Contact: Joy Washington, (251) 460-6638, jwashing@southalabama.edu
Release Date: January 23, 2024

USA Hosting Special Exhibit on the Archaeology and Oral History of Mobile’s Jim Crow

A new special exhibit, “Unwritten: Archaeology and Oral History of Jim Crow Mobile,” highlighting the lives of the Lewis, Owens, and Griffin families is open at the University of South Alabama Archaeology Museum. The exhibit can be viewed now and during Black History Month, until the end of April. The museum is open Tuesday-Friday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. at 6050 USA South Drive. Admission is free and open to the public.

The exhibit will be on view exclusively at the USA Archaeology Museum, where people can view the amazing and inspiring stories and artifacts of these African-American families during segregation.

“We are excited to offer a broader audience to these stories. The exhibit introduces three families who lived in different parts of Mobile but who shared much in common. As Black families, they endured Jim Crow segregation,” said Jennifer Knutson, assistant director of the USA Archaeology Museum. “They all owned homes at a time when many African Americans did not, and their homes were excavated by archaeologists. In the mid-20th century, development transformed their neighborhood, erasing homes, schools, and shops from the landscape. Though their houses are no longer standing, we can learn their stories through Archaeology and Oral History in this exhibit.”

This exhibit is built on decades of past and current work by South scholars. USA Professor of Anthropology and the Chief Calvin McGhee Professor of Native American Studies, Dr. Philip Carr, also director of the USA Center for Archaeological Studies which also uncovered the home of the Owens Family, as part of the Down the Bay excavations during the Mobile I-10 River Bridge Project. The USA McCall Archives Down the Bay Oral History Project continues to record the stories of the community.

In the 1990’s, South archaeologists excavated the home of the Griffin Family before the construction of the Calloway-Smith Middle School near historic Davis Avenue and their story is also featured in the “Unwritten” exhibit. The Lewis Family in Africatown is another family whose story is also highlighted. The College of William & Mary excavated the Africatown home site of Peter Lee as well as Lewis Quarters in 2010. Artifacts from these excavations can be seen by the public for the first time after their transfer to USA in 2021. South’s Director of the African American Studies Program Dr. Kern Jackson, whose work documenting the stories of the Africatown community for decades also made this exhibit possible.

“Part of a larger project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities includes the in-person exhibit at the museum and an online one for virtual visitors,” noted Knutson. “People will be able to see the exhibit in their local communities as a traveling exhibit in addition to the virtual one which will be available later this spring.” “Unwritten: Archaeology and Oral History of Jim Crow in Mobile” will be on exhibit until the end of April at the USA Archaeology Museum.

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Since the exhibit opened in Sept. 2023, 3600 people have visited in person. In September and October, the USA Archaeology Museum hosted a speaker series that accompanied the exhibit. Another speaker series is
planned for March and April 2024. The campus and Mobile communities are encouraged to follow the museum on social media, Facebook: @TheAechaeologyMuseum and Instagram: @SouthArchaeology.

“Unwritten” in Mobile Spring 2024 Lecture Series:

3:30 p.m., In-person at the USA Archaeology Museum

April 2- “Archaeology & Oral History of Down The Bay,” Philip Carr, Rachel Hines (USA Center for Archaeological Studies), and Ryan Morini (USA Marx Library, McCall Archives)
April 3- “Where is the parity: Exploring the gap between health disparities and health equities,” Tiquera Hall (USA College of Medicine)
April 10- “Memory of the Civil Rights Movement in Mobile,” David Messenger (USA Department of History)

6 p.m. CST/7 p.m. EST, via Zoom

April 9- “Documenting the Historic Plateau Africatown Cemetery,” Alexandra Jones, (Archaeology in the Community)