MapLab: The Living Black Atlas

By the early 1960s, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was among the most important civil rights organizations operating in the US. You could find its members organizing sit-ins, freedom rides and voter registration drives throughout the Jim Crow South. Others worked behind the scenes to support field operations – including through the creation of maps.

Some of these maps followed conventional styles, like plotting income and education data by race at the county level. Others were highly creative. SNCC pioneered a style of mapping that unmasked networks of institutions upholding white supremacy and discrimination through flows of money, influence and political power. One map focused on the connections between Liberty National Life Insurance Company and the Alabama State Police, which was known then for its violent disregard for the rights of Black citizens.