1 00:00:10,610 --> 00:00:16,210 And with that, thank you very much for attending. And I'll hand over to Jason. 2 00:00:16,210 --> 00:00:26,290 Well, thank you very much. I apologise for the interruption in our scheduling previously, so I'm delighted to be here today. 3 00:00:26,290 --> 00:00:35,110 So I'm gonna go ahead and share my screen. All right, can you guys see it? 4 00:00:35,110 --> 00:00:43,100 Awesome, awesome. So. 5 00:00:43,100 --> 00:00:50,450 As you know, I am Jason Forest. I am currently the director of Interactive Data Visualisation at the Koven Response Centre at McKinsey. 6 00:00:50,450 --> 00:00:54,380 Not necessarily the director. The director of all interactive data visualisation from McKinsey. 7 00:00:54,380 --> 00:01:07,220 Just just my own little IP, my own little happy island. But, you know, I first encountered WBB DeBois data visualisations early in twenty eighteen. 8 00:01:07,220 --> 00:01:10,880 At the time there was very little research about the work and I became obsessed 9 00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:16,310 with learning about more about it so that I could help to tell its story. 10 00:01:16,310 --> 00:01:21,260 It's been a remarkable journey and one that I was completely unprepared for. 11 00:01:21,260 --> 00:01:27,500 So before I start, I want to just take caution to say that the word Negro will appear frequently in this talk. 12 00:01:27,500 --> 00:01:32,270 It's not a word I take lightly, but it's the term that Dubois uses throughout this phase in his career. 13 00:01:32,270 --> 00:01:40,010 And I think it's best to honour and contextualise his use of language. 14 00:01:40,010 --> 00:01:43,700 So the nineteen hundred Paris Exposition was created to celebrate the achievements 15 00:01:43,700 --> 00:01:47,360 of the 19th century and sought to accelerate innovation in the next. 16 00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:51,110 It was designed around the Eiffel Tower, built for the eighteen eighty nine exposition. 17 00:01:51,110 --> 00:01:55,640 But it was 10 times larger, expanding all the way to the newly created Grand Palais. 18 00:01:55,640 --> 00:02:00,080 The fair was visited by nearly 50 million people and displayed many inventions for the first time, 19 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:04,400 including the Ferris wheel, the diesel engine, the escalator and the first talking films. 20 00:02:04,400 --> 00:02:08,360 By the way, my wife challenged me about that. And I went back into the research. Yes, indeed. 21 00:02:08,360 --> 00:02:13,430 The first talking films in nineteen hundred fifty six countries, including the U.S., 22 00:02:13,430 --> 00:02:17,570 participated in creating pavilions representing their respective cultures. 23 00:02:17,570 --> 00:02:19,880 But special exhibits were located elsewhere. 24 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:29,760 So the exhibit of American Negroes, which we'll be discussing today, was housed in the palace of social economy shown here. 25 00:02:29,760 --> 00:02:33,100 But it's important to see the nineteen hundred exposition in the balance of history as a 26 00:02:33,100 --> 00:02:38,590 century of unprecedented innovation and widespread change was coming to an end in 1833. 27 00:02:38,590 --> 00:02:46,390 The very term science was invented in 1863. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865. 28 00:02:46,390 --> 00:02:50,290 The US civil war comes to an end, and as a result of the reconstruction period, 29 00:02:50,290 --> 00:02:56,930 former slaves are now granted unprecedented rights under the 14th Amendment. 30 00:02:56,930 --> 00:03:00,260 But racist lawmakers gained power across the southern states. 31 00:03:00,260 --> 00:03:07,850 It's in the 18 nineties and Jim Crow laws began to radically rollback these rights under the guise of separate but equal segregation. 32 00:03:07,850 --> 00:03:11,990 This illustration from the eighteen ninety three Chicago Exposition adds further insult 33 00:03:11,990 --> 00:03:16,550 to injury by mocking the members of the human zoo known as the Dahomey village. 34 00:03:16,550 --> 00:03:24,640 A few years later, another racist human zoo display is featured in the eighteen ninety five Atlanta Exposition. 35 00:03:24,640 --> 00:03:27,010 Outraged by the exhibit's lawyer, Thomas J. 36 00:03:27,010 --> 00:03:32,770 Calloway sends a letter to hundreds of African-American leaders across the country that says, quote, to the Paris Exposition, 37 00:03:32,770 --> 00:03:37,900 thousands upon thousands will go a well selected and prepared exhibit representing the Negroes development will 38 00:03:37,900 --> 00:03:46,260 attract attention and do a great and lasting good and convincing thinking people of the possibilities of the Negro. 39 00:03:46,260 --> 00:03:50,040 Thomas Calloway was a classmate of Dubois from Fisk University, 40 00:03:50,040 --> 00:03:55,800 and both men were in close contact with the most recognised African-American leader at the time, Booker T. Washington. 41 00:03:55,800 --> 00:03:59,430 A plan was crafted along with Daniel Murray, the assistant librarian of Congress, 42 00:03:59,430 --> 00:04:06,540 and the team was awarded fifteen thousand dollars from the US Congress only four months before the opening of the Exposition. 43 00:04:06,540 --> 00:04:09,570 Dubois was the obvious choice to lead the effort as chief curator, 44 00:04:09,570 --> 00:04:17,280 and he began to quickly compile the work on Dec. 20 aides eighteen ninety nine with his students from Atlanta University. 45 00:04:17,280 --> 00:04:20,520 What follows is a frenzy of activity in just four months. 46 00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:25,170 Prominent citizens, educators and students across the country began to assemble the materials. 