Executive producer Samuel L. Jackson, along with director Simcha Jacobovici, producer Ric Esither Bienstock and their film crew visited the History of Diving Museum for a tour to see the current Diving With a Purpose Featured Exhibit. They will also be filming for an upcoming six part documentary series on the transatlantic slave trade. The Featured Exhibit highlights a collaboration of several marine archaeology projects completed since 1991 in the south Florida area including, two slave ships: the Henrietta Marie, which was found 35 miles off Key West, and the Guerrero wreck which is scattered between Biscayne National Park and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

Samuel is a certified scuba diver and has played parts that involve using commercial diving equipment. He interviewed team leaders from the National Association of Black Scuba Divers who founded the non-profit Diving With a Purpose. They discussed the beginnings of DWP, citizen science surveys, new findings, and their cultural importance. The archaeological work done on these wrecks helps bring awareness to this difficult period in the world’s past and closure for the descendants of those forced into slavery.

The film footage will be included in Enslaved: The Slave Trade as Told From the Ocean Floor. The one hour episodes will follow the transatlantic slave trade and the atrocities that were inflicted upon the Africans that were taken. Samuel will be hosting and narrating the series as he follows the path of slavery from Africa to the Americas. The show’s main focus is to shed light upon the often overlooked maritime aspect of slavery.

Islamorada’s History of Diving Museum recently premiered the Diving with a Purpose featured exhibit in collaboration with National Association of Black Scuba Divers. The exhibit is called “Restoring Our Oceans, Preserving Our Heritage” and will be on display through Dec. 31, 2019. The exhibit explores underwater archaeology and how it has been used to understand cultural and historical significance, the stories behind Florida Keys shipwrecks and more. The underwater sites featured in the display range from sailing vessels to slave ships.

Diving With a Purpose, formed in 2004, explores the African-American component of these stories. The organization has worked on projects with the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, the National Park Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, including discovering remnants of a plane flown by the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II.

Special admission rates for seniors and retired U.S. military apply. In addition, as a Blue Star Museum member, the museum offers free admission for active-duty military families through Labor Day.

During museum tours, visitors come within inches of the earliest diving machines, including a full-scale replica of an all-wood diving bell; the Parade of Nations, a collection of 25 historic hard-hat dive helmets from around the world; and exhibits illustrating significant contributions made by men and women in the progression of modern-day scuba diving and underwater exploration.

Visitors also can participate in more of the museum’s valuable yearlong educational resources with a free “Immerse Yourself!” lecture series, held the third Wednesday of every month.

For more information on the museum and exhibit, visit: divingmuseum.org