Partners in the Arts at the University of Richmond joined with VPM and Mending Walls RVA to create a virtual workshop, introducing the Mending Walls processes of building empathy through conversations, and collaborating to create art.

This resource offers videos of the workshop through a StoryMap that features artist discussions, and a participant’s guide with questions, prompts, and activities for educators to use with their students.

The students will analyze the 6 primary resource image frames. The Jamboard activity focuses on the Civil Rights Movement’s Freedom Riders. In 1961, this group of volunteer participants rode interstate buses throughout the segregated southern United States. Their goal was to challenge the United States Supreme Court ruling “Separate but Equal” which was used to mandate separate black and white waiting rooms at the interstate bus stations. The last frame connects the fight for Civil Rights to the massive Black Lives Matter movement in Richmond, Virginia. 

Students will look at an overview of the rise of mass news media in the U.S.. They will then study the Civil Rights movement through the lens of media coverage to determine the impact news coverage of violence against peaceful protestors helped lead to social change.

This three-day lesson is intended to guide students through the difficult history topic of lynching through the Billie Holliday song “Strange Fruit.”