Du Bois’ Data Portraits Tell A Story About Black Life In Georgia And Beyond

When W.E.B. Du Bois wrote about the color line in “The Souls of Black Folk,” he lamented the racism that disenfranchised and discriminated against African-Americans in the 20th century. The split between blacks and whites that the color line represents is most often interpreted through Du Bois’ writing, but the famed sociologist and civil rights activist also put a visual to it.

In 1900, Du Bois led a team of students and alumni from Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University) in designing a set of data portraits for the Exposition Universelle, a world’s fair in Paris. The fair was a global stage on which nations could exhibit and celebrate their pride and achievements.

“The dominant narrative at these expositions in terms of nonwhite peoples was … the representation of people as savages, as people who needed to be uplifted by colonialism, by imperialism,” said Britt Rusert, professor of Afro-American studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “So it was really crucial that people of color had something to say within these spaces.”