47 00:04:25,170 --> 00:04:32,070 The five great Negro schools of Atlanta Fisk, Howard, Hampton and Tuskegee universities prepare exhibits. 48 00:04:32,070 --> 00:04:37,950 Dubois and his students conduct a sociological study in Georgia and begin to hand draw the 60 plus charts. 49 00:04:37,950 --> 00:04:42,090 Daniel Murray collects more than a thousand books and pamphlets by Negro authors. 50 00:04:42,090 --> 00:04:49,410 War heroes are documented businesses. Church and black newspapers from across the countries send in photographs of their finest and best. 51 00:04:49,410 --> 00:04:55,020 Four hundred patents by African-Americans are collected as a subtle nod to systemic prejudice. 52 00:04:55,020 --> 00:05:04,680 Dubois Hand writes over 400 pages documenting the erosion of civil liberties known as the Black Code at the Black Codes. 53 00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:08,640 After working tirelessly on the exhibit for months, Dubois writes in his diary that he was, 54 00:05:08,640 --> 00:05:14,280 quote, threatened with nervous frustration and had little money left to buy passage to Paris. 55 00:05:14,280 --> 00:05:20,580 But he did. But he did arrive just in time. He quickly set up the exhibit in time for the judges. 56 00:05:20,580 --> 00:05:22,770 Despite missing some of the materials from the universities. 57 00:05:22,770 --> 00:05:32,720 But the judges still recognised the exhibit by awarding it several prises, including an overall grand prise and Dubois a special gold medal. 58 00:05:32,720 --> 00:05:37,610 The resulting exhibition was a targeted attempt to sway the world's scientifically minded elite to 59 00:05:37,610 --> 00:05:44,790 acknowledge the American Negro in an attempt to influence cultural change in the U.S. from abroad. 60 00:05:44,790 --> 00:05:49,410 Pulitzer prise winning biographer David Levering Lewis writes, quote, In many ways, 61 00:05:49,410 --> 00:05:53,130 a Negro exhibit represented the last hurrah of men and women of culture and 62 00:05:53,130 --> 00:06:00,770 accomplishment who still aspired to full citizenship rights regardless of colour. 63 00:06:00,770 --> 00:06:04,010 While the judges awarded the exhibit with several prises, as you can see here, 64 00:06:04,010 --> 00:06:12,030 the direct impact of the exhibit of American Negroes is hard to measure. While the African-American press reported on the exhibit, gleeful excitement, 65 00:06:12,030 --> 00:06:18,630 the European media only mentioned the exhibit in passing and the white American press completely ignored it. 66 00:06:18,630 --> 00:06:25,260 The American public never even knew the exhibit of American Negroes even existed, despite the work by DeBois, 67 00:06:25,260 --> 00:06:31,590 Calloway and the extended community to show the show off the best of what African-Americans had to offer. 68 00:06:31,590 --> 00:06:41,410 The exhibit was met with indifference. But let's take a step back and look at William Edward Burghart Dubois. 69 00:06:41,410 --> 00:06:45,790 He was the first African-American to receive a doctorate from Harvard. Previously, 70 00:06:45,790 --> 00:06:49,720 Dubois studied at Humboldt University in Berlin and travelled in Europe before 71 00:06:49,720 --> 00:06:54,280 ultimately landing his first academic job at the University of Philadelphia, 72 00:06:54,280 --> 00:06:56,950 desperate to help the plight of the African-American population. 73 00:06:56,950 --> 00:07:05,380 He quickly turned to the recently developing fields of the social sciences in an attempt to collect compelling evidence needed for cultural change. 74 00:07:05,380 --> 00:07:10,330 Dubois was rigorous in his approach and tried to incorporate the latest scientific standards. 75 00:07:10,330 --> 00:07:17,290 He said, quote, The American Negro deserves study for the great end of advancing the cause of science in general. 76 00:07:17,290 --> 00:07:28,320 No such opportunity to watch and measure the history and development of a great race of men ever presented itself to the scholars of a modern nation. 77 00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:32,940 Arriving in Philadelphia after graduating from Harvard, he created his first Watership study. 78 00:07:32,940 --> 00:07:37,620 The Philadelphia Negro in eighteen ninety nine, compiled nearly by himself. 79 00:07:37,620 --> 00:07:42,270 Dubois personally conducted some 5000 interviews to complete the study. 80 00:07:42,270 --> 00:07:51,180 Here's a spread from the book, which shows some of his data visualisations clearly focussing on the scientific presentation of the statistical data. 81 00:07:51,180 --> 00:07:54,120 Dubois was very ambitious. 82 00:07:54,120 --> 00:08:01,440 That same year, he outlined a 10 year study of the American Negro seen as a continuation of the Philadelphia Negro research, 83 00:08:01,440 --> 00:08:08,190 and he conducted a similar study in Virginia. Dubois actually moved to Atlanta before the Philadelphia Negro is published. 84 00:08:08,190 --> 00:08:13,710 So when Callaway suggested Dubois become the curator of the exhibit for the Nineteen Hundred Exposition, 85 00:08:13,710 --> 00:08:21,210 Dubois naturally proposed as a study of the Georgia Negro. Like I said, Dubois was very ambitious, and at the time he wrote, quote, 86 00:08:21,210 --> 00:08:27,510 I wanted to set down my aim and method in some outstanding way, which would bring my work to the thinking world. 87 00:08:27,510 --> 00:08:32,280 The Great World's Fair at Paris was being planned, and I thought I might put my findings into plans, 88 00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:38,630 charts and figures so one might see what we were trying to accomplish. 