Effort must be made to preserve slave ship and its history

The wreck of the Clotilda, the last ship to transport enslaved Africans to the United States, sits entombed in mud at the bottom of the Mobile River in Alabama. It is the only ship from the American slave trade ever found. In fact, out of more than 20,000 vessels that participated in the global slave trade, only 13, counting the Clotilda, have been found.

I found the Clotilda in April 2018 with a team from the University of Southern Mississippi, though the discovery was not announced publicly until this May. The ship is an artifact of international historical significance. But I worry that my home state of Alabama - which owns the wreck and will control what happens to it going forward