The Black Atlas: Reimagining Space and Resistance Through Green Book Methodologies

• In Event: Archive to Unforget: Educational Geographies of Remembering, Reclaiming & the Recovery of Our Collective Memory

Abstract

Overview
Inspired by the legacy of the Negro Motorist Green Book (Green, 1936), a research collective of 11 Black undergraduate and graduate students collected 60 interviews over a summer to chart where Black joy and flourishing happen in Madison, Wisconsin. This paper explores the impact of this type of methodology on Black Madison residents’ place-making and construction of Black-affirming spaces in a predominantly white city. Grounded in Black Geographies (McKittrick, 2016), we used semi-structured and go-along interviews to contextualize Black Madison residents’ experiences. In what we call Green Book Methodology, we place stories and pictures about Black-affirming spaces in Madison into an interactive online map. This paper challenges dominant spatial narratives by centering Black people’s lived realities and fortifying Black place-making as sites of resistance and liberation.

Theoretical underpinnings
McKittrick (2016) argues that Black Geographies uncover how traditional spatial systems have marginalized Black communities through enslavement and segregation. These dominant frameworks often reflect white male dominant values that reinforce antiblackness through practices like red-lining and housing discrimination. Allen et. al (2018) extend this critique by introducing a relational place-making approach rooted in Black geographies, defining place as shaped by community values and collective desire. Our paper adopts this framework by exploring how Black Madison residents navigate and reclaim space in a predominantly white city.

Modes of Inquiry or Sources
We conducted 60 semi-structured interviews with Black residents.

Results/Substantiated Conclusions
The collective has constructed a living archive of Black place-making that redefines education and space. Black Madison residents shared places that were primarily Black-owned businesses or historically significant to Black history, highlighting the importance of Black representation in business and history. Black residents expressed the ability to reclaim and create space with a Black-affirming community in community centers, churches, parks, and educational institutions. To making living in Madison sustainable, Black residents had to co-create Black affirming spaces as a resistance strategy to the antiblackness in the city at large. These findings emboldened the research collective to center Black resistance practices in academic and spatial narratives.

Scholarly significance
This study acknowledges how spatial injustice and historical exclusion shape the lived realities of Black Madison residents today. By centering Black community voices and amplifying place-based narratives, this research looks back to understand how past harms continue to influence the present. In doing so, the research collective hopes to sankofa new possibilities. The study engages in furturing through a collective and intentional envisioning of how Black people can reclaim spaces as sites of liberation and resistance.

References
Allen, D., Lawhon, M., & Pierce, J. (2018). Placing race: On the resonance of place with black geographies. Progress in Human Geography, 43(6), 1001–1019. https://doi.org/10.11 77/0309132518803775
Green, V. H. (1936). The Negro motorist Green Book. Victor H. Green & Co
McKittrick, K. (2006). Demonic grounds: Black women and the cartographies of struggle. U of Minnesota Press.

Authors

• Jessica Lee Stovall, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• hailey elizabeth schock, University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse

• Jada Young, University of Wisconsin - Madison