Like many, Catalina Hidalgo knew some Durham history, such as the significance of Duke Homestead.
But the Miami native was amazed by what she learned during a class project to create a Google map that documents historic and contemporary human and civil rights activism in the Bull City.
"I had no idea, for instance, that Durham was one of the first cities to witness a sit-in or that Malcolm X wanted to create a university in a warehouse downtown," says Hidalgo, a junior who is majoring in public policy and Spanish.
Hidalgo, Christie Barnes, Kamilah Barnette and Kate Van Buskirk identified sites important to these stories and others while working on the interactive map in professor Barbara Lau's course on "Civil/Human Activism in Durham: In the Spirit of Pauli Murray."
The class, funded by a course development grant from the Duke Human Rights Center and taught at the Center for Documentary Studies, was one of many components of the Pauli Murray Project. Formed in spring 2009, the project aims to re-introduce the Durham-born activist, historian, attorney, author and Episcopal priest to Duke students and the local community, as well as encourage further activism in Durham.
The Google map the class created has more than one function, Hidalgo says. (You can view the map at http://paulimurrayproject.org/mapping-civil-human-activism-live-now.)
"The map can serve as a tool to teach history, as a tool to research civil rights/activism trends and as an advocacy tool for citizens to get involved," Hidalgo says. "All of these things are important for Durham and its people.
Classmate Christie Barnes, a senior cultural anthropology major from Wayne, Pa., adds that she hopes people will study the Google map then visit some of the listed sites and "experience Durham for themselves."
Creating the Google map was a "grand experiment," says Lau, also director of the Pauli Murray Project. "We weren't sure how it was going to work at first. It would take learning the history and learning how to do interviews, collect and take photos, edit audio materials and prepare them to be uploaded to the web."
The students were assisted by Randy Riddle from the Center for Instructional Technology, which helps instructors and professors use technology in the classroom.
By learning about Durham's history, students began to identify locations where activism has happened or is taking place.
Royal Ice Cream, 1000 N. Roxboro. In 1957, activists attempted to desegregate the store.
"We encouraged them to avoid ‘low-hanging fruit' where activism has always happened. We didn't ignore those places they're very important and we urged students to create anchor points for them," Lau says. "But in terms of documentary fieldwork, we encouraged them to look deeper for historic and contemporary examples of activism.
"The biggest comments from the students were, ‘We've lived here so long and didn't know any of this. We didn't know Durham had such interesting history,'" Lau says. "As a result of working on the project, students say they've spent more time downtown and feel more comfortable and engaged with the community."
The students would like to see the map included in freshman orientation, Lau says.
"They have a lot of ideas about how useful the map would be for other students and local residents," Lau says. "We'd like to see this become an ongoing project. I'd like to teach the class again and add to the map, to challenge students next year to try to identify sites they know about and maybe those they haven't thought about and to think more broadly about activism in Durham."