Tandy Lau | for E&P Magazine

Candice Mays did not need a map to find her way back home. After all, she can recall the orange groves and sprawling mountain range views from her childhood, tucked under the long western shadow cast by Los Angeles. “It’s right where the desert starts, so it’s in the semi-arid climate where there’s not a lot to do,” she said. “But I was always a kid who thought it was beautiful because we were surrounded by mountains. … I always knew how lucky I was to live here.”

Still, Mays left Moreno Valley, a city of about 200,000 in Southern California’s Riverside County, nestled in the broader Inland Empire region. There were reasons. For one, New York City called, as it does for many great writers. A literary professional by trade at the time, Mays earned an M.A. in English education from New York University (NYU) before teaching the craft to students in New York City public schools. She later trekked south for a M.F.A. in creative writing at the University of Miami.

But she ultimately found her storytelling chops through data-visualized maps as much as words — along with her way back home to the Inland Empire. Over Zoom in September, Mays reflected on her time as project manager at Mapping Black California, with movers in the background, as she prepared to uproot her life once again. A week later, she would kick off a nearly year-long hiatus for the prestigious John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University.

Joining her on the call were Founder Paulette Brown-Hinds and Project Manager Alex Reed, who also hail from the Inland Empire and round out the trio behind Mapping Black California. The data visualization project recently turned a decade old and centers around mapping Black California, a small but significant minority of the state’s population. “Our mission is: we design data for narrative storytelling to address and eliminate systemic inequities at regional and statewide levels, and ultimately, national,” said Brown-Hinds.

The team frequently utilizes ArcGIS, an advanced software application used to create interactive maps, to visualize concerns related to racial inequity. With the world literally at their fingertips, they’ve explored how cities spend their money on policing, where money goes in racial equity funding and what historically led to certain California beaches to become segregated. Their projects can be found online at MappingBlackCA.com.

Mapping Black California Project Manager Alex Reed (Photo credit: Mapping Black California)

“Whenever anybody handles a new tool, the first thing we try to do is break it,” said Reed. “Immediately, we want to get into that thing, figure out how it works [and] how we can use it for our needs. I find that most people, when we publish something … say, ‘Well, how does that apply to my situation — or my circle of friends or my community that I live in?’ And that circle gets bigger, and maps allow you to zoom in on a level of granularity that a television program or a newspaper article does not allow you to go past.”

Mapping Black California operates under Voice Media Ventures alongside Black Voice News, a legacy Black publication covering the Inland Empire since 1972, which Brown-Hinds took over from her parents (who remain emeritus publishers) after her mother, Cheryl Brown, won a California State Assembly seat in 2012. However, the project took a life of its own, creating an independent cash flow through consulting map work bolstered by grants and philanthropy.

Brown-Hinds first encountered mapping technology through Jack Dangermond, the godfather of geographic information systems (GIS) software. Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri), the company he co-founded with his wife Laura, developed ArcGIS — the leading platform for building interactive, digital maps — and happened to operate corporate offices out of the Inland Empire.

“Jack was very fascinated with what we could accomplish, so we had an initial meeting at Esri headquarters with him before we even knew what we were doing,” said Brown-Hinds. “I said, ‘What do we call this?,’ and he responded, ‘Call it what you’re doing: mapping black California.’”

A creative practice, in more ways than one

Like Mays, Reed joined Mapping Black California shortly after stepping away from a previous job to pursue “personal practices as artists and writers.”

“And then we found that we needed employment,” said Read, who boasts a theater and digital production background. “Paulette gave us opportunities that became full-time jobs that we did not want, but they were full-time jobs that we were happy to get. I hadn’t originally known about Mapping Black California or been tapped to work with it. However, I got the opportunity to do a list of Black-led organizations for SoCalGas really early on.”

Reed ended up working together with Mays, and they expanded the project. Brown-Hinds also comes from a creative background, holding a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in English literature. With the help and resources from the likes of Dangermond, the trio is now a vanguard for wielding advanced web tools for racial justice efforts.

The SoCalGas visualization mentioned is one of Mapping Black California’s consulting projects — funding the work while allowing the team to still tackle issues they care about. Born through the partnership was the first and only statewide database on Black-led organizations.

“The Mapping Black California project provided SoCalGas with valuable insights into how our philanthropic investments aligned with community needs across our service territory, particularly beyond L.A. County,” said Ann Ayres, director of strategic communications and engagement for SoCalGas. “The project also resulted in a comprehensive database and a geographic visualization of nonprofits supporting Black communities across California. These tools helped us identify gaps in support, focus efforts on outlying areas and explore opportunities to strengthen capacity building. This reinforced SoCalGas’ commitment to more effectively support communities we serve.”

