As national and international interest in Africatown has grown, so has the challenge of connecting potential visitors to a structure of informative, authentic and rewarding experiences in and about the community. Five newly minted “experience givers” may represent a game-changing step forward.

Wednesday evening, Visit Mobile held a graduation society awarding certificates to four individuals and one couple who will draw on their personal experiences to fill a role that makes them tour guides, storytellers and more. The ceremony at the Robert Hope Community Center in Africatown followed four months of training organized by Visit Mobile; much of it was conducted by Michelle Browder, who has gained widespread acclaim for her development of civil rights tours in Montgomery.

“It was so important to me … to be able to bring people to our state so that they can experience something that was authentic,” said Rosemary Judkins, a state tourism official instrumental in connecting Browder with the group. “We don’t get any more authentic than this.”

“Your charge is to expose the legacy,” Browder said at Wednesday’s ceremony. “And while you’re exposing the legacy will manifest more truth, more justice and reparations. More reparations. This is just a start from what they’ve been able to give you. But there’s so much more that needs to be done in terms of reparations and giving back to these descendants.”

“This is a story that needs to be told,” Browder said. “And we don’t need to dress it up. People want it to be dressed up, they want to be coddled. … People come and they want you to dress up Rosa Parks. And Rosa Parks was driven out of Montgomery, Alabama.”

Each of the five new operations represents a licensed business with a website that will help interested Africatown visitors reach them. They are Jason “Chief” Lewis, a Navy veteran whose company is “Africatown, Return to Culture;” Joycelyn Davis, a community leader who is prominent in the documentary “Descendant,” with “All Things Africatown;” Lamar and Chiquitta Howard with “Africatown Freedom Tours;” Jacqueline Tunstall-Williams with “What You Say! Touring;” and Pastor Derek Tucker with “Africatown University: A Wealth of Knowledge.”

Each spoke passionately Wednesday about the paths that led them to this new role, and the facets of Africatown they hope to bring to life for people. Much of the attention that has fallen on Africatown in recent years is due to the confirmation that the remains of the slave ship Clotilda have been located. That has raised hopes that the hull, or at least artifacts recovered from it, will eventually go on display locally. But such work is in its early stages, as researchers study the condition of the submerged wreckage.

The award-winning documentary “Descendant” has put another spotlight on the area, telling both the story of the Clotilda and the story of the community founded by survivors of its final voyage. That’s the one these new guides hope to share.

“It means a lot to me because growing up in this neighborhood I feel like I should share the story with the world,” said Davis. “I feel like the Africatown story is more than just the Clotilda ship. It’s about our grandparents, our great-grandparents, the school and so many other things.”

Davis said that when she was a child, the phrase “we’re going to the Quarters” simply meant she was going to visit her great-grandmother, who still lived in the area known as Lewis Quarters.

“I don’t know how many people know the story of Lewis Quarters, how it was founded,” Davis said. “We talk about the Meahers a lot in the Clotilda story, but they were not the only ones involved. So I want to talk more about my family’s enslaver and how my ancestor was able to buy land from his enslaver.”

“I didn’t know it was a slave quarters, as a child,” she said. “So I want to tell that story. I want to tell me picking blackberries with my grandmother and her making blackberry cobbler here in Africatown.”

Like several of the others recognized on Wednesday, Davis acknowledged the work of the Finley family, saying their development of the Dora Finley African-American Heritage Trail and related tours served as an example and an inspiration.

Lewis, like Davis, said the notion of being a guide hadn’t come naturally to him. “To be honest with you my goal was never to come back to Mobile, Alabama, because of the trauma I experienced growing up,” he said.

But when he retired after 24 years of military service, he said the idea of giving back began to grow. Conversations with friends in the community, and with Browder, led him to re-engage through community cleanups and other activities. He also came to a new appreciation for to community of his childhood, where both his grandmothers were known for selling candy and other treats.

Lewis said he received Browder’s charge gladly, and that he would see to it that “everybody in Happy Hill, Roger Williams, Maysville, in the Village, in The Bottom can know that they’ve got somebody that’s gonna have a voice … and we’re going to make sure everybody’s story is layered in there in a way where everybody has a voice.”

“I grew up with the history,” said Lamar Howard. “I’ve seen it every day. I’ve seen the elderly people. I didn’t understand. I wish I would have knew then what I know now. I would have been way more into it. … All this history we’ve got here in Plateau? Like Joycelyn said, it’s not about the ship, it’s about the people. We’ve been here. We’re going to be here.”

“We are proud of the storytelling team for stepping out and creating these new businesses,” said David Clark, Visit Mobile president & CEO. “Visit Mobile is excited to promote them and the Africatown story.”

According to information provided by Visit Mobile, as the new companies begin operations, details about public availability of their tours will be listed at Mobile.org.