LIVING APART:¬
GEOGRAPHY OF SEGREGATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY
1940 Home Owners Loan Corporation “Redlining” Map of Greater Norfolk.
FREE admission generously funded by the Goode Family Foundation.
NOVEMBER 18, 2022–FEBRUARY 5, 2023
Living Apart: Geography of Segregation in the 21st Century explores the ongoing impacts of our nation’s long history of housing discrimination. The U.S. government spent much of the 20th century engineering racial segregation. Across the country, it created housing policies that were intentional, racist, and restrictive. Each one funneled financial growth away from Black and Brown neighborhoods. The fallout of these policies still resounds today through economic, environmental, and health inequalities that pervade these same neighborhoods. These polices have a direct impact on our region.
We can only find ways forward toward a shared democratic prosperity if we understand how we got here. Living Apart charts this path. Christopher Newport University Professor Johnny C. Finn is a researcher and geographer. With this exhibition, Finn has created a way to see the long-term effects of racist housing policies in our region. Through maps, images, and personal accounts, we can see the damage they incurred. We can grapple with the legacy of segregation and build a more racially just future.
Curated by Johnny C. Finn, PhD Associate Professor of Geography, Christopher Newport University and Heather Hakimzadeh, Senior Curator and Special Projects Manager, Virginia MOCA.
To explore this project in depth, please visit livingtogetherlivingapart.org.
Image: 1940 Home Owners Loan Corporation “Redlining” Map of Greater Norfolk, Map Source: National Archives and Records Administration; Mapping Inequality: https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining.
EXHIBITION GALLERY
Photo by Kyle Cummings.
EVENTS
Lecture: Geographies of Injustice
Thursday, December 1, 2022
In this lecture, Dr. Johnny C. Finn will discuss his exhibition, Living Apart: Geography of Segregation in the 21st Century, which explores the ongoing impacts of our nation’s long history of housing discrimination. Christopher Newport University Associate Professor of Geography Johnny Finn is a researcher and geographer. With this exhibition, Finn has created a way to see the long-term effects of racist housing policies in our region. Through maps, images, and personal accounts, we can see the damage that was incurred and grapple with the legacy of segregation to build a more racially just future.
Mapping History
Wednesday, December 14, 2022
This three-hour professional development workshop for educators will introduce educators to geographic information systems (GIS) and demonstrate how primary source documents, historical maps, and contemporary data from the U.S. Census, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Environmental Protection Agency can be harnessed to explore the lasting socio-economic, environmental, and health impacts of racial segregation. Upon completion, attendees will be equipped to use historical and geographic data to explore dimensions of inequality in their communities.
Mapping Meaning
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
This three-hour professional development workshop will introduce educators to participant-directed photography, provide a primer on qualitative interviewing, and demonstrate how to use online mapping to create interactive story maps. Upon completion, attendees will be equipped to actively engage students in innovative assignments and projects using photography, interviewing, and mapping to explore how meanings are embedded in places.
Mapping Inequality
Saturday, January 21, 2023
This day-long professional development workshop will be broken into two sessions. The morning session will introduce educators to geographic information systems (GIS) and demonstrate how primary source documents, historical maps, and contemporary data from the U.S. Census, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Environmental Protection Agency can be harnessed to explore the lasting socio-economic, environmental, and health impacts of racial segregation. The afternoon session will introduce educators to participant-directed photography, provide a primer on qualitative interviewing, and demonstrate how to use online mapping to create interactive story maps.
Lecture: The Politics of Inequity
Saturday, January 21, 2023
In this lecture, Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander, the Endowed Professor of Virginia Black History and Culture and emeritus director of the Joseph Jenkins Roberts Center for African Diaspora Studies at Norfolk State University, will provide an overview of the historic African American communities in Virginia and the challenges they faced and continue to face relating to inequalities in resource allocation and redlining.
OUR SUPPORTERS
Living Apart is generously underwritten by The Lawson Companies.
Supported by Virginia Geographic Alliance, Institute of Human Geography, Christopher Newport University, CNU Center for Community Engagement, Ferguson Fellowship for Community Engagement.