Content Objectives
In this section, I will discuss the research that grounds this curriculum unit. The content objectives provide historical context that can be used in whole or by pulling out the information as needed. While this context is important, it is also important for students to explore through inquiry, leaving space for students to connect with and contribute to existing defining qualities of a map.
Part One: What Makes a Map a Map?
When I began developing this unit, my mind immediately shifted toward the role of perspective and the power a mapmaker holds, specifically thinking of the disproportionate representation of Africa that have been perpetuated based on the projection of an acclaimed European cartographer, Gerardus Mercator. I’ve since come to realize there is nuance surrounding my original thoughts because maps are a product of imagination. Maps are not objective, they are laden with the bias and limitations of the mapmakers perspective. So it is important to begin with a strong contextual understanding by exploring what a map is and what a map does.
In this part of the unit, students will interact with a variety of maps. Be sure to read the Classroom Activities section for details on implementing as well as the Notes section where I have included a suggested list of maps that I plan to use. I encourage educators to use whichever maps fit their goal and their students. By the end of part one, students should:
Know- that maps are a multimodal tool for communication. Understand- how perspective shapes what a map conveys. Do- collaborate to develop a set of questions for map analysis
Maps 101: The beings and doings of maps
There is a diverse set of definitions for what a map is, many centering on the idea of maps being a visual representation of the earth. A curricular resource shared by National Geographic stated, “A map is a symbolic representation of selected characteristics of a place, usually drawn on a flat surface.5” They further explained that maps display information about the sizes and shapes of countries on the earth6, basically telling readers that a map is an object for understanding territorial boundaries of land and sea. The book Map Art Lab7 offers a different view, describing maps as visual manifestations of explorative pursuits led by curiosity of adventurers and artists. This definition addresses the aspect of artistry, but it still relegates and. regulates maps to the physical earth space. And maps can express more than what they earth looks like.
A definition from Axis Maps strips away the terrestrial criteria describing maps as a symbolic representation of a place that shows the perceived relationship between elements8. This definition leaves an open interpretation of “place” and “space,” which is important because these things are not always physical; trying to define place would lead down a rhizomatic rabbit hole, with every path introducing another. Integrating all of these ideas, the mention of maps in this unit refers to a visual representation of where something is in a physical or conceptual place.
Maps can be made in a variety of modes, but at the core, they are a tool for communication and what is communicated is at the discretion of the mapmaker who uses elements of scale, projection, and symbolization to bring organize and convey an idea9. While I present them as cartographic vocabulary, it’s important that students understand these elements are not just terminology or technique, this is literally how mapmakers etch their perspective and bias into a map.
Scale is translation of size determined by what the mapmaker is attempting to project. The projection is the way in which a map is shown, a common projection is the aforementioned Mercator projection which displays the earth on a flat plane. Symbols are the visible features that help orient the map reader, symbols can include labels (street names, building type), images (houses, trees), color (green for grassy areas, blue for water). Each of these elements convey meaning while simultaneously distorting meaning10. While it may appear involuntary, distortion is not a happenstance, it is the result of decisions. Mapmakers must make choices, making distortion inevitable, therefore, map readers should always consider who decided which elements are featured, which elements were excluded, and why.
Distortion can be likened to bias, which is developed based on the lived experiences and beliefs that shape the mapmaker’s perspective. I reiterate, the chosen elements of a map are never accidental; it is a direct reflection of someone’s perspective and perspective is a direct reflection of power. All maps tell a story, the perspective behind the map can determine how the world is seen and when a single perspective is perpetuated, that becomes a standard, or rather is adopted as truth. (Which is, as my students would say, “wild” because maps have no capacity to be truth, they are renderings of someone else’s imagination.) This alters the function of a map, twisting spatial expression into a tool for political pursuit, erasure, and control.
Part Two: How do maps reflect and respond to society?
In this part of the unit, students will explore how bias can be embedded in a map. In this part I will provide a detailed discussion about maps that have perpetuated perspectives rooted in Imperialism and conquest and how Radical Cartography arises as a response. Be sure to read the Classroom Activities section for details on implementing as well as the Notes section where I have included a suggested list of maps that I plan to use. I encourage educators to use whichever maps fit their goal and their students. By the end of part two, students should:
Know- that all maps tell a story. Understand- how maps reflect and respond to society, creating power inequities when on perspective is perpetuated. Do- analyze contrasting maps from different time periods, tracing the perspectives that impact society.
