Using 360 immersive video of historically significant locations with overlaid historical images, this series examines these often unknown and disregarded incidents as part of a continuum of societal behavior. Additionally, these short films will examine how Black people fought back, the lack of legal accountability by our justice system, how these events set the stage for the civil and human rights movements of the mid 20th century, and how these events directly relate to the current challenges we are facing related to social justice and human rights.
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East St. Louis 1917: How White Mobs Firebombed Homes and Decimated a Black Community in Illinois
Bayeté Ross Smith
After the first world war, Black laborers moved to northern towns like East St Louis, Illinois, trying to escape Jim Crow in the south. In 1917, members of the White American Federation of Labor went on strike – and the company responded by hiring Black workers. Angry white workers began attacking Black people in the city. Eventually this leads to white mobs firebombing houses with Black families inside, while others outside waited to shoot and kill them. Historians estimate between 39 and 150 Black people were killed in the East St Louis riots.
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Elaine Massacre: How a Black Labor Movement Was Met with a Violent White Mob
Bayeté Ross Smith
In 1919 in Elaine, Arkansas, white mobs and federal troops killed hundreds of Black residents – and America has tried to forget the story.
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Omaha Riot: How a White Mob Lynched a Black Man and Destroyed a City
Bayeté Ross Smith
In 1919, a white mob stormed into an Omaha courthouse looking for a Black man named Will Brown whom they believed raped a white woman two days earlier. The newly elected mayor tried to reason with the mob, only to be nearly hanged before police saved him. The white mob eventually got to Brown, dragged him out on to the street and lynched him. No one was fully held accountable for these events.
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Red Summers VR: Houston 1917 and Camp Logan
Bayeté Ross Smith
In Houston 1917 a race riot broke out after members of the all-white Houston police department arrested a soldier in an all-Black army regiment for attempting to intervene in a Jim Crow confrontation between local police and a Black woman. When a higher ranking officer went to check on the the arrested soldier he was forced to flee while being shot at by local police. This occurred a few weeks after the East St. Louis Race Massacre of 1917. Members of the all Black regiment decided to arm themselves and go into Houston to take a stand. After a violent night that left almost two dozen people dead and injured, only the Black soldiers were penalized.