The Empathy Tours

Jalane Schmidt (University of Virginia) recently brought a group of Virginia teachers to see Charlottesville’s tiny monument to its enslaved residents. One teacher had a startling personal revelation at that site. And: Elgin Cleckley (University of Virginia) is an architect who studies empathy. He says redesigning public space can help heal racial wounds. Plus: Danville, Virginia was once a Confederate capital. Now, teams of citizens are working together to tell the story of a different Danville: a city that hosted Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall, a city where brave teenagers forced the public library to integrate, and where opportunity for all is on the rise. Karise Luck-Brimmer (History United) recently took students and teachers from Averett University on an eye-opening tour of African American Danville. Later in the show: In this intimate conversation, Chioke I’Anson (Virginia Commonwealth University) and producer Kelley Libby (UnMonumental) share their thoughts on Confederate statues and compare experiences growing up of different races in the deep South.