Plate 58 had a similar impact on me. The semicircle over rectangles to show the data is, again, eye catching and colorful. It is an unusual way to display data. When viewed more closely, it can be observed that the brown portion of the semicircle represents 100,000 Black people and the tiny, red section represents the 86 paupers in that community. This shows the discrepancy between myth and reality about Blacks in Georgia. Few are considered paupers. Instead the vast majority are self-reliant.

Given that Plate 27 was one of my choices of the two most interesting displays, it is probably no surprise that “The Occupations of Whites and Blacks in Georgia 2019” and Plate 27 is the most interesting pair for me. Aside from the visual appeal in these displays, it is very interesting that not much has changed since the turn of the twentieth century in terms of the representation of Blacks and Whites in Georgian industries. Some of the industries have changed and representation has branched out beyond agriculture to other industries. Despite these shifts, the relative percentages of Blacks and Whites in each of the industries bears a similar pattern to a hundred years ago. They are largely consistent with each other within the individual industries. 

Plate 27 first caught my attention during our presentation at the Osher Map Library. The parallels of occupations held by White people compared to Black people in Georgia, with a predominately agricultural workforce for both races, is masterfully show by Du Bois. The radially sliced wedges could be classified as a circle graph yet a large portion of the graph is represented by negative space, drawing greater attention to the large complementary slices of the pie. Du Bois notably represents the Black occupations above the White occupations, as if the white occupations are cast as a shadow. The updated Plate 27 of occupations in Georgia in 2019, has a strikingly similar feel with wedges being comparable in size when comparing White and Black occupation percentages. While the occupations again mirror each other, the progress from the original plate to 2019 shows a shift from agricultural professions in both races to The Professions, which is inclusive of business and science careers. While the hospitality and domestic service pie wedge represents the third most common profession for Black people in 2019, it is not overly represented by the same 5:1 ratio (Black:White) as was the case in the original Du Bois plate, showing a positive shift in occupational stereotypes. 

 Plate 47- This plate uses a bar chart, and bright colors to clearly illustrate the sheer number of illiterate American Negroes in comparison to other selected countries attending the Paris Exposition.

Plate 51- This plate illustrates the percentage of American Negroes enslaved as compared to free Negroes over a period of time, from the 1790s when slavery was active in the United States, versus 1870, which is just after slavery was abolished in the United States.

 

 Plate 47- This plate is interesting because there is no percentage or number assigned to the comparison, so the viewer is left to see the difference purely through the use of color and the various lengths of the bar charts corresponding to different countries. This plate is informative because it helps to dispel any misconception that American Negroes are illiterate and that in spite of the lesser status of American Negroes in society, their illiteracy rates are better than several other European countries. 

Plate 51- This plate is interesting because of the way the information is presented. It looks like an upside-down graph, in that the percentage of free American Negroes rises as the color visual representation in the graph goes down instead of up, as is more common in graphical representations. It’s informative because it indicates an upward trend towards freemen, and the black section of the graph that represents enslaved American Negroes is a startlingly vivid visualization of the large population of slaves as compared to freemen.

Which of the updated Du Bois visualizations is most interesting to you? 

Plate 38- I find the comparison of the distribution of Blacks in the United States in 2019 versus 1890 interesting because it illustrates how the distribution hasn’t changed very much in the past 130 years, except for some Western expansion in California. 

 

These visualizations are interesting because it shows how little the distribution has grown in over 100 years, with the exception of California and it is informative because it shows that even in 2019, there are some states that have less than 1 Black person per square mile. The states that have any increased their concentration of Black people look to be major urban areas, while rural areas remain largely unchanged. 

I think the most powerful message of plate 53 is to see the high proportion of widowed females at all ages. This raises questions about the causes of widowhood. What does nearly 45% of females between 55-65 are widowed and more than 65% of females over 65 suggest about Black male life expectancy and the underlying causes of earlier death (e.g., impact of labor, limited or no access to health care, food insecurity, etc.). And the increased numbers of windows in the younger ages (20-25, 25-30, 30-35) makes you wonder about the causes of death for Black men at younger ages, raising the issue of lynching.

