When you open a smartphone map app or look at a government-issued map, it’s easy to think these are objective, authoritative representations of reality. After all, they were made by professionals. But all maps inherently reflect the priorities of their creators, no matter their background or subject. Mapmakers must make decisions about what information to include and what to leave out—and those decisions can be challenged.
Counter-mapping is a practice that subverts conventional cartography by empowering those who are traditionally excluded from map-making to create their own maps. This practice allows marginalized communities to document their lived experiences, preserve their spatial knowledge, and highlight issues of injustice that may be overlooked in other representations. With these tools in hand, counter-mappers can advocate for change.
Counter-mapping has played a key role in the fight for racial equity throughout history. For example, during the Jim Crow era, Black mapmakers designed the Green Book, a guide to help Black motorists locate safe accommodations while traveling. During the Civil Rights Movement, researchers in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) developed a series of maps to analyze spatial patterns of racial inequality and to identify strategic intervention points for their direct actions.
Today, counter-mapping continues to be an effective method for revealing hidden geographies and giving voice to underrepresented communities. One example is the project Mapping Police Violence, which represents police violence across the United States, effectively conveying the scale and impact of this issue. In Chicago, artist Tonika Lewis Johnson created the Folded Map Project, a counter-map of contemporary urban segregation by comparing households on the white North Side of the city with households on the Black South Side. These initiatives illuminate patterns of lived realities that might otherwise remain invisible, challenging dominant narratives.
Today, as more people are able to access open-source mapping technologies, counter-mapping continues to evolve as a powerful tool for racial equity, equipping communities with a range of tools and data to advocate for change.
Комментарии