Charting the Imperialist Perspective in Maps
Throughout history, the evolution of maps has been catalyzed by military and political necessity to possess and dispossess11. Even what are considered as the earliest maps share tales depicting concepts of ownership, power, and racial casteThe imperialist pursuits of Western countries are extrinsically tied to the development of maps. The selection of scale, projection, and symbols have consistently been used to mark ownership of land and water, disregarding other humans.
The early maps and cartographic images that I suggest and describe in the Bibliography section of this unit demonstrate how symbolism and projection serve those in power. I begin with the example of the Armada Portrait from 158813 which features Queen Elizabeth I surrounded by symbolism that represents Imperialism and dominance. She is positioned as a victorious leader with a naval fleet behind her and the world literally in her hands as she holds a globe with the next target of conquest, the Americas. This portrait shows her as the Queen of England and the Queen of the world. Though not a map, this portrait shows how cartography is shaped by perspective and shapes the viewer’s perspective.
These same ideas of power through force and possession are further reinforced throughout the centuries, visible in maps like Bartholomew’s “British Empire Throughout the World Exhibited in One View” where the cartouche features images of nonwhite people holding spears intermingling with white British citizens who ride horses with guns14. In 1929, a map printed in a newspaper boasts about the reach of the British Empire, encouraging people with phrases like, “Everywhere Room for Expansion.” This shows how folks in power used maps to mark boundaries and to advertise imperial conquest.
The exploration of the new world continued to center imperialistic perspectives. A map from Arrowsmith and Puke (1802)15 presents the “new discoveries” made in the interior areas of North America, but some of those discoveries are written descriptions with notes stating information that was shared from “the Indians.16” How does one discover something that was shared with them? The labeling of the unacknowledged contributors reemphasizes Western entitlement because on the very same map, there are Indigenous nations marked. Why not include this info when naming the native contributors?
A map from Vance and Finley (1826)17 asserts their perceptions through symbolism by labeling places as “newly discovered” or as a “possession” of Russia and England. A little over twenty years later, Charles Smith publishes a map of North America18 with green coloring outlining the boundaries of United States territories. What I find most interesting about these maps is the green shading around Santo Domingo, now the Dominican Republic, and the countries in Central America who then were the Federal Republic of Central America. This presents a historical discrepancy because while the structure of their government was modeled after U.S. government19, they were not part of the United States. To better understand, I start with basic questioning. Who? Charles Smith was a British citizen who lived and operated in London20. Is it possible that from Smith’s perspective, the only systems of government worth recognition are those ideologically adjacent to Europe?
The connection between cartography and conquest are more than a visual show. As I stated earlier, when a perspective is reinforced, it becomes a dominant narrative and the standard. This essentially means people agree on conventions and use those conventions in everyday life. This is evident in the events surrounding the origins of the city of Chicago. What of a story that features Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable, a Black man, an immigrant, and the “first” settler of Chicago? I quote the word first because people existed there before, but what I mean to convey is that he was the first non-native person to settle there. The fact that this was not acknowledged in Chicago until the year 193321 is devastating. Hundreds of years passed with maps that featured Kinzie house as the symbol of Chicago, erasing the known existence of a Black man and his Black and Indigenous family.
When Maps Fight Back: Radical Cartography
To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction: or the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts. -Isaac Newton22
Maps reflect and respond to society, a point made visible through the infinite revisions to maps over the years. According to Bhagat and Mogel, creators of an atlas of Radical Cartography, “…all maps have an inherent politics that often lies hidden beneath an ‘objective’ surface…23,” however, not all maps reflect an Imperialist perspective. If there can be maps used in conquest, then there can be maps used in care. If maps can be tools for erasure, they can also be tools for exposure and preservation. And that is radical cartography, which emphasizes mapping various perspectives in various ways, and presenting counternarratives to the ones that dominate the world of cartography.
Radical Cartography focuses is on maps that reflect the realities from different perspectives. People like Bhagat and Mogel have expanded on the work of cartographer’s like Bill Rankin works defining Radical Cartography as a way, “to unhinge our beliefs about the world, and to provoke new perceptions of the networks, lineages, associations and representations of places, people and power.24” Radicalizing cartography is more than reclaiming power through perspective, it is also encourages new ways of projection. In the same way that Mercator radicalized the world of cartography with the flat image of the world, Radical Cartography manifests different modes of mapping without having to be questioned or scrutinized for not fitting the “standard” ways of mapping.