89 00:08:38,630 --> 00:08:44,420 Dubois recalls the creation of the exhibit. In his autobiography, written at the age of 90. 90 00:08:44,420 --> 00:08:48,710 Quote, I got a couple of my best students and put a series of facts on the charts. 91 00:08:48,710 --> 00:08:58,400 The size and growth of the Negro American group, its division by age and sex, its distribution, education and occupations, its books and periodicals. 92 00:08:58,400 --> 00:09:05,420 We made a most interesting set of drawings, limned on pasteboard cards about a yard square and mounted on a number of movable standards. 93 00:09:05,420 --> 00:09:11,120 The details of finishing these 50 or more charts in colours with accuracy was terribly difficult, 94 00:09:11,120 --> 00:09:20,710 with little money, limited time and not much encouragement. The resulting exhibition was more than just a scientific report. 95 00:09:20,710 --> 00:09:29,590 DeBois set out to make a target attempt to sway the world's elite by upending the stereotypes and presenting a modern, successful and educated people. 96 00:09:29,590 --> 00:09:35,770 He set out to do this by crafting a structured statistical argument of the quantitative facts. 97 00:09:35,770 --> 00:09:43,150 On the first chart in the series, he leads with the statement, quote, The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the colour line. 98 00:09:43,150 --> 00:09:51,790 It's a phrase he uses again in the book that brought him global fame in nineteen, 1983, The Souls of Black Folk. 99 00:09:51,790 --> 00:09:59,260 One of the most powerful examples of data visualisation was made one hundred and twenty years ago by an all African-American team led by Dubois. 100 00:09:59,260 --> 00:10:08,070 Only thirty seven years after the end of slavery in the United States. The data visualisations the exhibit are split into two sections. 101 00:10:08,070 --> 00:10:14,610 The Georgian Negro, which focuses on the typical state of Georgia, which had the second largest African-American population, 102 00:10:14,610 --> 00:10:19,320 Virginia was the largest, by the way, and the highest Negro to white ratio. 103 00:10:19,320 --> 00:10:26,130 The other section is called, quote, a series of sophistical charts illustrating the condition of the descent of the 104 00:10:26,130 --> 00:10:31,680 descendants of former African slaves now in residence in the United States of America, 105 00:10:31,680 --> 00:10:36,910 which focuses on the national and international view of the data. 106 00:10:36,910 --> 00:10:43,780 The exact sequence of how DeBois made the chart is not entirely known, but the Library of Congress has the Georgia Negro as the first of the two. 107 00:10:43,780 --> 00:10:47,380 This is the sequences as defined potentially even by Daniel J. 108 00:10:47,380 --> 00:10:53,050 Murray himself when he entered them into the Library of Congress a few years after the exhibition. 109 00:10:53,050 --> 00:11:02,250 But we'll come back to the whole sequence a little bit. Let's start to dig into the work by looking at an international view of the data in Negro 110 00:11:02,250 --> 00:11:06,870 population of the United States compared with the total population of other countries. 111 00:11:06,870 --> 00:11:14,190 This map diagram shows us the comparison between a smaller seven point five million populated all Negro America, 112 00:11:14,190 --> 00:11:19,780 two other countries all drawn in proportion to their populations. 113 00:11:19,780 --> 00:11:22,720 DeBois makes a comparison in terms of nationhood. 114 00:11:22,720 --> 00:11:30,100 Clearly inferring the existence of an independent black state that exists as an equivalent to the established European countries like Spain, 115 00:11:30,100 --> 00:11:39,600 England and Hungary. You'll notice that the chart is in English and French so that the widest group of exposition guests can read the labels. 116 00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:43,590 Pivoting them from the international to the national in the next chart in the series, 117 00:11:43,590 --> 00:11:50,520 DeBois visualises Negro population growth as a small nation growing inside of the American silhouette. 118 00:11:50,520 --> 00:11:56,430 Dubois elegantly crafts a complicated, complex argument as a silhouette of the country grows. 119 00:11:56,430 --> 00:12:04,260 The Negro population also grows not as a at a faster rate, but as a distinctly different entity. 120 00:12:04,260 --> 00:12:13,980 This is not a line or bar chart to compare numbers. Dubois again visualises the data in terms of distinct nations when viewed alongside the 121 00:12:13,980 --> 00:12:18,450 preceding image showing a fully Negro populated US in comparison to European countries. 122 00:12:18,450 --> 00:12:25,740 Dubois clearly implies the possibility of a separate Negro nation state. 123 00:12:25,740 --> 00:12:30,270 This chart and literacy of the American Negro compared with that of other nations is 124 00:12:30,270 --> 00:12:34,740 from the second series and you'll notice the printed title at the top of the chart. 125 00:12:34,740 --> 00:12:39,540 If there was a breakout idea that challenged the status quo, it's this finding by Dubois. 126 00:12:39,540 --> 00:12:48,600 One could almost hear his surprise when he wrote, quote, Negro illiteracy is less than that of Russia and only equal to that of hungry, 127 00:12:48,600 --> 00:12:56,550 while Negroes were synonymous with being undereducated. Dubois shows that several European countries had a higher illiteracy rate. 128 00:12:56,550 --> 00:13:03,550 He's literally saying to the audience at the Paris Exposition, Are we really so different than you? 129 00:13:03,550 --> 00:13:08,250 The finality and the one world title illiteracy speaks volumes in this chart. 