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State of Black Asheville

 

We can build equity through transparency.

State of Black Asheville – or SOBA – is a tool for community analysis of racial disparities. Our goal is promoting grass-roots advocacy efforts that are strengthened through the use of public data.

We feel that public data is something that should be accessible to everyone, so we work with local government to make it that way.

We believe that transparency can transform government, and empower communities to make real change.

Let's Talk about Data

Project creator Dr. Dwight Mullen on the history and impact of the State of Black Asheville.

 
The State of Black Asheville has 99 total visualizations. With 19 dynamic, interactive visualizations. We have published 30 Student Papers. Community members have helped us index 15 of them.
Help us build a complete resource
 

Welcome to the new State of Black Asheville website!

We are building the new State of Black Asheville website as part of the Code for America Community Fellowship, which runs through December 2018. This is a preview of the new site – we’ll be adding new resources and functionality over the next few months.

 

Making past research digitally accessible

Dr. Mullen has facilitated undegrate research on the “State of Black Asheville” since 2007, but there has never been a comprehensive online resource to share this library of work.

The SoBA team is working with UNCA Special Collections and the City of Asheville to archive, digitize and share all student papers and other resources in an accessible manner.

Many of the visualizations you see on the site are derived from student research, converted into a dynamic chart and table format. This allows us to share this important work, while allowing us to update data over time to provide up to date information.

Want to us with this effort? Contact us to learn more!

Check out the student papers