Du Bois made 58 hand-drawn charts of Black American life for the 1900 Paris Exposition

historyThe Public Domain Review1900 · Paris

Du Bois made 58 hand-drawn charts of Black American life for the 1900 Paris Exposition

the gist

For the 1900 Paris Exposition, W. E. B. Du Bois and his students at Atlanta University created 58 hand-drawn charts documenting the lives of African Americans. Many focused on economic life in Georgia, condensing large amounts of data into bold, colourful visual forms that were easy to read at a glance. The charts were part of The Exhibit of American Negroes, which covered history, present conditions, education and literature, and included photographs, patents, books and maps. The exhibition occupied a quarter of the American space in the Palace of Social Economy. Its modern, abstract look anticipated the visual language of early twentieth-century painters, and it is now seen as an early milestone in data visualisation and in the struggle for civil rights.

how it works

Each chart turns counts and measurements into shapes, colours and lines so that patterns like growth, distribution or comparison show up visually. A single sheet can therefore carry more information than a table of numbers that a general visitor would struggle to read.

so what

It shows that data visualisation and social science were being used as tools for civil rights decades before the NAACP was founded in 1909. Du Bois later became one of the most influential American thinkers of his era.

fun fact

Du Bois was the first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard.

D. W. Griffith’s A Corner in Wheat (1909)

the gist

In 1909 D. W. Griffith made a 14-minute film about a speculator who corners the wheat market and doubles the price of bread. A farmer sows his field while a 'Wheat King' gambles in the Chicago wheat pit; bakers raise the loaf from five cents to ten and the poor line up for bread. Griffith cut back and forth between the farm, the feast and the breadline, a technique called parallel editing, so audiences saw both ends of the economy at once. The film drew on Frank Norris's stories and on a real scheme: months earlier Chicago financier James Patten had cornered wheat, sent bread prices up and made about $5 million, roughly $185 million today.

how it works

To corner a market, a trader buys up most of the available supply and the futures contracts that promise more. Anyone who has to deliver the commodity must then buy from the cornerer at whatever price is demanded. The trader profits until the stock is released or the scheme collapses.

so what

A century on, it still shows how markets can be rigged by someone who controls supply, and how the people at either end, farmers and eaters, pay for it. It also helped establish editing as a way to argue a point, not just tell a story.

the bigger pattern

Corners have recurred whenever supply could be locked up, from the Hunt brothers' attempt on silver in 1979 to 1980 to the 'Black Friday' gold panic of 1869. Many such schemes end by collapsing, and the response is often new rules on speculation.

fun fact

In the film the Wheat King dies by falling into a grain elevator and being buried in the wheat he hoarded, an ending borrowed from Norris's novel The Octopus.

Usman Khawaja refuses to answer Sandpapergate question about Pat Cummins | 7.30

from ABC News In-depth

One of the darkest days in Australia's sporting history has been dragged back into the spotlight.

A new autobiography by former Test cricketer Usman Khawaja has made explosive revelations about the Australian Test team's 2018 ball-tampering saga in South Africa.

7.30 host Sarah Ferguson speaks to Usman Khawaja.

7.30 is the ABC's flagship current affairs program, delivering original journalism, exclusive investigations, in-depth analysis and interviews on the major issues affecting Australia and the world.

With on-the-ground reporting from ABC journalists across every state and territory and around the world, 7.30 has the latest on politics, policy, the economy, cost of living, housing, health, climate and energy, national security and global affairs.

Note: In most cases, our captions are auto-generated.

on YouTube: ABC News In-depth ↗