130 00:13:08,250 --> 00:13:14,340 The period at the end of the title helps to underscore the severity of the statement from the Georgian Negro series. 131 00:13:14,340 --> 00:13:23,010 This chart is an unusual plodding of time versus rate, with time on the vertical and bars extending from each access to form a sort of lattice. 132 00:13:23,010 --> 00:13:29,490 DeBois is only telling part of the largest story in this chart. As the white illiteracy rate in nineteen hundred was only six point two percent. 133 00:13:29,490 --> 00:13:33,030 But Dubois was not highlighting the racial disparity in the series. 134 00:13:33,030 --> 00:13:41,240 Instead, he was focussing on the decrease in literacy and overall progress in the African-American community. 135 00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:47,150 Here's an example of an updated version by database's superstar and Guardian contributor Mona Chalabi, 136 00:13:47,150 --> 00:13:50,160 where she updates the chart with the latest available data. 137 00:13:50,160 --> 00:13:59,410 I show it as a quick example of how the visualisations of the past can inspire the forms of data storytelling in the present. 138 00:13:59,410 --> 00:14:07,990 Income and expenditure of one hundred and fifty. Negro families in Atlanta, Georgia, USA is probably the most unique chart in the series. 139 00:14:07,990 --> 00:14:13,090 It is singular in its horizontal format and features a unique design within the exhibit. 140 00:14:13,090 --> 00:14:19,210 The chart access so as acts as a sort of key to the entire series as it humanises the data. 141 00:14:19,210 --> 00:14:24,040 The top row of a chart is like an expanded legend with rent, food, clothes, 142 00:14:24,040 --> 00:14:34,220 taxes and other expenses also doubling as column headers that are map to the colours we see in the horizontal stack bar below. 143 00:14:34,220 --> 00:14:37,040 This chart actually comes at the end of the Georgia Negro series. 144 00:14:37,040 --> 00:14:42,800 It's number thirty one, but actually was displayed as the introduction to the charts in the exhibit. 145 00:14:42,800 --> 00:14:50,290 As you can see here in the original photograph on the inset image, you can see the coin and photos of the Charn DeBois. 146 00:14:50,290 --> 00:14:53,420 You see mixed media on the chart to connect the data to the rest of the exhibit, 147 00:14:53,420 --> 00:15:01,580 which relied heavily on images of prosperous, successful African-Americans that challenged conventions. 148 00:15:01,580 --> 00:15:08,600 As my research intensified, so did my questions and I found myself in contact with the Library of Congress prints and photographs division. 149 00:15:08,600 --> 00:15:12,200 After six weeks of correspondence with the librarians, I was permitted, quote, 150 00:15:12,200 --> 00:15:19,070 very special permission to view only one of the data of the Dubois original charts in person. 151 00:15:19,070 --> 00:15:25,430 It was a real tip, thrilled to see the handmade work and examine the actual pen marks I'd been studying for months already. 152 00:15:25,430 --> 00:15:29,240 As you can see, the charts are quite large at twenty seven by twenty two inches. 153 00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:31,340 That's my computer there for scale. 154 00:15:31,340 --> 00:15:37,250 This is also the only work in the series to feature gold leaf and coloured crayon as well as the collage photographs. 155 00:15:37,250 --> 00:15:39,410 It's also an important chart, as I argue, 156 00:15:39,410 --> 00:15:48,200 that Dubois was actually amongst the first designers to consider their their visualisations to be interactive as evident in the label. 157 00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:56,650 For further statistics, raise this frame. This photo that I took of the original work shows how the chart was physically handled. 158 00:15:56,650 --> 00:16:00,760 And these marks suggest the indentation of the fingernails of the Paris Exposition. 159 00:16:00,760 --> 00:16:04,990 Guests exploring details like these could only be possible by being the original 160 00:16:04,990 --> 00:16:09,310 works and certainly helps to understand the context and creation of the work. 161 00:16:09,310 --> 00:16:15,550 Since the charts were made to be handled, they were sequenced to explore new layers of data and each subsequent chart. 162 00:16:15,550 --> 00:16:19,180 It's likely that a jump from one chart to another was synonymous. 163 00:16:19,180 --> 00:16:26,850 And Dubois's time to a double click in ARS. Out of the 60 charts in the exhibit, 164 00:16:26,850 --> 00:16:33,180 I find personally find this work to be the most compelling proportion of freedmen and slaves amongst American Negroes. 165 00:16:33,180 --> 00:16:38,940 The label slaves arranged inside of the mountainous black area is still a kick in the gut. 166 00:16:38,940 --> 00:16:45,480 The green ribbon at the top of the chart shows the ratio of free to enslaved African-Americans over roughly a century. 167 00:16:45,480 --> 00:16:49,820 There are many different ways that DeBois could have charted this data by putting the focus on the 168 00:16:49,820 --> 00:16:55,530 Freemen both in the coloured ribbon as well as by listening out the percentages of each decade. 169 00:16:55,530 --> 00:17:01,050 It emphasises their minority in comparison to the massive black area below the story. 170 00:17:01,050 --> 00:17:09,940 It tells a simple for 76 years, no less than eighty six percent of all African-Americans in the U.S. were slaves. 171 00:17:09,940 --> 00:17:12,790 But the nuance story remains on the right side of the chart. 172 00:17:12,790 --> 00:17:17,800 The immense a proclamation of the Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1st, 1863. 