K-12 educators will encounter the history and the place known as Africatown. Last year, the discovery of the Clotilda was announced, the last known ship to bring enslaved Africans to the United States. This discovery made real the tale of those Africans and their descendants, some of whom still live in the village formed after the Civil War just outside Mobile, Alabama. Educators will engage with “difficult history” and the tools and strategies that will allow them to engage their own students. And, attendees will create media projects as an expression of their own reflection about this encounter.

The workshop represents an outgrowth of a documentary that workshop project co-directors Professors Ryan Noble (SHC) and Joél Billingsley (University of South Alabama), along with two additional faculty, began in 2018 titled “110: The Last Enslaved Africans Brought to America.” The documentary traces the journey of the Clotilda and concludes with the death of Cudjo Lewis in 1935, the last living person transported aboard the Clotilda and one of the founders of Africatown. This new workshop will take place twice in the summer of 2021, serving a total of 72 teachers.