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Last known slave ship to arrive in the U.S. is a decayed “crime scene” that should stay underwater, experts say
The last known U.S. slave ship is too “broken” and decayed to be extracted from the murky waters of the Alabama Gulf Coast without being dismembered, a task force of archaeologists, engineers and historians announced following a yearslong investigation.
The task force headed by the Alabama Historical Commission said Thursday that the Clotilda, the last ship known to transport enslaved Africans to the United States, had been broken in half by a large vessel and severely eroded by bacteria. The 500-page report says that the “responsible” way to memorialize the ship is to protect it under the water where it was discovered in 2019.
“There is no other site in the world that presents such physical evidence as the Clotilda,” said James Delgado, a lead marine archeologist on the investigation who said the priority was preserving that physical evidence. “The Clotilda is the scene of the crime, so everything we did was in that crime scene investigation manner.”
The wooden schooner at the heart of the investigation was commissioned in 1860 by Timothy Meaher, one year before the Confederacy was created and decades after the importation of slaves was made punishable by death in 1808. Captained by William Foster, the ship traveled to West Africa and illegally smuggled 110 Africans back to Alabama. Foster then attempted to burn and sink the ship to hide the crime.
SEARCH, Inc./Alabama Historical Commission
After the Civil War freed the survivors of the Clotilda, historical records show 32 of them bought land from Meaher and established what is now Africatown, formally known as Plateau, about 3 miles north of Mobile.
As “60 Minutes” reported last year, Africatown is now the only surviving community in America founded by Africans. Some of their descendants still call it home.
The ship’s remains stayed, unidentified in the brackish Mobile River until 2019. On Thursday, the task force presented photos of some charred remains of the hull that were extracted throughout the investigation – evidence that supported the story documented by historians and community members for decades.
Before the state-funded $1 million investigation, it was unclear how well the ship had weathered the over 160 years under water. Some had hoped it was intact enough to be fully excavated and turned into a museum on land.
“Museums have power, and that ship loses its power if it is sitting in the water,” said Ben Raines, a former local reporter who wrote a book about the Clotilda.
Raines said that he is still optimistic that the ship could be excavated and turned into a museum because the task force said that option is still scientifically and technically possible. Raines said that a museum would be a significant resource to all descendants of the enslaved in the U.S. and could bring much needed revenue to the Africatown community. Many residents in attendance at Thursday’s meeting expressed a similar sentiment.
Delgado didn’t rule out that option, but said that process would require the ship to be disassembled “piece by piece, nail by nail,” and could compromise some of the remaining physical clues about the experiences of the enslaved people aboard.
That key historical evidence includes the lower hull where the enslaved Africans were held in captivity. Deep water dives revealed the confined chambers where 110 people were held remain mostly intact.
“It’s very chilling”
The president of the Clotilda Descendants Association, Jeremy Ellis, became visibly emotional when Delgado shared details of the compartment where his ancestors were kept.
“Since we’ve been able to learn more about what they really experienced and how small that cargo hold was and how on top of each other they were, it’s very chilling,” said Ellis, who is in his early 40s and a sixth-generation descendant of Clotilda survivors Pollee and Rose Allen. “And it makes me want to continue the effort of reconciliation and healing for the descendants.”
Instead of an excavation, the report recommended a plan that would preserve the structure underneath the water by installing large pillars around the ship to protect it from other ships and vessels. The ship is submerged in a designated Wildlife Management Area and the town is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which means the process will require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to get federal permitting to install the protections. Representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers who have been integral to the investigation said the process could be resolved in a matter of months as long as there aren’t serious conflicts between the environmental protections and the needs of the ship.
The ship’s discovery in 2019 reignited a longstanding debate over how to address the harrowing legacy of the Clotilda, especially for the direct descendants of the survivors. The Meaher family still has millions of dollars in real estate holdings in the area, as well as parks and roads that bear the family name.
Last summer, descendants of enslaved Africans and descendants of the slave owner who bankrolled their voyage to America sat down together in a historic meeting to talk about reconciliation, after years of effort to set up a meeting.
60 Minutes
Zora Neale Hurston’s bestselling book “Barracoon” documents the life of Cudjo Lewis, the Clotilda’s last surviving enslaved African. Released in 2018, “Barracoon” includes stories about Lewis’ upbringing in Africa, experiences aboard the slave ship and during his enslavement, and his part in finding Africatown. Lewis died in 1935 at the age of 94.
