As the long-awaited opening date of Mobile’s Africatown Heritage House approaches, backers have released new details of the opening and the Clotilda exhibition it will house.

Among other significant developments, the History Museum of Mobile has hired a Heritage House manager, Jessica Fairley.

“Imagine if people come from all over the world just to hear this story,” said Fairley, a University of South Alabama graduate with a master’s in communication art from Valdosta State University. “I want Africatown Heritage House to be the Plymouth Rock for Black people. I want people from all over the world to be able to come here, place their hands on the glass (which will encase remnants of the Clotilda) and connect with their ancestors.”

Fairley said that attending Mobile schools with students from Africatown, and having a close friend who is descended from one of the captives carried by the Clotilda, makes the material personal for her. “This is not my story,” she said. “This is my friend’s story. Now Africatown Heritage House is the home of that story … and we’re ready to share it with the whole world.”

Since plans for the Heritage House were announced, the History Museum of Mobile has been guiding the development of the initial exhibit that will be featured when it opens on July 8.

According to recently released information, “Clotilda: The Exhibition” will focus on the 110 men, women and children carried by the ship. Their stories will be shared “through a combination of interpretive text panels, documents and artifacts, including some pieces of the sunken ship scientifically verified to be the Clotilda.”

“That’s going to give them an experience that they’ve never had before and never knew they could have,” Fairley said. “Africatown Heritage House is a place of hope and pride. You’ll come in and see what these people were able to do after they were taken away from their homes and put in a place unknown to them. I don’t know what my ancestors went through, but knowing what the survivors of the Clotilda went through gives me a piece of my story.”

According to the information released this week, descendants of Clotilda survivors will get a private visit before the public opening. The Africatown Heritage House will open to the public on July 8, a Saturday; it will be open Tuesdays through Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibition will have limited capacity, so tickets will be sold in time-block increments and should be purchased in advance at www.clotilda.com.

Tickets will be available online later in June. Admission is $15 for adults; $9 for seniors, active and retired military and students 19 and older; $8 for children ages 6-18; and free for children ages 5 and younger. Scheduling for group and school tours will begin in September. The Heritage House is at 2460 Winbush St. in Mobile.

Detailed information about the partners supporting the establishment of the museum and its inaugural exhibition, and the curators of the exhibition, also can be found at the site.

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