Traveling While Black Experience Coming To Sherwood Library

HYBLA VALLEY, VA — As the celebration of Black History Month continues, the Traveling While Black virtual reality experience will open at the Sherwood Regional Library on Tuesday, Feb. 22.

Director Roger Ross Williams, who was the first African American director to receive an Academy Award, directed the virtual reality experience.

Traveling While Black takes viewers to Ben's Chili Bowl in Washington, DC with 360-degree views, where customers share their experiences of restricted movement and race relations in the U.S. Ben's Chili Bowl has been a mainstay of the African American community since 1958, existing during significant civil rights milestone that are explored in the film.

Other key figures of the film are Samaria Rice, the mother of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old who was fatally shot by police, and DC civil rights leader Courtland Cox, who shares memories in the film.

The virtual reality experience will be available at Sherwood Regional Library from Feb. 22 to March 31. Reservations are required to get an hour-long entry to the exhibit.

Traveling While Black had previously been open at the McLean Community Center from Dec. 15 to Feb. 12. MCC also hosted a panel discussion Feb. 4 with Williams, Rice, Cox, Ben's Chili Bowl founder and owner Virginia Ali, and DC Legendary Musicians chair the Rev. Dr. Sandra Butler-Truesdale.

Williams explained the virtual reality experience's title via a MCC news release: "'Traveling while Black' is a term people use to illustrate that in America when you are Black and you are going from point A to point B, you are always at risk."

A related event is planned by the Burke Historical Society will explore The Green Book, a guide for African American travelers during the Jim Crow era to get to safe locations like gas stations, restaurants and hotels.

The event — "You Will Find It Handy: Traveling Through the Old Dominion With the Green Book" — focuses on over 300 Virginia sites in the book, which was published from 1936 to 1967. The event will be held virtually on Feb. 26 at 3 p.m., and registration is required.

Williams himself recalls his family packing all their belongings in a car and making the entire trip from Philadelphia to Charleston, South Carolina, all at once.

"They did this because they had to," said Williams via a MCC news release. "This was the way Black people traveled in America."