W.E.B. Du Bois’s data portraits : visualizing Black America :
the color line at the turn of the twentieth century
by Whitney Battle-Baptiste and Britt Rusert, editors
E185.86 .D846 2018
New Arrivals Island, 2nd floor
This book is a reprint featuring various charts and graphs of data that were featured at World’s Fair in Paris in 1900. The data was collected by a sociological research team headed by W.E.B. Du Bois. And the data was notable for being the most prominent of its time to show the large gap that existed between black and white people in American society, now 35 years from the abolishment of slavery. While the research is important and paints a picture Black American life at the turn of the 20th century, this book focuses on the presentation and visualization of the data which is both colorful and creative. Du Bois would use the foundations of this research to help propel his career 3 years later with his most famous work Souls of Black Folk (available at Andersen Library)
For a more in depth look of this work, listen to the editor of this edition discuss the book on the PolicyViz podcast.
