For the Africatown community and its supporters, the July 4 weekend promises to be a blockbuster: The Clotilda Descendants Association has combined its two biggest events into one multi-day celebration.

In recent years the CDA has presented a Spirit of Our Ancestors Festival early in the year, followed by a Landing event in July. The festival has served as a festive community gathering, while the Landing has been a more somber, spiritual affair commemorating events of July 1860, when the slave ship Clotilda unloaded what is believed to be the last shipment of captive Africans brought into slavery in the United States.

This year the festival has been shifted to the same July weekend as the Landing, which happens to coincide with July 4. The combined festivities are being presented under a new umbrella, “LEAF,” meaning Landing Event and Ancestor Festival.

LEAF Committee Chair Chanelle Blackwell said that the decades-long effort to preserve the legacy of the Clotilda’s survivors and to sustain the Africatown community still inhabited by their descendants has been elevated by some significant events in recent years. These include the scientific confirmation that the wreckage of the Clotilda had been found in the Mobile River, and the release of the award-winning documentary “Descendant,” backed by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground production company.

But the effort to battle challenges such as industrial encroachment and pollution remain a hard fight, she said, requiring continuous effort to maintain attention and focus. The LEAF umbrella was created in part to maximize the participation in, and the impact of, the Landing event and the annual festival.

“I do think the trend is positive,” she said, though there’s still a lot of work to be done to mitigate decades of blight and neglect.

“We were really excited to have [author] Michael Harriot last year,” she said, “and we’re really excited to have [New York Times journalist] Jamelle Bouie speaking this year. It’s important for us to have those voices.”

The weekend includes some gatherings and events intended for descendants of Clotilda survivors. However, it also features many events that are open to the public. They are:

Thursday, July 3, 1 p.m.-4 p.m. – A Clotilda Descendants Association Meet & Greet will be held at the Africatown Heritage House at 2465 Winbush St. in Mobile. (For full information on the Heritage House, including hours, exhibits and ticketing details, visit clotilda.com. Admission is free for Mobile County residents, but timed entry tickets are required due to limited capacity.)

Thursday, July 3, 6 p.m.-9 p.m. – A Descendant Celebration Reception will take place at Kazoola, 558 Dauphin St.

Friday, July 4 – The Ancestor Festival and CDA Environmental Justice Summit take place on the grounds of the Hope Center, 850 Edwards St., and the adjacent Mobile County Training School. Admission is free. The festival runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Ramsey Sprague of the Mobile Environmental Justice Action Coalition and Clotilda descendant Assata de la Cruz will lead the Environmental Justice Summit starting shortly after noon.

Friday, July 4, 6 p.m. – The “Protect Truth Summit” featuring New York Times journalist Jamelle Bouie will be held at The Admiral hotel, 251 Government St. Bouie will speak on the topic of “History and Journalism in American Democracy.” Attendance is limited; tickets are $50 for the general public, $10 for Africatown residents, free for Clotilda survivor descendants. For ticketing information, visit the Clotilda Descendants Association website. The event is co-sponsored by Kinfolkology, an organization using contemporary research techniques to integrate data related to slavery, the lives of the enslaved, their communities and their descendants.

Saturday, July 5, 8 a.m.-9:30 p.m. – The Landing ceremony will be held under the Africatown Bridge, 101 Bay Bridge Road. Organizers say the public is welcome to “join us for a powerful morning ceremony as we gather at the historic site beneath the Africatown Bridge to honor the legacy of our ancestors and celebrate the ongoing journey of remembrance, resilience, and renewal.” There is no ticketing or attendance limit, but visitors are asked to RSVP to help with planning.

Sunday, July 6, 10:45 a.m. – A church service with descendants will be held at Union Missionary Baptist Church, 506 Bay Bridge Road. Organizers advise that “All are welcome to attend. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis up to the church’s capacity, so we encourage you to arrive early.”

For more information, visit theclotildastory.com/event-directory.