As a result, Africatown and the Clotilda are frequently cited in the national conversation about reparations.
Ultimately the task force said that the underwater preservation plan would only protect the structure for an estimated 100 years before it fully succumbs to erosion. They added the timeline could be shortened by climate change, which will likely affect the levels, temperatures and salinity of the water around the ship.
But many descendants said they are OK with letting the ship stay underwater.
Veda Robbins, 55, is also a sixth-generation descendant of Pollee and Rose Allen. Robbins grew up in nearby Mobile but clearly remembers going to her great aunt’s house in Africatown in her childhood. Robbins married in the local Africatown church and later baptized her children there.
Robbins said that the ship doesn’t matter as much as the need to revitalize the Africatown community, which has been ravaged by environmental contamination and disinvestment since its inception.
“I don’t want to see a ship taking up space in the community that could be used for housing and things for the community itself,” Robbins said. The population of the unincorporated town has dwindled significantly to just under 2,000 people.
Robbins echoed the official position of the Clotilda Descendants Association: Ultimately, the ship is less important than the stories of the people who survived it, along with the descendants who are already struggling to keep the Africatown community intact.
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After Tyre Nichols’ fatal beating, Memphis officer texted photo of bloodied man to ex-girlfriend, she testifies
A former Memphis police officer charged in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols sent his ex-girlfriend a photo of the badly injured man on the night he was punched, kicked and hit with a police baton following a traffic stop, according to trial testimony Wednesday.
Brittany Leake, a Memphis officer and Demetrius Haley’s former girlfriend, testified during the criminal trial that she was on the phone with Haley when officers pulled Nichols over for a traffic stop. She said she heard a “commotion,” including verbal orders for someone to give officers his hands.
The call ended, but Haley later texted the photo in a group chat comprising Haley, Leake and her godsister, she testified. Prosecutors displayed the photo for the jury. It showed Nichols with his eyes closed, on the ground with what appeared to be blood near his mouth and his hands behind his back.
Leake said that when she saw the photo, her reaction was: “Oh my God, he definitely needs to go to the Med.”
The Med is shorthand for Memphis’ trauma hospital.
The fatal beating, caught on police bodycams and street surveillance cameras, has sparked protests and calls for police reform. Officers said they pulled over Nichols for reckless driving, but Memphis’ police chief said there was no evidence to substantiate that claim.
Haley, Tadarrius Bean and Justin Smith are on trial after pleading not guilty to charges that they deprived Nichols of his civil rights through excessive force and failure to intervene, and obstructed justice through witness tampering. Their trial began Sept. 9 and is expected to run three to four weeks.
George Walker IV / AP
The Memphis Police Department fired the three men, along with Emmitt Martin III and Desmond Mills Jr., after Nichols’ death. The beating was caught on police video, which was released publicly. The officers were later indicted on the federal charges. Martin and Mills have taken plea deals.
During her testimony Wednesday, Leake said she deleted the photo after she saw it and that sending such a photo is against police policy.
“I wasn’t offended, but it was difficult to look at,” she said.
Leake said Haley had sent her photos before of drugs, and of a person who had been injured in a car accident.
Earlier Wednesday, Martin was on the witness stand for a third day. Defense attorneys tried to show inconsistencies between Martin’s statements to investigators and his court testimony. Martin acknowledged lying about what happened to Memphis Police Department internal investigators, to try to cover up and “justify what I did.”
But Martin said he told the truth to FBI investigators after he pleaded guilty in August, including statements about feeling pressure on his duty belt where his gun was located during the traffic stop, but not being able to see if Nichols was trying to get his gun. Martin has testified that he said “let go of my gun” during the traffic stop.
Martin Zummach, the attorney for Justin Smith, asked Martin if he knew of any reasons why Nichols did not simply say, “I give up.”
“He’s out of it,” Martin said. “Disoriented.”
Martin testified that the situation escalated quickly when Haley pulled his gun and violently yanked Nichols from his car, using expletives and failing to tell Nichols why he had been pulled over and removed from the vehicle.
“He never got a chance to comply,” Martin said.
Nichols, who was Black, was pepper sprayed and hit with a stun gun during the traffic stop, but ran away, police video shows. The five officers, who also are Black, then beat him about a block from his home, as he called out for his mother.
Video shows the officers milling about and talking as Nichols struggled with his injuries. Nichols died Jan. 10, 2023, three days after the beating.
