By Morgan State University
Thirty-five miles west of Key West, Florida, in the quiet blue waters of New Ground Reef, history rests beneath the ocean floor.
There, submerged in roughly 25 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico, lies the wreckage of the Henrietta Marie — one of the only recovered slave ships from the transatlantic slave trade. For centuries, the vessel stood as a haunting symbol of one of humanity’s darkest chapters. Today, however, it has become something else entirely: a site of remembrance, reflection, research, and reclamation.
And at the center of a groundbreaking effort to tell its story is Morgan State University.
This spring, Morgan’s School of Global Journalism and Communication (SGJC) participated in a landmark underwater research and storytelling expedition unlike any in the nation. SGJC faculty, students, and alumni collaborated with Stanford University anthropologist Ayana Flewellen, Ph.D., for an unprecedented academic and multimedia initiative known as Submerged Histories, Memory and the Exploration of the Henrietta Marie — a project examining submerged Black history through journalism, archaeology, anthropology, documentary filmmaking, artificial intelligence, and immersive storytelling.
The experience made history in more ways than one.
Using advanced underwater communications technology and full-face diving masks, Michael Cottman, assistant to the dean of SGJC, acclaimed journalist, and author of The Wreck of the Henrietta Marie, participated in a 25-minute underwater interview with Dr. Flewellen conducted at the wreck site. Melody Garrett, a retired U.S Air Force anesthesiologist and Morgan State alumna, was also interviewed underwater by Flewellen. The interviews are believed to be the first underwater audio and video interviews of Black scuba divers conducted on the site of the Henrietta Marie. But the significance of the moment extended far beyond technological novelty.
The expedition represented the emergence of a bold academic model that positions Morgan State University at the forefront of an evolving interdisciplinary field focused on submerged cultural heritage and African Diasporan memory. Through the broader Submerged Histories Initiative, SGJC is building what could become the first permanent HBCU-based repository dedicated to underwater African Diasporan history and cultural preservation. The initiative would reside within Morgan’s Center for New Media and serve as a hub for research, digital archiving, immersive storytelling, public history, and student learning.
At its core, the initiative reflects Morgan’s growing commitment to uncovering overlooked narratives and training students to tell stories that matter — especially stories historically ignored, erased, or left beneath the surface.
“This was a profound and deeply meaningful experience for everyone involved,” Cottman said following the expedition.
The dive itself became an act of scholarship and cultural memory. During the one-hour underwater expedition, Cottman and fellow Black scuba divers completed research questionnaires on the ocean floor using waterproof writing slates to document the emotional, historical, and spiritual relationship between Black divers and the sea. Both Cottman and Flewellen are members of the National Association of Black Scuba Divers.
For Morgan students, the experience offered something equally transformative: direct participation in consequential journalism and emerging forms of multimedia storytelling.
SGJC students Christian Thomas and Tierra Stone documented the project before and after the dive, conducting interviews and learning the craft of podcast production alongside Assistant Professor Celeste Headlee. Together, they are developing a podcast centered on the expedition and the deeper human stories surrounding the Henrietta Marie. The three-part podcast series will air on WEAA 88.9 FM.
The collaboration itself grew organically after Dr. Flewellen visited Morgan’s campus, spending several days engaging with SGJC students, and connecting with Cottman, whose seminal work on the Henrietta Marie helped inspire her research. From those conversations emerged a rapid but ambitious plan to include Morgan students and faculty in documenting the historic endeavor. The project also illustrates the expanding national and international profile of Morgan’s School of Global Journalism and Communication.
In addition to partnerships with Stanford University, the initiative includes engagement with the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT and the National Maritime Museum in Paris, France. Later this year, Cottman, a Scientific Research Diver-in-Training, will travel to Paris with a delegation from the National Association of Black Scuba Divers to participate in a major global maritime exhibition — the first in the museum’s 200-year history to feature the legacy of Black scuba divers and the pioneering Underwater Adventure Seekers organization.
The desire to further connect with the Henrietta Marie has already generated national attention. Yet even amid the growing visibility, the initiative remains deeply rooted in remembrance and reverence.
More than three decades ago, in 1992, Cottman and members of the National Association of Black Scuba Divers placed a one-ton memorial at the wreck site of the Henrietta Marie to honor the enslaved African men, women, and children who suffered aboard the vessel. The underwater monument remains the only memorial of its kind in the United States. Embedded in bronze are the words: “Henrietta Marie: Speak her name and gently touch the souls of our ancestors.”
That spirit of remembrance now guides SGJC’s broader evolution.
Dean Jackie Jones views the initiative as part of a larger institutional transformation aimed at positioning the School among the nation’s premier journalism and communications programs. SGJC is simultaneously modernizing its Digital Newsroom and Bear TV studio into a high-tech, television network-style learning laboratory while expanding experiential learning opportunities that connect students to real-world reporting at the highest levels.
“I am especially proud of the work that has gone into this development,” Jones said. “SGJC’s ability to pivot and participate in this effort on relatively short notice and realize what it means to the School’s growing mission and re-emerging strategic plan.”
That mission increasingly centers on training journalists and communicators capable of working across disciplines, technologies, cultures, and global contexts.
This summer alone, SGJC faculty and students are also covering aspects of the FIFA World Cup in the United States, focusing on underreported human-interest and international stories, including the challenges faced by Haiti’s national team as it trains away from home amid instability in its country.
Together, these projects reveal a School intentionally redefining what journalism education can look like in the 21st century: immersive, technologically advanced, globally engaged, historically conscious, and unapologetically committed to telling stories too often overlooked.
For Morgan State University, the waters off Key West were never simply about a shipwreck. They were about recovering memory. About honoring ancestors. About pushing scholarship and storytelling into places few institutions have dared to go.
And about proving that some of the most important stories in the world are still waiting beneath the surface.
Learn more about Morgan’s connection to Black scuba divers, read: “Morgan Graduates Dive With a Purpose.”
*Photos Courtesy of: Kory Lamberts, Aquatics Futures Foundation