The London-based research group, Forensic Architecture (FA), published a new project on Monday, June 28, called “Environmental Racism in Death Alley, Louisiana,” which was featured by the New York Times.

A short documentary on the Times website tells the story of the fight to identify and preserve the graves of enslaved people in Louisiana’s Death Alley, also known as Cancer Alley. Between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the area along the Mississippi River is known for its deadly concentration of polluting petrochemical facilities, which have led to high rates of cancer in the local, majority-Black population. According to advocates, identifying and preserving these burial sites is a way to memorialize the enslaved Black people who built Louisiana’s economy; it also raises awareness of the connection between current day structural racism and the history of capitalist development. Helping to identify and visualize the extent of these sites, FA mobilizes the architect’s tools in support of a kind of historic preservation tied to environmental justice, as racism and environmental degradation cannot be decoupled in Death Alley.

Indeed, Darrly and Kathe Hambrick, co-founders of the River Road African American Museum are fighting to raise awareness of the graves and believe that they are important reminders of enslaved individuals who worked the land in this area of Louisiana—the burial sites are some of the few markers that remain. Local archeologist Don Hunter has done original field work and mapping, providing the inspiration for Forensic Architecture’s expanded scope.

Imani Jacqueline Brown, a researcher at Forensic Architecture, grew up in Louisiana and began her work as an environmental and fossil fuel accountability activist. Discussing her work on the project, Brown says: “When I thought about what lay beneath the ground, I mostly thought about pipelines. I never thought about the graves of historically enslaved people, some of whom are very likely to be my ancestors.”

Using cartographic regression, a technique that is typically employed in archeology, FA creates layers of coordinated maps to “travel back in time to see how the land has changed.” This is one of many projects in which the group has used the spatial imaging capacity of contemporary architectural design practice to different ends.

Two years ago, FA received significant attention for their video piece installed in the 2019 Whitney Biennale “Triple-Chaser.” The research was presented in a video that tracks the use of teargas canisters used to suppress protesters and crowds (often in conflict zones). It Identified canisters produced by Safariland LLC, a law enforcement and security products company of which Whitney vice chairman Warren Kanders was the CEO at the time. The photographic imaging linked the use of Kander’s products to unethical and politically reprehensible contexts—police suppressing free speech with force. In an act of protest against the use of “less lethal” weapons wielded by increasingly militarized police forces, FA joined a group of seven artists demanding Kanders step down. When he refused, they removed their work from the exhibition and the vice chair eventually gave in. Last year, Artnet announced that Kanders would “divest from the divisions of his company that produce ‘crowd-control solutions.’”

Thus, given the right venue, architects can synthesize knowledge forming media to support positive, albeit focused, political change. Like the archeologists who have traditionally employed this technique, FA’s mapping creates a visual record of things that are hidden from public view. In “Environmental Racism in Death Alley,” FA have done two things: They have expanded the reach of an archeological study and created the compelling visualizations necessary to influence a broader public. 

Nevertheless, as important as these media are, the vast majority of these grave sites are located on private property. Petrochemical companies may not be easily convinced to preserve the burial sites. But, where there are plats, there are deeds. 

Map and law become two sides of the same coin: necessary for the process of colonizing territory but also useful for its undoing.

In 2018, the state of Louisiana passed LA HCR51, a law that creates the Slavery Ancestral Burial Grounds Preservation Commission. This law establishes that all Louisiana grave sites must be preserved, including those memorializing enslaved people—this was not always the case in the state.

Therefore, FA’s work is crucial in identifying these sites, many of which would be difficult or impossible to find without mapping. Yet, mapping only leads to preservation if there is a legal mechanism to protect the sites from disinterested owners—laws are needed to change this reality. Thus, map and law become two sides of the same coin: necessary for the process of colonizing territory but also useful for its undoing.