An autopsy report shows Nichols – the father of a boy who is now 7 – died from blows to the head. The report describes brain injuries, and cuts and bruises on his head and elsewhere on his body.
Jesse Guy testified that he was working as a paramedic for the Memphis Fire Department the night of the beating. He arrived at the location after two emergency medical technicians, Robert Long and JaMichael Sandridge.
Guy said he was not told about the medical problems Nichols had experienced before he arrived, and that Nichols was injured, seated on the ground and unresponsive.
Nichols had no pulse and was not breathing, and it “felt like he was lifeless,” Guy said.
In the ambulance, Guy performed CPR and provided mechanical ventilation, and Nichols had a pulse by the time he arrived at the hospital, the paramedic said.
Guy said Long and Sandridge did not say if they had checked Nichols’ pulse and heart rate, and they did not report if they had given him oxygen. When asked by one of Bean’s lawyers whether that information would have been helpful in treating Nichols, Guy said yes.
Long and Sandridge were fired for violating fire department policies after Nichols died. They have not been criminally charged.
The five officers also have been charged with second-degree murder in state court, where they pleaded not guilty. Mills and Martin are expected to change their pleas.
Federal prosecutors have previously recommended a 40-year sentence for Martin. A date has not been set in state court yet.
Nichols worked for FedEx, and he enjoyed skateboarding and photography. The city of Sacramento, where Nichols grew up, named a skatepark in his honor. “Tyre fell in love with skateboarding at a young age and it wasn’t long before it became a part of his lifestyle,” states the resolution approved by the city council. He had a tattoo of his mother’s name.
“Tyre Nichols’ family have been praying for justice and accountability from the very beginning of this tragedy,” Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, the civil rights attorneys representing Nichols’ family, said in a statement when the trial began.
Boeing’s CEO said Wednesday that the company will begin furloughing “a large number” of employees to conserve cash during the strike by union machinists that began last week.
Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg said the people who would be required to take time off without pay starting in coming days include executives, managers and other employees based in the U.S.
“While this is a tough decision that impacts everybody, it is in an effort to preserve our long-term future and help us navigate through this very difficult time,” Ortberg said in a company-wide message to staff.
Boeing didn’t say how many people will face rolling furloughs, but the number is expected to run into the tens of thousands. The aerospace giant had 171,000 employees at the start of the year.
About 33,000 Boeing factory workers in the Pacific Northwest began a strike Friday after rejecting a proposal to raise pay by 25% over four years. They want raises of at least 40%, the return of a traditional pension plan and other improvements in the contract offer they voted down.
Scott Brauer / Bloomberg via Getty Images
The strike is halting production of several airplane models including Boeing’s best-selling plane, the 737 Max. The company gets more than half of the purchase price when new planes are delivered to buyers, so the strike will quickly hurt Boeing’s cash flow.
Ortberg said selected employees will be furloughed for one week every four weeks while retaining their benefits. The CEO and other senior executives will take pay cuts during the duration of the strike, he said, without stating how deep the cuts will be.
All work related to safety, quality, customer support and certification of new planes will continue during the furloughs, he said, including production of 787 Dreamliner jets, which are built by nonunion workers in South Carolina.
Ortberg said in a memo to employees that the company is talking to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers about a new contract agreement that could be ratified.
“However, with production paused across many key programs in the Pacific Northwest, our business faces substantial challenges and it is important that we take difficult steps to preserve cash and ensure that Boeing is able to successfully recover,” he said.
Boeing’s chief financial officer warned employees earlier this week that temporary layoffs were possible.
The company, which is based in Arlington, Virginia, but has most of its commercial-airplanes business located in the Pacific Northwest, is also cutting spending on suppliers, freezing hiring and eliminating most travel.
Despite two full days of talks assisted by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the union said Wednesday that no resolution had been reached and no additional negotiations were scheduled, according to CBS Seattle affiliate KIRO-TV.
Striking workers are picketing at several locations in the Seattle area, Oregon and California. The union, which recommended the offer that members later rejected by a 96% vote, is surveying the workers to learn what they want in a new contract. The union’s last strike at Boeing, in 2008, lasted about two months.
If the walkout doesn’t end soon, Boeing’s credit rating could be downgraded to non-investment or junk status, which would make borrowing more expensive. Shortly after the walkout began Friday, Moody’s put Boeing on review for a possible downgrade, and Fitch said a strike longer than two weeks would make a downgrade more likely.
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