Unwritten: Archaeology and Oral History of Jim Crow Mobile

Unwritten: Archaeology and Oral History of Jim Crow Mobile shares the stories of three families from Mobile: The Lewis Family of Africatown, the Owens Family of Down the Bay, and the Griffin Family, who lived off the Avenue. Their lives are explored through the archaeology of their homes and oral history interviews with community members.

Visit the virtual exhibit to hear their stories.

Virtual Exhibit Tips

The exhibit must be opened from a desktop computer and opened in full screen mode.

Controls:

• Arrow Keys or WASD to navigate
• Move mouse to look around
• Escape to return to the main menu
• Click on posters to enlarge them. When poster is selected, scroll with wheel to zoom in and out; click and drag with left mouse button to pan around the image.
• When prompted, click on audio buttons to play audio recordings from oral history interviews. Click on a different spot of the image to stop the recording.

Credits

This exhibit was on display at the USA Archaeology Museum from September 2023-April 2024 and was funded through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. A traveling version is available by request. Email cas@southalabama.edu if you’d like to host it or for more information. The virtual exhibit was coded and built by Cassandra Bakotic Wagner and Nicholas Wagner.

Educational Resources

Uncover the history of the Owens Family, one of the three families featured in Unwritten, through our educational unit for Grades 3-5! The lessons are aligned with the 2024 Alabama State Social Studies standards. Students investigate the family's history through primary source documents and archaeological artifacts found during the I-10 Mobile River Bridge Archaeology Project. Download the lessons for free from our educational resources page.