173 00:17:17,800 --> 00:17:22,780 Yet it takes an additional seven years and a civil war for the remaining six million, 174 00:17:22,780 --> 00:17:28,150 six hundred and seventy five thousand slaves to gain their freedom. 175 00:17:28,150 --> 00:17:33,160 Here's a chart from the Georgia Negro series. And as you can see, it's made in much the same way as the chart that preceded it. 176 00:17:33,160 --> 00:17:41,440 This time we see the percentage of freed Negroes over the same 73 year, three year period as a red area cascading down the right side of the chart, 177 00:17:41,440 --> 00:17:47,710 wavering between point seven and one point seven percent until it reaches one hundred percent at the bottom. 178 00:17:47,710 --> 00:17:55,090 Let's look at the 1860 census to get some sense of scale of the total population of one million. 179 00:17:55,090 --> 00:18:00,340 Fifty seven thousand people in Georgia. Four hundred and sixty two thousand were slaves. 180 00:18:00,340 --> 00:18:10,110 That's forty four percent of the entire population. As I said a second ago, the chart on the right is a sort of rotated view of the chart on the left. 181 00:18:10,110 --> 00:18:14,470 DeBois is careful to keep similar types of data in their comparative modes while 182 00:18:14,470 --> 00:18:20,820 exploring each data set to highlight the story on each level of granularity. 183 00:18:20,820 --> 00:18:25,830 This chart, occupations of Negroes and whites in Georgia is also from the Georgia Negro series. 184 00:18:25,830 --> 00:18:34,770 It presents a dazzling, near symmetrical chart of DeBois own design or two mirrored fan charts display corresponding categories, 185 00:18:34,770 --> 00:18:41,840 allowing the direct comparison across an event horizon that effectively delineates the colour line. 186 00:18:41,840 --> 00:18:48,380 The legend applies equally to both groups, and the distribution of the occupations between the two groups is surprisingly similar. 187 00:18:48,380 --> 00:18:51,200 Negro farmers are only two percent lower than white farmers. 188 00:18:51,200 --> 00:18:58,760 Negroes have a considerably higher percentage of service occupations, while whites have considerably more industrial and mechanical jobs. 189 00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:03,230 But they're displayed here is as comparable units within a circular hole. 190 00:19:03,230 --> 00:19:15,250 I find this chart to be quite effective while non-traditional. Even now, it's intuitive and using the right data could easily be used again today. 191 00:19:15,250 --> 00:19:19,780 But with this chart, I also want to address what I think is a misconception. 192 00:19:19,780 --> 00:19:27,880 A number of articles have come out have called that the striking design and limited primary colours of the charts to press age modernism, 193 00:19:27,880 --> 00:19:32,930 while this concept is very appealing. I believe it is an incorrect. 194 00:19:32,930 --> 00:19:40,430 As I mentioned earlier, Dubois considered himself to be an academic and he was deeply versed in the most contemporary methods of depicting data. 195 00:19:40,430 --> 00:19:48,980 Dubois had studied many sociological texts, including the work of Henry Gannett, which he referred in the Philadelphia Negro the year before. 196 00:19:48,980 --> 00:19:53,810 So it's obvious that Dubois was familiar with Gannett Statistical Atlas of the United States, 197 00:19:53,810 --> 00:20:01,490 featuring luxuriously illustrated maps and charts, as well as sociological data incorporated into the work. 198 00:20:01,490 --> 00:20:08,030 Considering the boys and teen were under such strict time constraints, luxuries like printing were clearly out of the question. 199 00:20:08,030 --> 00:20:14,660 The resulting handmade works gained an artistic dimension that is missing from the more scientific work at the time. 200 00:20:14,660 --> 00:20:20,970 Each chart would need to be hand painted watercolour on fit card, and it's likely that Dubois chose. 201 00:20:20,970 --> 00:20:26,210 You chose to use watercolours by George C. Osborne, manufactured in Philadelphia. 202 00:20:26,210 --> 00:20:34,040 He likely chose basic primary colours for his for their ability to easily imprint on his scientifically minded European audience. 203 00:20:34,040 --> 00:20:42,080 He stripped away any decoration in order to make the charts more effective, and the precisions of the charts conveyed scientific authenticity. 204 00:20:42,080 --> 00:20:49,750 While the works are remarkably beautiful, they were likely crafted for influence, not artistic merit. 205 00:20:49,750 --> 00:20:55,920 So if you'll just excuse me for a moment, let's take a little due to detour into art history, 206 00:20:55,920 --> 00:20:59,920 while precursors to modernism were president present in the 19th century. 207 00:20:59,920 --> 00:21:03,640 The concept of modernism wasn't really established until the other isms, 208 00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:08,920 like surrealism, had crystallised around Europe in the first years of the 20th century. 209 00:21:08,920 --> 00:21:16,960 This took time and most of the modernists were simply too young to have been directly inspired by the works at the Exposition in nineteen hundred. 210 00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:22,780 Picasso was 19 years old and travelled from Spain to Paris for only a few months in the fall. 211 00:21:22,780 --> 00:21:26,200 Walter Gropius, who started the ball powerhouse, was only 17. 212 00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:32,170 Laszlo Mahal motherly knowledge was only five p.m. Mondrian was twenty eight, but was living in the Netherlands. 213 00:21:32,170 --> 00:21:38,560 Kandinsky, also 28, but had just traded a career and long to attend art school in Munich. 