While a relatively new concept, with this definition in mind, one can look back at maps from ancient groups, whose navigational tools are considered artworks, and clearly see scientific tools for navigating and making sense of the world around them. Some examples include Micronesian Stick Charts and “rock art” that maps housing structures from ancient African groups.
Through the lens of Radical Cartography, we can see that maps have existed through song across cultures and times through Spirituals sung by enslaved folx and Songlines passed down by Indigenous Australians. Maps can be unwritten networks that keep people safe. In the same way that invisible lines were cast over land and sea, erased and redrawn again with new outlines by traditional cartographers, radical cartographers can be found in Annie Oliver25, the Black woman who spearheaded the movement to recognize Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable as the first non-native settler in Chicago. Her research, determination, and strategical brilliance altered the map!
Part Three: Case Studies
In this part of the unit, students will interact with a specific set of maps. Be sure to read the Classroom Activities section for details on implementing as well as the Notes section where I have included a suggested list of maps that I plan to use. I encourage educators to use whichever maps fit their goal and their students. By the end of part three, students should:
Know- what Radical Cartography is. Understand- how mapmakers can create solutions by providing counter narratives. Do- explain and justify how an assigned case is an example of Radical Cartography.
Case Study 1: Follow the Drinking Gourd
Follow the Drinking Gourd is a song that details an escape route from slavery through code. Restricted from access to the technology of the time, such as compasses or standard maps, enslaved people took to the stars. The Big Dipper had long been used as a navigational tool, with the two outermost stars pointing at the North Stari. Renamed the Drinking Gourd for its resemblance, this served as a map and compass while describing the route to the river with boats traveling to freedom. I have included this as a Radical Map because it is a powerful example of cartographic resistance through mutual aid, and because of the deeply rooted connections to the African continent.
Historical Context
To truly grasp the power this song harnessed, we must first orient ourselves to the context of the Antebellum period. By the late 1800s, slavery was already deeply embedded in United States culture. Between 1661 and 1705, a series of laws and practices were enacted, institutionalizing slavery in the states27. At this point, factions made up of enslaved people, free Blacks, and white anti-slavery advocates were already in existence, providing mutual aid through a network of abolitionists, maps, and safehouses known as the Underground Railroad.
Thousands of enslaved people escaped to places such as the northern states, Canada, Mexico, or with native groups28. White abolitionists were sentenced to jail or given extended years of indentured servitude if they were caught aiding freedom seekers; meanwhile, the punishment for freedom seekers could lead to death29. Thus, the Underground Railroad needed to operate with secrecy and strategy, especially after the Fugitive Slave Act of 185030, which simultaneously abolished the trading of slaves in Washington D.C. (not slavery) while deputizing and inciting white citizens to capture and return those who escaped to freedom, thereby intensifying both the risk and difficulty of escape31. Feel familiar?
Song Collection
The first publication of the song can be found in a 1928 volume of the Texas Folklore Society32 collected by H.B. Parks. During this time there was a scramble among white academia to collect songs, stories, games, and other cultural artifacts from Black folx across the states33. Contemporary historians debate the authenticity of Follow the Drinking Gourd raising questions about his account. Parks describes his first encounter with the song in 1912:
I was very doubtful if this part of the song would have attracted anyone’s attention had not the old grandfather, who had been sitting on a block of wood in front of the cabin, slowly got up and, taking his cane, given the boy a sound lick across the back with the admonition not to sing that song again. This excited my curiosity and I asked the old man why he did not want the boy to sing the song. The only answer I could get was that it was bad luck.