 

If one of the goals of a visualization is to catch the viewer’s attention, this plate does a good job. It is boldly colored, nearly symmetrical in its composition (but not entirely), and reads as artistic. The symmetrical construction of % males and % females is what allows the viewer to begin to draw inferences and generate questions: you naturally want to compare the nature of each color and shape for males and females, at which point you begin to identify key differences. Du Bois et al play with the scale (age ranges) on the y-axis, I think, to emphasize the prevalence of widows between 20-35. It’s also interesting to look closely at the grid that comprised this chart to realize that each column amounts to a 2% interval, so it is possible to ascertain exact data from this chart. 

 

The main message of plate 59, Mortality of American Negroes, is to show the impact of race, class, and societal conditions on mortality rates. In this chart, Du Bois et al. contrast the mortality rates of 3 different wards in Philadelphia to the U.S. as a whole and to U.S. cities/urban areas. It makes the point that the “5^th ward slum” has a significantly higher mortality rate than the U.S. and the other comparison wards. It also makes the point that mortality rates of Black persons living in mixed class and better class wards are outperforming the mortality rates of the country as a whole and that Black mobility will yield positive health outcomes. 

 

There is a simplicity to the bar chart that makes this an accessible and impactful visualization: you can read it and understand the comparisons very quickly. The x-axis labels are equally as important, as this is what conveys that it is a class analysis: “5^th Ward Slum,” “Mixed Class,” and “Better Class.”

Plate 2: Relative Black Population of the States of the United States 

I appreciated the simplicity of this map both in Du Bois’ original form and in Lawrence’s 2019 update. Lawrence made updates to the title to reflect current language as well as the legend to reflect the larger population and to consolidate from 10 categories to 8. What’s most important about this as a successful visualization is that the legend and the precision of the ranges is inconsequential to the understanding of the map, which operates as a sort of “heat map.” You can get a sense of the relative population just by looking at the descending order of the legend and the concentration of corresponding colors on the map. This is also an incredibly interesting comparison side-by-side with Du Bois’ original map. It tells a story of migration. 

Plate 27 certainly stands out as the most interesting updated plate because of how even the distribution is among whites and blacks. It had already been more evenly dispersed than I would have expected in 1900 but with new professions added they are even closer. A few things stand out to me. If I assume Georgia is representative of the US in this example. If the jobs are so evenly distributed in the present day, why is income distribution still so skewed? What happens if other races are factored into this graph? And on another note, it shouldn’t be a surprise but it is still visually jarring to see the flip of the agricultural and professional industries. I think I didn’t expect that the two combined in 2019 would be as little as less than 1% of the agriculture, fishing, and forestry occupations.

·      What are the main messages of the graphic? 

This plate is comparing the population of African Americans in the United States with the total population of other countries.  The prevailing message is that the African American population is both strong and growing which, at the time, flew in the face of the contemporary racist science that predicted the inevitable extinction of the Negro race due to their supposed inferior make-up      

 

·      What makes them interesting - informative?

The power of this diagram comes from its simplicity.  It uses two basic colors (red and black) and recognizable shapes (the outlines of countries) to illustrate how the population of African Americans in the Unites States is larger than the entire population of Australia, and of Norway, and of Sweden, and of Switzerland, and of the Netherlands, and of Belgium, and of Germany.  This is an amazing display of the significant presence African Americans on the world stage.          

 

Plate 50:

 

·      What are the main messages of the graphic? 

This plate illustrates the meteoric rise of African Americans from slavery to freedom in just one generation.  This is demonstrated by comparing the number of African Americans who were slaves in 1860 (89%) compared with the number of African Americans who owned their own land (19%), as well as the number of free laborers (81%) in 1890, just 30 years later. 

 

·      What makes them interesting - informative?

