LibGuides: Social Explorer Guide: U.S. History / African-American History

Maps

Curated Maps for U.S. History

Use Social Explorer maps to visualize and analyze the characteristics of almost any location, like voting, poverty, aging populations, ethnicity and race, spending patterns, health indicators, crime, environment or education. You can see trends and make comparisons over time and place to gain insights and help make decisions.

For an introduction to how to use Social Explorer Maps, start with this video tutorial. There are videos that explain how to browse available datasets, customize your map, compare variables and notice trends, export and share your projects, and even tips for how to tell stories using your data.

When you're ready, click on one of the example maps below to get started, or access the complete set of maps here. Also, don't be afraid to explore! You can always save your variables to go back to later.

United States
Explore over 500,000 data indicators and over 220 years of data for the United States from present to 1790, including all Decennial Censuses, American Community Surveys and many other datasets.
U.S. Decennial Censuses on 2010 Geographies
This unique dataset gives you a chance to explore and compare decennial census data from 1970 to 2000 on 2010 geography. This dataset makes it easy to track demographic changes in the United States during the last 40 years. Data is available on census tract, county, state and nation levels.
U.S. Election Data
Visualize United States election results from 1912 to today. Presidential, senatorial, congressional, and gubernatorial election data comes from Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections and are available for visualization only.

Datasets

Datasets

Social Explorer allows you to quickly and easily create and manage reports for one or thousands of variables and geographies. You can also download data for further processing. To get started:

This guide will show you how to create, save and share, and download a report
To access the complete list of available datasets and build your own reports, click here.
Check out the example datasets below
For more detailed information on each dataset, reference the data dictionary

U.S. Decennial Census
The U.S. Census Bureau has conducted the Decennial Census every 10 years since 1790. It provides a full count of the U.S. population for congressional and legislative redistricting and includes demographic information spanning over 220 years.

Teach and Learn Modules

Teach & Learn Modules for Courses

Use these resources created by Social Explorer to inspire creativity, encourage hands-on learning, and equip your students with desired skills. Here are some suggested modules to get you started. To explore the entire library of activities, click here!

Race and Place in the U.S. Across Time
This module provides an overview of the history of racial/ethnic distribution in the United States.
Linguistic Diversity in the United States
This module examines the complex history of language in the United States.
Mapping the Great Migration
This module offers a visual history of the Great Migration.
Mapping Sharecropping, Tenancy, and White/Black Farm Ownership in the New South, ca. 1880-1900
This module explores the rise of cotton production in the post-emancipation South, ca. 1880, and the turn to quasi-free labor systems (sharecropping, tenancy) that kept African-American farmers largely under the control of their former masters.
Mapping Education and Literacy in the American South, 1850-2010
This module employs census data to explore regional patterns in education and literacy from the late antebellum era to the present day.
Mapping Foreign-Born Populations By County, State, and Region, 1790-2010
This module uses foreign-born population data and Social Explorer mapping tools to explore broad regional and sub-regional patterns of immigration to the United States, ca. 1790-2010.
Regional Changes in Presidential Election Voting
This module provides an overview of the regional political alignment of recent decades and explores how the map has changed over time.
Religious Diversity in the United States
This module examines how religion has shaped American life and society.
Urban Crisis in the United States
This module demonstrates the ways in which multiple factors such as suburbanization, redlining, and deindustrialization combined to create a crises in America's inner-cities, disproportionately affecting poor minorities and the urban poor.

Social Explorer Guide: U.S. History / African-American History

Getting Started

Maps

Datasets

Teach and Learn Modules

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