Rosewood Heritage & VR Project (original) (raw)

Welcome! This website explores the history of Rosewood, Florida – a majority African American town destroyed during a 1923 race riot. Of course, the buildings were destroyed, but the community survived and descendants remain committed to sharing their history through a wide range of activities. A mix of archaeology, ethnography, history, and oral testimony provides the data to explore a wide range of topics. This includes the use of emerging technologies like 3D/VR and digital storytelling to share Rosewood’s history with a broader public.

Black feminist thought and intersectionality guide the interpretive aspects of this project. This includes discussing the ways interpersonal, structural, and symbolic violence connect historical events like race riots to modern forms of social inequality in the USA. This site – and the scholarship grounding it – is grounded on the fact that anti-Black violence did not end with slavery but persists to the present.

Future work centers on a a variety of public outreach activities. These include lesson plans for high school and undergraduate students, updated 3D/VR experiences, and an hour long documentary for PBS stations. These and related activities seek to both imagine and contribute to a better future while wrestling with racism and prejudice across time and space.