This project was a collaboration between Montclair State University and the Université Bordeaux Montaigne, thanks to a grant from the French American Cultural Exchange Foundation funding virtual exchange learning opportunities in the age of Covid-19. Project leaders were Dr. Kathleen Loysen (MSU) and Drs. Lhorine François and Sophie Rachmuhl (UBM). We held live, virtual classes, guiding our students through a project involving research on the history of the slave trade in both New Jersey and Bordeaux, and its relationship to the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement. Students performed research, translated documents and articles, and created content in French and English for a 45-minute video documenting our experience. Along the way, students discovered how seemingly universal notions of democracy, citizenship, and diversity have evolved in both countries – very often along divergent pathways.