The Box Project: Mapping Relationships Across Race and Distance
Troiano, Erin
Troiano, Erin
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Abstract
The Box Project was started by Virginia Naeve, a white Vermonter, in the early 1960s. It served to connect black women in Southern states with white women in New England who would send material goods, like powdered food and clothing. It was a means for New Englanders to support the Civil Rights movement despite their large geographic distance. Particularly in rural areas, the project was an essential part of survival as black women dealt with racist food stamp and commodities distributors that deliberately withheld aid and a lack of well functioning state run social welfare programs - many of which were designed to keep black people in a debt cycle. Naeve�s person to person approach was less intrusive and more reliable than federal welfare programs. The Box Project, run through the postal system, attracted suspicion due to the high volume of packages from the north leading to the surveillance of black women by local white authorities who would withhold packages and welfare checks. Mapping sending and receiving data of these packages in ArcGIS Pro, digital mapping and analysis tool, illustrate the geographic scale of these relationships and the underlying inequalities they display. Visualizing the flow of material goods from the north to the south highlights the uneven distribution of resources and the paths of resistance taken by white and black women during the Civil Rights movement.
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Date
1/1/2026
Student Status
Senior (Graduating in 2026)
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Poster
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Geography, Health & Society
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College of Arts and Sciences
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Arts and Humanities