214 00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:43,390 The fusion of science and art that fuelled modernism in general and in specific, 215 00:21:43,390 --> 00:21:49,360 the Bolthouse in Vienna Circle was certainly a similar space at DeBois was operating in two years earlier. 216 00:21:49,360 --> 00:21:57,760 But as a sociologist, one could only imagine what might have happened if he and his team had found the right support at the Paris Exposition. 217 00:21:57,760 --> 00:22:01,720 Had the impact of the exhibit of American Negroes. Been an international touchstone. 218 00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:09,400 Dubois might have crap continue to craft just statistical charts and the line between this work and what was to come in. 219 00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:14,990 Art and design might have been possible. OK. 220 00:22:14,990 --> 00:22:23,000 Back to statistics, this chart, acres of land owned by Negroes in Georgia also comes from the Georgia Negro series. 221 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:28,490 Not only do we see the two hundred and fourteen percent increase in acres of land owned, 222 00:22:28,490 --> 00:22:33,260 but Dubois presents us the data in the shape of the state of Georgia itself. 223 00:22:33,260 --> 00:22:38,600 Dubois creates a visual analogy suggesting that Negroes are Georgia, 224 00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:44,870 which is a very optimistic statement despite the rise of Jim Crow laws designed to strip African-Americans of their legal rights. 225 00:22:44,870 --> 00:22:51,710 Yet the chart shows steady socio economic progress in spite of the prejudice. 226 00:22:51,710 --> 00:22:57,170 So this is the most recognised chart by Dubois City and Rural Population 1890. 227 00:22:57,170 --> 00:23:01,130 It exemplifies the creativity Dubois employed in creating this work. 228 00:23:01,130 --> 00:23:06,440 And in some ways cements his place in history as a data of his innovator. 229 00:23:06,440 --> 00:23:10,670 It's an unusual chart and that that we now call the Dubois spiral. 230 00:23:10,670 --> 00:23:16,760 And while it is obscure, it actually does a very good job at showing massively disproportionate comparisons. 231 00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:23,120 The chart tells a story of just how many more African-Americans lived in rural Georgia than in the smaller or larger cities. 232 00:23:23,120 --> 00:23:31,720 The large red spiral immediately leaves an impression, a visual beacon that draws the eye in in a way that few charts could. 233 00:23:31,720 --> 00:23:35,890 The innovation that Dubois' made was built on precedent, as it was common at the time, 234 00:23:35,890 --> 00:23:40,690 to simply bend a very long chart into a series, into a sort of a snake. 235 00:23:40,690 --> 00:23:47,540 If it didn't fit in a lot of space and we see this on other charts from the same series on the right. 236 00:23:47,540 --> 00:23:51,250 Another way of looking at the Dubois spiral is to envision it as a horizontal stack bar 237 00:23:51,250 --> 00:23:56,870 chart and extremely long scale breaking the stack bar until a series of angles highlights. 238 00:23:56,870 --> 00:24:03,620 This is the disparity in the data and the resulting massive red spiral is a great way to focus on the main insight. 239 00:24:03,620 --> 00:24:08,840 Of course, as my illustration shows on the right, it could have also been an ordinary bar chart. 240 00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:15,360 But if it were, I doubt I'd be speaking about it today. One hundred and twenty years later. 241 00:24:15,360 --> 00:24:24,870 This brings up an important idea that's easy to gloss over. But remember that Dubois was trying to impress his audience. 242 00:24:24,870 --> 00:24:26,880 He was trying to show off. 243 00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:34,080 And while many of the charts are traditional in their design haina that these kind of unusual forms would create more interest. 244 00:24:34,080 --> 00:24:38,820 Not all of the charts are created equal and sorry, not all charts are created equal. 245 00:24:38,820 --> 00:24:46,860 And twenty two of the charts in the exhibit are fairly conventional. Bar charts are visual literacy allows us to quickly read traditional chart types, 246 00:24:46,860 --> 00:24:53,130 but at the same time it also makes them easier to forget the role of novelty in our chart. 247 00:24:53,130 --> 00:25:03,150 Making should not be devalued nor even dismissed as chart junk, but rather used to focus to focus our audience's attention on what matters. 248 00:25:03,150 --> 00:25:08,310 Clearly, this form resonated with audiences and it's proven to be historically important. 249 00:25:08,310 --> 00:25:17,090 As a result of its novelty. Like I said earlier, I'm very interested in the sequence of the charts of the exhibition. 250 00:25:17,090 --> 00:25:23,780 I feel that learning about more about the sequence could help us understand how they were made and how they were meant to be viewed. 251 00:25:23,780 --> 00:25:28,760 As my research intensified to compile a list of the charts in sequential order as provided by 252 00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:33,860 the Library of Congress and then returned to the exhibition photo itself to look for more clues. 253 00:25:33,860 --> 00:25:37,320 What I found was shocking. 254 00:25:37,320 --> 00:25:44,940 On the upper right side of the image of the chart that I could not identify and was not in the collection of the Library of Congress. 255 00:25:44,940 --> 00:25:51,840 I triple cheque the inventory and there was only one chart that was similar, but it was not the same design. 