Richmond's 'Hidden' Black History Explored In Virtual Tour

RICHMOND, VA — A small team has created a multimedia tour that uses virtual reality and audiovisual technology to show the history of Black people in Richmond, including their suffering under centuries of slavery.

The creators of the multimedia tour — Dontrese Brown, Dean Browell and David Waltenbaugh — searched the city to find places that tell the story of the Black experience throughout history.

The website, “Hidden In Plain Site,” allows each site to be viewed by clicking on the site and dragging to look all around the 360-degree panorama. Scenes are connected by using “hotspot” arrows that can be clicked to advance to the next site.

“Our goal is to inform and educate while changing how residents and visitors see and experience their city,” the website says.

Brown is the founder and CEO of BrownBaylor, a Richmond-based creative strategy and marketing agency. Browell is a co-founder of Feedback, a market research company, while Waltenbaugh is founder and CEO of Root VR, a virtual reality software company.

By augmenting what the historic sites looked like in the past compared to now, the creators hope the Hidden In Plain Site: Richmond tour will draw empathy from viewers, Liz Vinson of the Southern Poverty Law Center reported Friday.

“In an effort to help reveal the truth of systemic racism, we wanted to create an experience that allows individuals to understand it from a perspective other than their own,” Waltenbaugh told Vinson.

The virtual tour of Richmond is the first of many that the creators of Hidden In Plain Site are planning, Vinson reported.

In February, the Southern Poverty Law Center released a report that found Virginia had removed 71 Confederate monuments and symbols after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis last May. Many of those monuments and symbols were located in Richmond.

More Confederate monuments and symbols were removed in Virginia in 2020 than any other state, according to the Law Center.