-H.B. Parks 1928, Texas Folklore Society pp. 81
He claims to come across the song once more before he could uncover the origins of the song. In Texas, 1918, Parks heard the melody sung to the words by a Black revivalist. This leads Parks to investigate further, where he learns of Peg Leg Joe, a one-legged sailor who visited plantations “somewhere in the South” marking the path to freedom with a footprint and a peg print. Parks verifies this account by sharing a memory of his great-uncle, an Underground Railroad operative, who read about an Ole Joe in a record kept by the Anti-Slavery Society. Thus far, no details have been discovered to corroborate this account, leading some to question the legitimacy of the song and whether the story behind it is fact or folklore34. Could H.B. Parks have fabricated elements of the song's origin? Maybe, maybe not. Although scholars have been unable to authenticate Parks' account, it doesn’t necessarily relegate the song as folklore either.
|
Iterations of Follow the Drinking Gourd as heard by H.B. Parks35 |
|
|
1912 Foller the drinkin’ gou’d, Foller the drinkin’ gou’d; No one know, the wise man say, “Foller the drinkin gou’d. |
1918 Foller the Risen Lawd, Foller the Risen Lawd; The bes’ thing the Wise Man say, “Foller the Risen Lawd. |
Symbolisms of Power
“...they would sing as a chorus to words which to many would seem unmeaning jargon, but which nevertheless, were full of meaning to themselves” - Frederick Douglass, 184536
Linguistic Stealth: Follow the Drinking Gourd is an example of the coded language used to provide cover as Black folx courageously journeyed from states in the Deep South on to freedom. The Drinking Gourd is a coded name for the asterism known as the Big Dipper (Irwin & Silverman, 1960) because it resembles a dipper, which is a drinking spoon with a long handle. If using the term dipper to describe a utensil for dipping up water is deeply American, then using drinking gourd is deeply African American. For rural and enslaved people, using a gourd was more common than a metal dipper37; paired with white Americans’ obliviousness to Black intelligence, this map was able to be passed along to freedom singers.
Further significance lies in the function of the gourd being a multi-faceted icon. A gourd is a vegetable with multiple uses when dried and hollowed, including a water dipper. In renaming the shape of the stars to the Drinking Gourd instead of the Big Dipper, a sense of poetic justice becomes even clearer in connection to modern research. According to a 2014 study from Pennsylvania State University38, after comparing gourd DNA, it was discovered that pre-colonial bottle gourds in America are closely related to African gourds, suggesting that bottle gourds drifted across the Atlantic Ocean during the Pleistocene Age, traveling from the African continent to the Americas. A gourd is a vessel for water39, a collection of stars, a compass, a map, a musical instrument, it is even sustenance. Some might wonder: was this by coincidence or by design?
Spiritual Connections: In the early 2000s, I was taught that Spirituals were the result of enslaved people expressing their suffering paired with the syncretization of Christianity and the religions they were forced to leave behind. Deeper exploration into this subject shows a complex relationship that illustrates a more nuanced story by examining the relationship between Peg Leg Joe and Yoruban god, Papa Legba40.
Papa Legba is an Iwa (deity) with origins from West Africa and derivatives spread across the black diaspora41. He is depicted as an older man walking with a cane, supporting one foot that is anchored in the human world while the other is planted in the spirit world42. Also known as a shapeshifting trickster, he governs crossing and is described as a “divine linguist” (Russell, 2009). Conversely, Parks’ description of Peg Leg Joe draws strong parallels to the imagery associated with Papa Legba. According to Parks’ account, he learns of Peg Leg Joe from an older Black gentleman at a train station. He then adds “legitimacy” to the gentleman’s tale by adding that an unnamed great-uncle remembered reading old records, detailing how the old sailor would use charcoal to outline a human foot and a round spot for the peg leg. The second and fourth verses convey this information:
2nd Verse: The riva’s bank am a very good road, The dead trees show the way,
Lef’ foot, peg foot goin’ on, Foller the drinkin’ gou’d
4th Verse:n Wha the little riva, Meet the grea’ big un,
The ole man waits–, Foller the drinkin’ gou’d
His multiplicitness is visible not only through the similarities to Peg Leg Joe, but also with the concept of being carried across a pathway, both literally and metaphorically. When considering the many crossings that Black folx experienced at the hands of the colonizers, vibrant traces of Papa Legba shine in the multiplicitness of spiritual and linguistic symbolism in Follow the Drinking Gourd. This perspective shifts the view of power in a way that uplifts and affirms the authenticity of this song map. Pretty rad, right?
