As the project evolved to include other partners with diverse interests, the GIS focus shifted to historical documentation of the African American perspective of life during Ligon High School's pre- and Civil Rights era; 1953-1971. We realized that the original scope of the project was unrealistic. It became apparent that the Ligon attendance district encompassed not just Southeast Raleigh, but the entire city of Raleigh, and that the data we needed to do the project was not readily available. Hagevik questioned the appropriateness of including GIS in this project. "What would GIS contribute that is unique?" she challenged. As the project evolved further, GIS became the framework for other aspects of the project.
 
 
 

Annexation data layers demonstrate the growth of Raleigh from its origins to its current boundaries and the location of Raleigh within Wake County. Ligon High School served all Black students in the Raleigh City School System, thus its attendance boundaries are represented by the 1959 city limits. Ligon High School had a reputation for excellence in academics and the arts. The sports teams had a statewide reputation as champions of the Black conferences. Ligon was a source of pride and the center of the Black community. During desegregation, the Raleigh City School System merged with the Wake County School System. Redistricting by busing forced Black students into schools far away from their homes in order to satisfy federal orders. Students who felt loved and nurtured by the community in their school became minorities left to fend for themselves in environments that they reported often seemed hostile and impersonal to them. The GIS model vividly demonstrates the spatial dimensions of this Diaspora.

In our discussion of how GIS could help to tell the Ligon story, it became apparent that "official" layers of information could tell only part of the story. "Official" data was limited to interests of the city, county, state and federal polities, and we were trying to tell a story from the perspective of the African American community. Too often, from the perspectives of "official" layers, the African American spaces in the city were viewed as expendable, divisible, and unsuitable for preservation or redevelopment. These neighborhoods had become subject to division by highways that fragmented the community by effectively creating barriers both around and through it. (DOQQ below and Hawkins, personal communication)
 

Adding additional lanes to Smithfield Street (shown in yellow) created an east-west artery, Martin Luther King Boulevard, just south of Ligon (shown in green). This improved traffic problems but divided the African American neighborhood.

Because official data was unavailable, the memories of alumni provided much of the information necessary to create the data layers. Journalism students collected information during interviews. From videotapes of the interviews, GIS students listed locations along the routes walked to and from LHS. To get more specific geographic information, GIS students used Local Schools, Exploring Their History (1986) as a guide to generate a bank of geographic questions. Using these questions they interviewed two alumni. During the interviews students constructed the alumni's life maps using paper maps of Wake County and the city of Raleigh. Constructing these maps generated more specific geographic questions for the alumni. Videotapes of the interviews were used to verify answers to the geographic questions.

The Wake County Heritage students researched and produced a list of buildings important to Ligon High School's history. GIS students did research in history books written from an African American perspective, especially Culture Town by Linda Simmons-Henry who later joined the partnership. Graduate students contributed data from research at the State of North Carolina Archives, the NCSU Archives, the Saint Augustine’s College Archives, the Southern History Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Richard B. Harrison Library, Olivia Raney Library, Washington Elementary GT Magnet School, and the Historic Preservation Society. This information was also used as the basis for Mr. Hunter's biography published on the Ligon High History web site.

Base layers for the GIS including annexation, Wake County Streets, downtown and Southeast Raleigh land parcels were provided by the Raleigh GIS office. Wake County GIS provided data including census tracts and public schools. The USGS provided the DOQQ's of Wake County. TIGER-95 county street layer data would not overlay with the DOQQ. NCSU GIS reference librarian revealed that this is a common problem with this type of data in our area. The original data came in a variety of projections and map units: annexation, State Plane 27 (feet); land parcels and county streets, State Plane 83 (meters); census tracts and public schools were DXF files. All files were converted to UTM 83 zone 17 (meters) to be compatible to the DOQQ's of Wake County. GIS Graduate student Irvin Vann assisted Ann Thompson with the identification of the original projections and reprojection. New themes were added for information drawn from research. Color coding was used to visually represent segregated areas. Hotlinks were created to pictures from the State of North Carolina Archives collection.
 

What emerged from the project was a prototype life map; an historic representation of the alumnus' life space from his memories verified by the memories of others. We hope that this kind of model can provide a useful method for representing:

• Comparative spatial interactions of cultural groups
• Alternative "layers" of information that can be used to illustrate multiple spatial perspectives
• Archival documentation that can be used to validate the African American experience
• Identification of landmarks for historic preservation to guide redevelopment

GIS provided a dynamic medium for communication. Alumni were able to view their history from a new perspective and were able to interact with it. People can access varying combinations of data according to their needs and interests. This GIS project will continue to evolve drawing energy from the enthusiasm of the alumni, middle school students, and facilitators. We now approach the task aware of the obstacles, realizing that we must glean information from research and interviews to create new data layers that represent African American history.