From the Mapping Social Movements website:
This project produces and displays free interactive maps showing the historical geography of dozens of social movements that have influenced American life and politics since the start of the 20th century, including radical movements, civil rights movements, labor movements, women's movements, and more. Until now historians and social scientists have mostly studied social movements in isolation and often with little attention to geography. This project allows us to see where social movements were active and where not, helping us better understand patterns of influence and endurance. It exposes new dimensions of American political geography, showing how locales that in one era fostered certain kinds of social movements often changed political colors over time.
We do this by developing detailed geographic data about each movement, identitying locations where membership, activities, or other measures of support were concentrated. The links...below lead to over 100 interactive maps, charts, and data tables, with more to come. We started with maps and charts that show the activist geography of the Socialist Party, Industrial Workers of the World, and the Communist Party, then developed similar maps on Black Freedom movements: NAACP, Congress of Racial Equality, SNCC, and the Black Panther Party. We have added a battery of visualizations showing the geography of Chicano/Latino movements: United Farm Workers (UFW), MEChA, Raza Unida Party, Brown Berets, League of United Latin American Citizens, including hundreds of Chicano movement periodicals published between 1966 and 1977. And we have mapped radical and labor newspapers, many from the early 20th century and also 2,000 Underground newspapers from the 1965-75. Our most recent unit tracks the activities of the National Woman's Party 1913-1922 and an exciting complex of timelines and maps showing the state by state progress of women's voting rights from 1838-1919.
About the project
Mapping American Social Movements is directed by Professor James N. Gregory and supported by a Digital Humanities grant from the Walter J. Simpson Center for the Humanities, a Washington State Labor Research grant from the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies, and the History Department Hanauer Fund, all at the University of Washington.
Please note: this is a work in progress. We add data and visualizations each month and correct errors. Current visualizations are hosted by Tableau Public and Google maps, but we anticipate using additional systems in the future.
Early 20th Century
Black Freedom Movements
SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee)
CORE (Congress of Racial Equality)
https://depts.washington.edu/moves/CRC_genocide.shtmlCivil Rights Congress
Chicano/ Latino Movements
Introduction: Chicano Movement History and Geography
LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens)
Women's Movements
National Woman's Party 1913-1922
Mapping Woman's Suffrage Legislation State by State
1960s-70s Movements
Labor and Radical Press
Introduction: labor and radical newspapers history and geography
Collaboration
This digital project is assembling and sharing data and publishing visualizations about dozens of social movements that have influenced American life and politics during the 20th century, including radical movements, civil rights movements, labor movements, women's movements, and more. The data come from many sources. We develop some from printed and archival sources, but contributions are critical. Scholars are contributing datasets that were previously used in books and articles. We are also repurposing data that have been archived with ICPSR and other venues. Please contact us if you have ideas or data to share.
This project works closely with the Networked Labor project at UCLA directed by Prof. Tobias Higbie.
Other contributors to date include:
Tyler Babbie (University of Washington, English)
Peter Cole (Western Illinois University, History)
Lauren Coodley (independent scholar)
Susan Glenn (University of Washington, History)
Aaron Goings (St. Martins University, History)
David Marquis (College of William and Mary, History PhD candidate)
Doug McAdam, (Stanford University, Sociology)
Steven Parfitt (University of Nottingham, History)
Jack Ross (independent scholar)
Errol Stevens (independent scholar)
Randi Storch (SUNY Cortland, History)
Stephen R. Thornton (independent scholar)
Devra Weber (University of California, Riverside)
Kenyon Zimmer (University of Texas, Arlington, History)
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