The Geography of Civil Rights Movements
2017 Geography Awareness Week Theme
"The theme of civil rights is a timely choice in 2017. The past few years have seen numerous milestone anniversaries of major civil rights campaigns and victories. Ironically, hate groups are on the rise and highly publicized incidents of racialized violence dominate the news—suggesting that civil rights movements remain a salient and necessary fact of life rather than just pieces of history." Dr. Derek Alderman and Dr. LaToya Eaves, Association of American Geographers.
The Geographic Alliance of Iowa (GAI) is proud to support this theme by developing ArcGIS on-Line Story Maps that celebrate the accomplishments of Iowans who took a stand against racism and injustice and fought for civil rights and equality.
Over the course of this 2017-2018 academic year, we will be showcasing a series of Story Maps and we anticipate the list of maps to grow throughout the year:
Iowa's Progressive Past
Freedom Summer: The Journey to Mississippi
The Underground Railroad in Iowa
Carrie Chapman Catt and Women's Suffrage
Alexander Clark
Women's Suffrage in Iowa
Arabella Mansfield
Please also see the set of outstanding resources created by the Kansas Geographic Alliance:
Please also see the full statement (that the quote at the top of this page was excerpted from) from the Association of American Geographers: