Diving for history: A Black genealogist's search for slave shipwrecks on Florida's ocean floor

With a measuring tape and waterproof notepad in hand, Shellie Baxter swims around a shipwreck embedded into the ocean’s floor in the Florida Keys. The water is warmer than the San Diego shores she’s used to, but this is still her most challenging dive yet – she is learning how to document slave shipwrecks.

As a genealogist, Baxter has helped over 150 people trace their ancestral roots through her organization Our Genetic Legacy, a nonprofit committed to uncovering the hidden histories of Black and Indigenous people.