RED SUMMERS
Domestic Terrorism from 1917 - 1921
Created by artist and filmmaker Bayeté Ross Smith, Red Summers is a series of 360 immersive episodes with corresponding essays and community testimonials that tell the untold American history of racially motivated domestic terrorism from 1917 to 1921. The series covers seven largely forgotten violent incidents that shaped the next century of American history. It directly connects the social and political issues that led to this violence to the issues American society and the world, face today. Published with The Guardian. The first episode examines Tulsa OK in 1921. Additional episodes examine Chicago 1919, Washington D.C. 1919, Omaha 1919, Elaine Arkansas 1919, East St. Louis 1917 and Houston 1917. These events were not isolated incidents, they are part of a continuum.
Red Summers VR
Each video is a 360 immersive video. You can control the cameras point of view by clicking and moving your mouse left, right, up or down. You can also watch this series on your mobile phone and control the POV by simply moving your phone in a specific direction. Unfortunately the immersive feature will not work on a tablet.
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.
The Harlem Hellfighters returning to the United States from Europe in 1919
“WE RETURN. WE RETURN FROM FIGHTING. WE RETURN FIGHTING. MAKE WAY FOR DEMOCRACY!”
— W.E.B. DuBois “Returning Soldiers” May 1919
“Whenever you delve into the history of American city, you inevitably find at least one instance of mass racialized violence, often referred to as a ‘race riot’, if not multiple ‘race riots’. When people think of this type of violence, they typically think of Detroit or Watts in the 1960’s, L.A. in 1992, or perhaps even Baltimore in 2015. However through-out American History, the vast majority of this violence consisted of white mobs attacking Black people and Black communities.”
— Cameron McWhirter