Case Study 2: The Chitlin’ Circuit
What do Bobby Rush, Bill Bojangles Robinson, Billie Holiday, and Beyoncé have in common, besides ‘B’ as the first letter in their names? All three of these artists graced the stage at the Apollo Theater in the historically Black Harlem neighborhood of New York. Further comparison reveals that all three performers have, so to speak, “paid their dues” by touring through the Chitlin’ Circuit. The Chitlin’ Circuit is a name for the performance spaces that Black people were able to patronize and to perform43. While white performers had the Vaudeville Circuit, Black performers had the Chitlin’ Circuit44.
Due to the racial segregation of the Jim Crow era, Black musicians were not allowed to perform at white-owned venues through southern and northern states in the US. What began as informally sharing scribbled lists and word of mouth developed into a liberatory guide that fostered agency in the African American community45. The name refers to the chitterlings, a dish, fried hard or boiled, made of pig intestines, an old staple of Soul Food. Chitterlings are not the most desired cut of meat; they stink and they must be cleaned with meticulous process before cooking. This cut of meat was often what Black people were relegated to eating especially during the times of slavery and Jim Crow. Much like chitterlings, the circuit represents the duplicity of existing as a Black performer in America, especially in the early 1900s. Calling back to Papa Legba which I discussed in the previous section, this play on words reflects how African American communities often play linguistic tricks, remixing the undesirable and the oppressive into solid gold.
While there was no officially drawn map, I present the Chitlin’ Circuit as an example of radical mapping because it is an example of strategic outline of the relationship between location and safety. Maps are a form of communication, they reflect the perspective of the maker, conveying meaning. The Chitlin’ Circuit is a map that tells a story of protection and empowerment.
Historical Context
The Chitlin’ Circuit provided a space to celebrate Black culture when it was unsafe to do. Traces of this map can be detected back to the early 191646. Thus far, the first mention of it can be found in the W.C. Handy song Beale Street Blues which is about nightclub venues in Memphis Tennessee47. While often associated with the Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras, this network began to develop in the late 1800s in response to Vaudeville48, an offspring of minstrel shows that featured white actors caricaturizing African Americans by putting on “blackface.” This activated Sherman Dudley, a Black performer, to create safe spaces for the Black community to safely gather as performers and audience members49. He bought venues, formed a union for Black actors, and started a touring company called the Smart Set Company. Dudley’s acts of resistance empowered the Black community culturally and economically. By the 1920s, the impact of the Great Depression hit the Smart Set Company leading to its merger into a larger booking company followed by its demise50.
The loss of the Smart Set Company leads to brothers Denver and Sea Ferguson striving to meet the needs of Black performance spaces. In the 1930s Indianapolis, the Ferguson brothers made a radical choice, deciding to sell their printing business and opening a string of night clubs51. They built an entertainment district on Indiana Avenue, with establishments such as the Cotton Club and the Ferguson Hotel52, also contributing to the legacy of this neighborhood as a Mecca of Black culture. Shortly after, they took on another business pursuit and started the Ferguson Brothers’ Booking Agency. Booking tours for artists like Duke Ellington, they brought acclaimed artists to Indianapolis and secured performances for artist to venture across the south and Midwest states. Here is where we can mark a clear emergence of the Chitlin’ Circuit.
Mapping the Chitlin’ Circuit
“Sometimes you play for the chitlins, that’s what you would get.”
- Bobby Rush King of the Chitlin’ Circuit
The Chitlin’ Circuit is not a singular route of venues, it is a cultivated, living network curated for Black performing artists. The “route” extended as far south as Texas, ran through midwestern states like Illinois, and stretched north to Massachusetts. The performance venues presented a loose definition of stages. In a 1984 interview Patti LaBelle shares how some venues were tiny basements. Spaces could be grandiose theaters, church buildings, juke joints, or even basements. Bobby Rush, a Chicago musician who traversed through blues joints in the south describes differences in pay, sharing how some places would pay in dollars, and others in food. Urban cities produced famous theaters such as the Apollo Theater in Harlem of New York, the Regal Theater in Chicago, and the Royal Peacock in Atlanta. Whereas rural states commonly hosted performances in nightclubs and dancehalls.
These spaces led to the development of new sounds and fueled the development of musical genres including country, ragtime, blues, jazz, and R&B53. Many successful artists have recounted their journeys to stardom, expressing both homage and distaste toward the Chitlin’ Circuit -kind of like the relationship some Black folx have with eating chitterlings. Billie Holiday, James Brown, Tina Turner are just a few names of some of the talent who toured the circuit. Many artists have also credited the circuit with the cultivation of virtuosity and skilled musicianship. Even acclaimed guitarist Jimi Hendrix recounts how coming up in the circuit is where he “learned to play. (1967)54” The Chitlin’ Circuit was not exclusive to actors and singers, many dancers and comedians walked the trail as well.
