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Augmented Reality Enhances Civil Rights Book

Author Lee Sentell (right) signs a copy of his book for Bennett College student Monteria Reaves. PAUL GARBER/WFDD

The author of a book on notable U.S. civil rights locations was in Greensboro this week unveiling what's called an "augmented reality component."

The technology allows pictures, news clippings, and videos to come to life on your phone. This AR demonstration was held at the International Civil Rights Center & Museum in downtown Greensboro, the site of one of the first sit-ins of the era. 

Author Lee Sentell says he hopes the multimedia augmented reality will appeal to young people as they learn about trailblazers like the four men who made national news when they sat down at a segregated lunch counter in Greensboro in 1960.

“I mean they're 18 years old,” Sentell says. “They're freshman, had been in college a few months. But they took it upon themselves to make a change.”

Sentell's work, titled The Official U.S. Civil Rights Trail: What Happened Here Changed the World, chronicles the history of the places — primarily in the South — where major events occurred that sparked the movement for social justice for Black people in the mid-20th century. 

After the unveiling of the technology, organizers held a roundtable discussion with Greensboro-area college and high school students on the history and impact of the local civil rights movement.

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

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