This app was created by DNAWORKS, an arts and service organization committed to dialogue and healing through the arts (www.dnaworks.org, Fort Worth, TX), and Digital Ant Media (www.digitalantmedia.com, Santa Fe, NM). Since 2006, DNAWORKS has worked in thirty-seven states and seventeen countries with arts, educational, community, and governmental organizations.
The purpose of the app is educational--to raise awareness and provide users with historical information about the 1921 murder of Mr. Fred Rouse, a Black man kidnapped and lynched by a White mob in Fort Worth, TX. The app takes users through a tour of five locations in Fort Worth connected to this history. In December 2020, DNAWORKS began leading live, socially-distant tours to four of these sites. Each site page on the app contains: historical research, photos, and newspaper articles; responses to this racially motivated murder by local and national artists; and augmented reality content for the user to engage more fully with this history.
For the tour DNAWORKS partnered with: Fort Worth Bike Sharing, a division of the City of Fort Worth’s public transit system, that provides free bike rental for tour participants; and local non-profit Tarrant County Coalition for Peace and Justice, with which we are also working to install historical markers to honor Mr. Fred Rouse for the centenary of the lynching in December 2021. The app graphics are by Troy Lambert and the background music is composed by Third Wind Productions/Maritri Garrett and David Winder. Guest artist bios are listed in the credits section of the app.
Given the subject matter, we recommend users be 15 years old or older.
The DONATION button in the app links to DNAWORKS’s fiscal sponsor for making tax-deductible donations to our future anti-racist and racial equity work. We are contributing 10% of all donations to the Rouse families. Please make a note in the donation comment section indicating that you made your donation through the app.
The app will have a setting for remote access to the content. There is no charge for the app because our goal is to reveal hidden histories to promote community dialogue and healing.