256 00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:56,480 I quickly started to play around with the image in Photoshop and found the highest resolution image I could. 257 00:25:56,480 --> 00:26:01,740 I could already see that it was indeed a unique new piece that had not been studied before. 258 00:26:01,740 --> 00:26:07,260 So like anyone working on a research project, I then went and pleaded with a librarian for help. 259 00:26:07,260 --> 00:26:17,300 Luckily, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst Library had the original image and sent over a high resolution version and. 260 00:26:17,300 --> 00:26:22,070 The decrease of literacy amongst the black freedman of the United States. 261 00:26:22,070 --> 00:26:26,210 This previously unknown work was hidden in plain sight. 262 00:26:26,210 --> 00:26:29,840 The quality of the image is now high enough to decipher the text. 263 00:26:29,840 --> 00:26:37,500 The chart shows the 36 percent drop drop in a literacy of Friedman over a 30 year period. 264 00:26:37,500 --> 00:26:44,250 As you can see, as I was able to, I was also able to recolour the work based on the corresponding great scales in the image. 265 00:26:44,250 --> 00:26:47,940 There are only a few options available from the limited palette to choose from. 266 00:26:47,940 --> 00:26:54,890 And I believe that the green and black colour have a clear correlation with some of the charts we've seen earlier in the lecture. 267 00:26:54,890 --> 00:27:02,510 I believe the newly discovered chart is a missing link between these three views of data for both illiteracy and the proportion of Freedman. 268 00:27:02,510 --> 00:27:07,730 The work creates a correlation between freedom and education and shows just how this 269 00:27:07,730 --> 00:27:15,330 systematic Dubois was in crafting his message and reinforcing it throughout the entire series. 270 00:27:15,330 --> 00:27:19,020 There are sixty three of DeBois charged from the exhibit of American Negroes in 271 00:27:19,020 --> 00:27:23,460 the collection of the Library of Congress by identifying a 60 fourth chart. 272 00:27:23,460 --> 00:27:29,070 It opens up some additional ambiguity. As mentioned, some of the works in the second series have printed titles, 273 00:27:29,070 --> 00:27:37,050 which means they could that they were actually created first as it would take longer to get the titles printed. 274 00:27:37,050 --> 00:27:42,300 But the charts in the second series with green outlines here are actually hand lettered. 275 00:27:42,300 --> 00:27:47,670 So it could be that they were actually created at the end of the project. And if you think about it, it makes sense. 276 00:27:47,670 --> 00:27:51,510 As a research and data collection for the Georgia Negro series was being conducted. 277 00:27:51,510 --> 00:27:58,710 Some of Dubois students were already draughting the initial charts. It's very likely that the team uncovered additional insights as they work. 278 00:27:58,710 --> 00:28:07,230 And since Dubois was committed to his structured argument, they would naturally find additional visual methods for telling the compelling story. 279 00:28:07,230 --> 00:28:10,740 It's important to consider just how surprising this exhibition would have been as 280 00:28:10,740 --> 00:28:14,900 African-Americans were held in low esteem across the white world in nineteen hundred, 281 00:28:14,900 --> 00:28:18,000 while certainly free of the hostilities of white Americans. 282 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:24,810 This exhibition was intended to curry favour with Europeans, many of which still harboured significant prejudice. 283 00:28:24,810 --> 00:28:30,300 Dubois and team took great care and considering how their exhibit would be perceived. 284 00:28:30,300 --> 00:28:35,940 And it also makes sense. It's such a strong visual would take a very important place in the exhibit itself. 285 00:28:35,940 --> 00:28:40,650 Above the crowds in the line of sight from outside the exhibit. 286 00:28:40,650 --> 00:28:50,670 Certainly the story of the great improvements in literacy would have been more palatable than the story of slavery itself. 287 00:28:50,670 --> 00:28:53,670 Because this exhibit was not successful at the time. 288 00:28:53,670 --> 00:29:02,550 DeBois took an abrupt turn away from the social sciences and in 1983 he published the work that would bring his ideas to a global audience. 289 00:29:02,550 --> 00:29:10,650 The Souls of Black Folks is a remarkable book that pairs elements of its ethnographic research with African-American poetry and spiritual songs. 290 00:29:10,650 --> 00:29:13,290 In the book, his anger, his anger boils through. 291 00:29:13,290 --> 00:29:21,180 His rage is paired with his brilliance, and his passionate voice quickly became recognised as a leader in the struggle for African-American rights. 292 00:29:21,180 --> 00:29:26,920 So it's interesting to think about this quote again, written in his biography at the age of 90, 293 00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:31,290 on his early years in social sciences, where had I failed? 294 00:29:31,290 --> 00:29:38,460 There were many answers, but one was typically American. As the event proved, I did the deed, but I did not advertise it. 295 00:29:38,460 --> 00:29:43,920 In the long run, advertising without the deed was the only lasting value. 296 00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:48,060 Perhaps Americans do not realise how completely they have adopted this philosophy. 297 00:29:48,060 --> 00:29:59,380 But Madison Avenue does. The story of the exhibit of American Negroes is so compelling because it is the story of a missed opportunity. 