This site provides a hub from which to connect to different elements of my work on race, political theory, and American political development.
The images throughout the site show sections of charts prepared by W.E.B. Du Bois, then professor of sociology at Atlanta University, for the American Section of the 1900 Paris Exposition. The exhibit, as Du Bois wrote in his own review, was "an attempt to give, in as systematic and compact a form as possible, the history and present condition of ... American Negroes." The charts would allow the visiting public to grasp "at a glance" the condition, progress and achievements of African Americans from the colonial period to the present day. Du Bois came to doubt the capacity of social science to overcome prejudice and racism in America. But the charts remain visually arresting, startling us into a closer examination of the story they were intended to tell.
The images are held by the Library of Congress as part of its Prints and Photographs online catalog and are in the public domain.