LEADING INNOVATION
Hidden Voices Buried History WRITTEN BY ALLY KENNEDY
College of Media professor brings forgotten stories to a worldwide audience through new technology THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Tension are High A confrontation takes place between a black WWI veteran and a white militiaman during the Chicago Race Riot of 1919.
REEDCOLLEGEOFMEDIA.WVU.EDU
Imagine yourself standing on a street corner in the South Side of present day Chicago. There doesn’t seem to be anything extraordinary about this spot— there are buildings, cars driving by. Then suddenly, your surroundings change. You’re in the middle of the 1919 “Red Summer,” a place where post-World War I social and racial tensions are high. You’re witnessing a confrontation outside of an old lunch room and cigar shop. You’re looking at an old photo of a black WWI veteran and a white militiaman. You’re looking at the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, by the end of which 38 would be dead, more than 500 injured and 1,000 black families left homeless. Forgotten stories like this one are being made available to students nation-wide through immersive storytelling technology thanks to the work of Joel Beeson, an associate professor at the WVU Reed College of Media. Through an official partnership between the College’s Media Innovation Center and the Google Cultural Institute, Beeson is an invited beta partner, storyteller and producer. Beeson’s current project, “WWI Through the Eyes of the Chicago Defender,” is bringing history to life through virtual reality. The VR project takes viewers on a tour of WWI-era United States as seen through the eyes of the nation’s most influential black weekly newspaper at that time.
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