Between the 1960s and 1970s, per usual, the cultural hubs of Black America faced suppression. Is it coincidence, or by design? One can never be too sure. However, the physical disembodiment of the Chitlin’ Circuit was excised by way of “urban renewal55” which uprooted many of the venues that nurtured the talent who shaped popular music around the world.
The Legacy of the Chitlin’ Circuit
Despite the dismantling of the circuit in a physical sense, the abstract qualities of the circuit still exist. When Beyoncé announced her tour Cowboy Carter and the Rodeo Chitlin’ Circuit, many of my students were confused. Questions such as ‘what does country music have to do with chitterlings’ flooded our music classroom.
First, Beyoncé is a contemporary example of a pop artist whose success began with the Chitlin’ Circuit. She performed on the popular program Showtime at the Apollo. First airing in 198756, the show featured a variety of live performances, with the most well-known segment being Amateur Night in which aspiring artists would show bravely showcase their talent with the risk of being escorted off the stage if the performance was not up to par. Knowles-Carter’s involvement with the circuit is but one example of its legacy. Second, Beyoncé’s mention of the Chitlin’ Circuit in connection to country music is a reclamation of power. Power through ownership and power through ancestral connection.
The Chitlin’ Circuit created a place for Black culture to shine alongside a space for Black people to bask in its warmth. It centered the Black experience and embodied the ideas of “by any means necessary” and “for us, by us.” Ephemeral and ethereal alike, this example of Radical Cartography is a strong example of a counternarrative that developed through collective reimagination in response to existing forces that sought to exert power by way of segregation and violence.
Case Study 3: Radical Chicago Cartographers
Annie Oliver
Annie Oliver is responsible for the restoration of a cartographic history that had been erased. She was not a politician, she was not a historian, she was not a mapmaker per se. She was an educator. She was also a radical cartographer. Her organizing efforts paved the way for Jean Baptiste Point DuSable to receive recognition as the first pioneer to settle in Chicago57. In the 1920s, Annie founded the National De Saible58 Memorial Society and they worked alongside other organizations to strategically push for De Sable to be featured as the first settler of the land in an exhibit on DuSable at the 1933 World Fair.
Why is this cartographic and why is it radical? I begin with acknowledging the complicated nature of DuSable’s homestead. He was not indigenous to the land; the Potawatomi had been known inhabitants of this land59. While DuSable had established a positive relationship, marrying an Indigenous woman, Kitihawa, and even being referred to as a “Potawatomi Prince60” according to the correspondence record, his presence contributed to the violent and longstanding process that led to the upheaval of the people who were already there. Dusable was neither white, nor was he enslaved, he was known to be an educated man of mixed descent; his father being French and his mother possibly an enslaved woman from Santo Domingo. What marks this story as Radical Cartography is that during this time there was an explicit belief that Black people were incapable of pioneering, this man proved them wrong. DuSable was a builder, a trader, a trapper, and a leader, laying the foundations that put the city of Chicago on the map. If that ain’t radical cartography, then what is?
Even with the knowledge of DuSable’s existence, the “powers that be” – in this case government officials and the World Fair planning team, attempted to erase his presence from maps. Despite military, financial, and civilian records that give proof of his settlement, these powers still attempted to distort his presence. Instead, they sought to continue naming a white man named John Kinzie, who brought DuSable’s home from another man who brought DuSable’s home (and later killed that man… hmm) as the first person to live in Chicago, extending that honor to his child who is credited as the first person to be born in Chicago. This mirrors sentiments of the earlier maps I discussed that use intel from Indigenous contributors but does not acknowledge them by name or nation. Furthermore, it was insisted that the military structure Fort Dearborn, the very same place that is rooted in blood, be the starting point of Chicago History, as opposed to a peaceful and prosperous Black and Indigenous homestead. Failing to select that farm and trading post is a symbol of the indifference toward those communities, a perspective that continues to exist.
