts
and hopes one day they will be
placed in a museum.
This is a basket that you would've
on your shoulder
to pick cotton.
This is real cotton come
out the fields.
It ain't been shredded. It's still got some of the seeds in it.
Lorna is one of a few native
Mobilians who moved back to Alabama.
Her great great grandfather was
brought on the Clotilda.
The family eventually bought
property from white landowners in
Mobile, that descendants still live
on today.
That land was bought from the Meaher
family. The Meahers are descendants
of Mr. Timothy Meaher, the wealthy
white landowner who, on a bet,
commissioned the ship that brought
over 100 enslaved Africans to
America on the Clotilda.
I'm sixth generation, so it starts
with Charlie, second would be Joe
Lewis, and from Joe Lewis came
Mama. I'm fifth. Uh huh, she's fifth.
Right. And you're sixth? I'm sixth.
And they survived coming over
here naked, not known in language,
not knowing where you going.
And then when you worked hard,
they telling you 'Well, no, you
can't go back.' 'Well since we can't
go back, well we'll just make this
our Africatown.
Joycelyn is an Alabama teacher.
She grew up on Lewis Quarters.
We need something here where people
can say, 'Ok, I want to go visit the
Clotilda ship, the replica,
or visit the museum, the Clotilda
museum.' So
that's my focus now.
Joycelyn joins area residents in
planning a bell ringing and
butterfly release ceremony in
Africatown, commemorating enslaved
Africans brought to the U.S..
She worries about getting youth to
remain in the area.
Living in Alabama, and I've seen
this, most people my age
or younger, once they go to college,
their main goal is to leave here and
never come back because they want
to see some type of growth.
About 20 percent of Mobile County
lives below the poverty line,
almost double the national average.
Areas that were once home to
Black-owned businesses and
predominately black neighborhoods
are now empty or remain largely
unoccupied.
It's almost gone of like the chamber
of commerce, 'cause there was always
people coming through.
Eric Finley, docent, who gives tours
on the Dora Franklin Finley
African-American Heritage Trail,
gives visitors and residents of
Mobile history lessons on the town.
This was the Wall Street
of the Mobile community for the
African American community.
There were nothing but businesses on
the street.
The decline of businesses led to the
rise of unemployment in Africatown,
and more and more people left the
area. At one time
there was over 12,000 people that
lived in this community.
It's probably less than two thousand
now.
That's a ten thousand person
difference.
And because younger people
are not coming back to live
in this environment.
Why do you think that is?
The industrial pollution.
We're surrounded
by paper mills, chemical companies,
asphalt companies.
It's not a good environment.
Africatown residents like Joycelyn
are suing area companies for health
damages they believed were caused
by pollution from neighboring
manufacturing sites.
I was diagnosed 2016.
With cancer?
Mm- hmm.
What kinds of cancer?
Breast cancer.
I fought.
You know, I was like, 'Ok, my
ancestors went through
something.
You know, they they had to come over
here not knowing, you
know, anything.' And I was like,
'I'm going to fight.' And I'll
tell people I said,' Ok, you know,
today is my treatment and I'm taking
my ancestors with me.'
These environmental conditions make
rebuilding Africatown an uphill
battle for those trying to bring
hope, community and vibrancy
back to the town.
Some community leaders believe in
order for Africatown to move forward
beyond economic reparations and
settlements, the descendants of
alleged slave holders, the Meaher
family, need to acknowledge their
role in the area's complex history.
I don't think much about the Meaher
family. I think
that they have to come to
the realization that in order
for healing to take place,
they have to do some things
that they have not done before.
One of them is
to apologize,
Anderson Flen is the president of
the Mobile County Training School
Alumni Association, which preserves
the history of the Mobile area.
I don't think that you can move
forward until you recognize
that so many people have been hurt.
And unfortunately, certain people
are still being hurt by their
actions
in a sense that the Meahers still
own a great deal of land in this
area and they
have a great deal of influence.
At some point in time until they are
able to come into this community
and sit down and
really have a serious
conversation about what
took place in what is
equitable and just and fear,
because they profited tremendously
off of this in so many ways.
The Meaher family did not respond to
our request for comment.
Despite their silence, for the
Africatown, community continues
pressing toward their goal of
renewing Mobile County, organizing
commemorative ceremonies, and
establishing landmarks and heritage
trails where tourists can learn more
about the area's history.
The finding of the Clotilda is the
catalyst for doing a better job
of telling our story.
That will be told for
the world to know and for us to not
forget.
That sound you're hearing is the
sound of bells as the community
of Africatown commemorates 400
years since enslaved Africans
came to the United States.
I think it's a wake call once
this stuff has aired and people are
able to see what's actually
physically going on, then they'll
begin to appreciate it.
I've known this story all my life
and I just finally feel like it's
getting the recognition that is
should get. It's as if I'm having
a chance to call
them back to life
or at least to celebrate their
memory, because we know it's
not possible for them to return.
But it really is a wonderful feeling
to have them recognized
in everything that they had to have
encountered or endured.
The Alabama Historical Commission
filed a claim under maritime law
to ensure that the Clotilda remains
a publicly owned resource.
While it's unclear what the future
of the slave ship wreck will be for
now, residents and Clotilda the
descendants continue organizing,
pushing for new developments in
their city.
The ancestors are happy.
They held
off the rain for us today to
celebrate this day.
What was it like up there?
Oh, that was wonderful.
They were pushing me to ring that
bell. We talk about calling an
ancestors.
They were helping me ring that bell today.
Everything turned out the way should
have.
Everything turned out the way should
have.