298 00:29:59,380 --> 00:30:04,960 It is ultimately a brilliant tragedy for the small nation of people that Dubois and has expanded. 299 00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:12,250 Team tried so hard to present to an indifferent white audience as viewers of this work in the present. 300 00:30:12,250 --> 00:30:16,060 We are all too aware of the inequalities that followed after the exhibit. 301 00:30:16,060 --> 00:30:20,140 We can point to the superior design and brilliant minds with the knowledge that their 302 00:30:20,140 --> 00:30:25,480 cause was not recognised until the Civil Rights Act outlawed discrimination based on race, 303 00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:29,560 colour, gender or national origin. Sixty four years later, 304 00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:34,390 knowing that a pivotal moment like this existed with such incredible opportunity for change all the 305 00:30:34,390 --> 00:30:40,150 way back in nineteen hundred gives additional perspective to the Black Lives Matter movement today. 306 00:30:40,150 --> 00:30:47,440 Now one hundred and twenty years later. While I'm thrilled to be discussing this today, 307 00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:53,980 the fact is that this work is still under explored and has yet to be embraced, embraced by mainstream academics. 308 00:30:53,980 --> 00:31:01,060 Dubois abrupt turn away from the social sciences certainly necessitates the study of his career and impact later in his life. 309 00:31:01,060 --> 00:31:06,280 Yet at the same time, his role and his social in the social sciences remains less known. 310 00:31:06,280 --> 00:31:15,310 The charts of the exhibit were only digitised in 2013. In any previous study was done on the on the only available black and white microfilm versions. 311 00:31:15,310 --> 00:31:18,850 There are a few rich sources of information, many by DeBois himself, 312 00:31:18,850 --> 00:31:26,650 such as the full recounting of the exhibit and the review of reviews, as well as a recently published book on the subject. 313 00:31:26,650 --> 00:31:30,340 WBB DeBois Data Portrait's Visualising Black America. 314 00:31:30,340 --> 00:31:36,100 But the fact remains that more research is waiting to be done not only on the context of the exhibit, 315 00:31:36,100 --> 00:31:40,900 but on the historic data itself as compiled by DeBois and his team. 316 00:31:40,900 --> 00:31:46,780 This is a rich source of information just waiting to be explored. 317 00:31:46,780 --> 00:31:51,610 So wrapping up as I've gotten involved in researching and writing about these works, 318 00:31:51,610 --> 00:31:57,430 I have found there are more voices from the past that have just not been explored. 319 00:31:57,430 --> 00:32:03,550 I continually find amazing stories such as the work of Marine Doi Rahaf, wife and collaborator of Autonomy Rahaf, 320 00:32:03,550 --> 00:32:10,030 who taught at Oxford and her life's work of creating pictorial statistics for educational purposes. 321 00:32:10,030 --> 00:32:19,540 Over and over again. I find graphic forms from the past that can inspire us to create new ways of communicating or visualising ideas today. 322 00:32:19,540 --> 00:32:23,590 This research has changed me as a person and as a practitioner. 323 00:32:23,590 --> 00:32:31,620 So I end my talk today by asking you what other stories out there are to be found and retold. 324 00:32:31,620 --> 00:32:40,890 Thank you very much. Oh, thank you very much indeed, Jason, that was captivating. 325 00:32:40,890 --> 00:32:49,110 So everyone should feel free to type questions into the chat so I can put them to Jason. 326 00:32:49,110 --> 00:32:54,900 But I will use my chairs prerogative and start with one of my own, 327 00:32:54,900 --> 00:33:04,110 which was to ask how was he and his colleague able to get their hands on so much data? 328 00:33:04,110 --> 00:33:10,170 I mean, this you we we're struggling in these days with some of the Kobe things to get 329 00:33:10,170 --> 00:33:14,910 information on populations and some ethnic subgroups and all sorts of things. 330 00:33:14,910 --> 00:33:17,640 And so, you know, this is so long ago, I, you know, 331 00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:23,730 like I was particularly struck with the graph that you showed of Georgia and all those numbers for each year. 332 00:33:23,730 --> 00:33:28,710 So what were the sources of data that you was able to access? 333 00:33:28,710 --> 00:33:32,340 So a great question. Thank you for asking it. 334 00:33:32,340 --> 00:33:37,500 I've been asked that question before. And my last quick answer was I kind of stumbled on it. 335 00:33:37,500 --> 00:33:39,300 I think I have a better one this time. 336 00:33:39,300 --> 00:33:48,840 So what's fascinating is there really there were statistical data sources about different types of races in the U.S. at the time. 337 00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:53,730 They go back roughly to the civil war, but not before, which makes sense. 338 00:33:53,730 --> 00:33:58,890 Right. So what's fascinating about Dubois is that he conducted most of the research. 339 00:33:58,890 --> 00:34:05,040 So he had about as like 12 to 14 students at Atlanta University. 340 00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:13,680 There is there are some kind of remote students, I think one that lived in Virginia that was also connected to the programme, to the the project. 341 00:34:13,680 --> 00:34:19,830 And from what I can understand, in the four months leading up to the exhibition itself, they went out and found it. 342 00:34:19,830 --> 00:34:27,774 They built the data sets themselves. OK, so not just data, visualise whose data collectors as well.