What is so impressive about this diagram is the radical, life-altering transformation that it succinctly communicates.  I can’t imagine a more extreme or dramatic change of circumstance than to go from being an enslaved person to a free person, along with all the responsibilities, challenges, disadvantages, etc. that accompanies it. This chart ultimately illustrates the astonishing strength, perseverance, ingenuity, bravery, and innate intelligence of a people who had been physically, mentally, and spiritually oppressed in the worst possible ways for over 200 years.     

 27

·      Which of the updated Du Bois visualizations is most interesting to you? 

I found the Occupations of Black and Whites in Georgia 2019 to be quite fascinating.  Not surprisingly, the 2019 diagram features more occupations than the 1900 diagram.   It is interesting to see how these occupations are distributed between the Black and White population.  Sales & Office appear to be similar among the two populations with Blacks representing 20% and Whites 21%.  Likewise, Protective Services show just a 1% difference between the two groups with Blacks representing 3% and Whites 2%.  Manufacture, Construction and Repair has a lightly higher difference of 3% between the two populations (Blacks 12% and Whites 15%).

The occupations that demonstrate more divergence between the Black and White populations include Hospitality & Domestic Services with a 6% difference (Blacks 17% and Whites 11%), Trade & Transportation with a 7% difference (Black 14% and Whites 7%), and finally the largest difference being 11% in the Professions category where Blacks represent 32% and Whites 43%.  A concerning factor in the divergent occupations is that the Black population consistently has greater numbers in the professions that earn less money, whereas the Whites consistently have greater numbers in the professions that earn more money.  This more than likely contributes to the ongoing income and wealth inequality between Whites and Blacks.       

 

·      What makes the pair of visualizations most interesting - informative?

What I find to be most interesting when comparing these two diagrams is that the predominant occupations for both Blacks and Whites in 1900 (Agriculture, Fisheries, and Mining with 64% Whites and 62% Blacks) are the least practiced occupations by both Blacks and Whites in 2019 (Agriculture, Fishing, and Forestry with 0.5% Whites and 0.33% Blacks).  This illustrates a massive transformation in the occupational lives of both Black and Whites over the course of just 119 years.   

Using data about the value of kitchen furniture, this plate shows independence and ownership grew by over 2,000% in the five years from 1875 to 1880 and thereafter continued to grow steadily but not as dramatically. 

The symmetry and singular focus of a spiral are pleasing to the eye and the contrast of the lengths of the bars is highlighted by the shortest one on the outside of the spiral. 

What are the main messages of the graphic? 

This bilingual plate, English and French for the Paris World Fair, is a pie chart of the professions of African Americans drawn by an all-black  Atlanta University. 

It is interesting to me that 60% of Blacks in Georgia were teachers, perhaps to support and promote the black community through education. 

The distribution of Blacks in the United States in 2019 is so similar to the Du Bois map of 1890, one hundred and 30 years earlier. It is interesting to consider the impact of pixelation on the 2019 map. I wonder if the maps would be more similar if that had been shown in the 1890 map. 

This spiral graph shows the drastic growth of wealth in material goods between 1875 and 1899. In contrast to a traditional bar graph, the choice to group the data in a way that the eye can take it all in at once allows the reader to grasp the difference between small and large categories. It is often hard to display scaled data in a way to be consumed all at once, and this does so. Symbolically, the center of the image leads to a target of wealth. This could be interpreted as a vision of the future for negro citizens. 

Plate 44 - Proportion of Whites and Negroes in different classes of occupation

This circle graph shows categories of occupations: all, manufacturing, trade, domestic, professional, and agriculture. Each category has a sliver in black to show the relative proportion of Negroes vs Whites. The shape suggests slices of pie, and it is clearly not equal. 

Updated Plate 27 - Occupations of Blacks and Whites in Georgia

This partial circle graph uses mirrored color slices to compare size of groups within each industry. The almost symmetrical image makes the differences even more noticeable.