 Consulting projects not only bankroll Mapping Black California enough to keep the lights on independently from Black Voice News, but they also go toward pursuing “flagship” passion projects. Mays calls it a hustle, with the team jumping from one map to the next.

“So, one of the goals that we had set was to be able to work on larger projects. That way, we could have fewer contracts that support the staff while we’re able to still develop the flagship projects,” she said. “And those are projects when we see gaps in data, we develop those ourselves.”

For example, they observed many institutions and jurisdictions in the state declare racism a public health crisis following the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 over the police murder of George Floyd. “We know once those protests stop, so would the declarations and any action around those declarations,” said Mays. “And that’s why we built that accountability tool.”

Before they visualized the data into a map, the team set the promises into stone through Web3 authentication technology. Starling Lab for Data Integrity, Stanford’s tech-forward initiative for newsrooms, funded Mapping Black California’s efforts to tokenize the declarations onto the blockchain, a digital ledger best known for accessing cryptocurrency, to ensure officials could not simply scrub just their promises to address racism as a public health crisis.

On the written journalism side, sister newsroom Black Voice News put the visualized data into reporting with an online series on how certain municipalities followed up on their promises.

“We are uniquely positioned as an organization that was solely focused on accessing, utilizing and then putting that data back out into the world with that newsroom anchor,” said Reed. “We are in a unique position to help drive that direction: we have the education and the expertise to allow other local newsrooms that maybe don’t have that same time or education.”

The issues addressed during the 2020 protests long predated the movement. Mapping Black California’s work also examines how history shaped these racial inequities. Data projects have tackled redlining and how Moreno Valley, at the time, became the Blackest city in the state (by percentage). “We’re really telling the story of migration and this historical resilience of Blacks in California,” said Brown-Hinds.

Black to the future

Mapping Black California Founder Paulette Brown-Hinds (center) with California Gov. Gavin Newsom (left) and Esri CEO Jack Dangermond (right) (Photo credit: Mapping Black California)

As the current Trump administration rolls back DEI gains made since 2020, new challenges face Mapping Black California, as less and less data from the federal government will be disaggregated by race.

“It tells me how important our work is,” said Brown-Hinds. “Not just on the data side, but also a lot of the work we do around history and understanding the role that race has played in the development of this country.”

She said that Mapping Black California’s philanthropic backers remain dug in as ever. Mays corroborates, pointing to recent client meetings. “I actually told someone to slow down, which I’ve never said about a contract before in my life,” she said. “That’s a good problem to have.”

Of course, the future also holds exciting developments for the habitual early tech adopters. As the world heads into uncharted territory with artificial intelligence (AI), Mapping Black California calls on newsrooms to think bigger and imagine the emerging technology beyond a myopic productivity tool. Still, the project will remain “people-driven.”

Looking beyond the horizon, Brown-Hinds pointed to a welcome hub project she’s been itching to work on for years. Riverside County is experiencing rapid growth, thanks to an influx of Black Californians — particularly those relocating eastward from Los Angeles. The project would provide them with a one-stop resource, including finding places such as churches, shopping centers and hair care services.

“It would be a way to connect people as they move into the region, to find all those things they need to make community,” said Brown-Hinds. “I’m learning — instead of shying away from or fearing new technologies — how do we make it work in service of our community?”

Brown-Hinds is particularly excited for Mays’ fellowship as a former JSK fellow herself and implored her to take the opportunity. And there’s certainly an opportunity to build upon the Mapping Black California mission up north.

Mays, who has spent the past few months setting Reed up for success, hopes to tackle leveling the AI playing field during her time in the fellowship by molding the technology while it remains in a formative stage. While most eyes are on the language learning models (LLMs) used to generate text seemingly written by a human, there’s the matter of how AI can serve as an information source, with newsrooms leading the charge thanks to their troves of reporting and research.

And she mentions a conversation about how, throughout history, when one group colonizes or conquers another, it almost always boasts access to some new cutting-edge technology. Mays believes she can help democratize AI while it remains pliable for the oppressed masses.

“That’s what I plan on doing as a JSK Fellow at Stanford,” said Mays. “And I’m going to frolic among some redwoods and ride my bike.”

Tandy Lau is an award-winning journalist currently based in Jersey City. He currently works as a staff reporter covering public safety for the New York Amsterdam News in Harlem. He can be contacted at tandylau1995@gmail.com.