The ceremonies, simple but impressive, were held on the shady side of the DeSaible cabin so the large crowd gathered there beneath the trees could escape the burning rays of Sunday’s sun. To the immediate south of the DeSaible cabin, where other large crowds were inspecting the replica of Fort Dearborn, scene of one of America’s most savage Indian massacres, the harmonious tones of spirituals, sung on an improvised platform by the DeSaible chorus, directed by Mrs. Antoinette Thompkins, were wafted and drew these crowds of white faces in the windows and doors of the fort.61 “Crowd at Dedication of DeSaible Cabin in World’s Fair” Dewey R. Jones, Chicago Defender
Annie, like many Black Chicagoans during that time, was part of the “great migration62.” Would she have known this information without coming to Chicago? Maybe, maybe not, but her charge began she took the route to the north, a path that I believe is connected to the routes once traveled by freedom seekers who passed down maps through song. Annie, did not work alone, but she was a major player in a game led by the organizing efforts of a few groups including a think tank from Northwestern University63. Where Annie’s work stands out is in the persistent communication with World Fair planners64 and with the tactical execution of the exhibit which included placement, accompanying literature, acting as a tour guide, and employing the use of music to draw in and captivate visitors. DuSable’s name now appears on “official” charts as landmarks, museum placements, and street names. The efforts of people like Annie Oliver led to a shift in the selection of symbols featured on Chicago maps.
Sherman “Dilla” Thomas
Sherman “Dilla” Thomas, who operates under the TikTok and Instagram handle of @6figga_Dilla is an urban historian whose love for his city and history led to the creation of new access points for people to learn about Chicago History. His classroom?? Social media!
Dilla’s history with history begins with cartography, or rather, the lack thereof. As a teenager, he was only allowed to borrow his father’s vehicle if he could name his destination and the directions to get there.65. During this time, applications like Google Maps were nonexistent, so like many other drivers, he learned all the street names and directions. In an interview with Block Club Chicago, Dilla shares how he noticed smaller brown street signs that were honorariums to Black historical figures while on a date and how those led to questions66. While trying doing research online, he was alarmed by what he found:
Before I got on there, you type in Chicago history, and it was like someone explaining why some other dude got shot by this dude and beefing. I understand that that goes on, and I respect it as historical journalism because, in 20 years, people will be able to back and look at those stories and say that Chicago was going through something — but that isn’t Chicago history.
Seeking to shift the narrative, Sherman was motivated to explore and research Chicago history, posting videos at various locations across the city. He coined the phrase “Everything dope about America comes from Chicago67,” distorting the narrative that the South Side of Chicago is a dangerous place.
He expanded his work by founding Mahogany Tours68, offering tours of Black south side neighborhoods. This is radical! In Chicago, tourism doesn’t typically extend south of the loop in downtown and when it does, it’s for misguided intelopers attempting to be “cool” by visiting “O-Block69.” Through Mahogany Tours, neighborhoods like Chatham, Auburn Gresham, and Englewood are highlighted for the amazing things and people that have come from there. The countermaps that Sherman creates through social media and city tours are a clear examples of radical cartography. In the stories and memories he maps out, the narratives of violence are disrupted. Sherman’s radical cartography connects people to stories of joy and genius in Chicago.
Tonika Lewis Johnson
Tonika Lewis Johnson radicalized the way maps can connect people. Her multidisciplinary project, Folded Map, takes Chicago and literally folds it in half, exploring the differences and similarities between different neighborhoods and shedding light on the historic segregation of Chicago70. The project began as a set of photographs that invite people to investigate the conditions that effect Chicagoans.
Johnson’s work summoned people with the power to design a virtual space where people could further explore the effects of segregation in Chicago, without folding an actual map. Borderless Studio, an “architecture and urban design practice71” collaborated with Tonika to build an interactive map that can toggle through overlays that explore neighborhood features like Social Characteristics, Businesses, and Schools by rating. This project has developed into essays, an interactive digital map, film, curriculum material, and a book, and continues to grow.
I include Tonika as a radical cartographer because her work is an example of diverse ways of projection. Rather than examining Chicago solely on a flat Mercator-esque projection, Johnson remixes it by presenting an opportunity for the “map” to look in the mirror. The Folded Map project does more than expose inequality, it also initiated dialogue between the North and South sides of Chicago. “Map twins” were prompted to connect and conversate72 about racial segregation in Chicago.
Comments: