The goal of the challenge (Data Viz Society & Files on Github) is to celebrate the data visualization legacy of W.E.B Du Bois by recreating the visualizations from the 1900 Paris Exposition using modern tools.
W.E.B. Du Bois’s groundbreaking exhibit at the 1900 Paris Exposition showcased the power of data visualization to challenge prevailing narratives of racial inferiority and illuminate the social and economic conditions of African Americans. In the spirit of Du Bois’s legacy, the Du Bois Visualization Challenge invites participants to harness the visual language of data to address contemporary issues of racial justice, equity, and inclusion.
It was an honor for me to participate for the first time. I must admit, I always felt a bit intimidated to get started. I decided to replicate as much as possible the original plates using Tableau and Mapbox Studio. Next year I might try to expand more, as some people did.
Challenge01: Negro Population of Georgia by Counties, 1870, 1880 (plate 06), February 5 (Tableau Public)
“Negro Population of Georgia by County”, is a choropleth map with a alternating left-right pattern, comparing the population of Black Georgians in the years 1870 and 1890.
Reflections:
- First ever Dubois visual re-created, first victory.
- Used Mapbox to create a custom Choropleth fill to try to mimic the hand-drawn effect of the counties.
- Created a Tableau workbook template, so all visuals would have a consistent size. (for future gallery use)
- Decided to go with Courier New fonts, as it seems pretty close to the orginal font used.
- Decided to use the terms Africain or Black population where I could.
Challenge02: Slave and Free Negroes (plate 12), February 12 (Tableau Public)
“Vertical bar/area chart with a strong red/black color scheme that compares the population of free and enslaved Black people from 1790 to 1890.“
The chart depicts the rise of slavery, peaking in 1850, and a sudden burst of freedom at emancipation 1865.
Reflections:
- Simple area chart, not that simple chart, as axis had to be fixed to see the high % effect.
- Would anyone argue that fixing axis here was not best practice, but you would understand Du Bois wanting the highlight the “Free” metric.
Challenge03: Acres of Land Owned by Negroes in Georgia (plate 19), February 19 (Tableau Public)
“Acres of Land Owned by Negroes in Georgia” is a conventional bar chart with a twist. The chart shows the increase of land owned between 1874 (338,769 acres) and 1899 (1,023,741), with the red shape of the data echoing the map of Georgia.
Reflections:
- Just a simple a beatuful chart.
- Created background image map to add the pattern fill effect in the chart. I can’t beleive that is simple feature is not supported by Tableau and so much needs to be done to hack this.
Challenge04: The Georgia Negro (plate 01), February 26 (Tableau Public)
“The Georgia Negro, A Social Study” shows the transatlantic slave trade, with routes from Europe, Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean, highlighting Georgia.
This visual contains Du Bois’ famous assertion: “The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line”
Reflections:
- Lots of hacks in there: custom Map Box maps, hand-drawn shaped using Geojson.js, custom shapes for the 2 big globe spheres.
- Also created a separate path chart to display all routes pairs using Origin/destination lat/Lon coordinates.
- The bottom bart chart displaying the Running total, ie 5.1M of people that had been taken away really struck me. This huge number is not something you realised loking at the original plate.
Challenge05: Race Amalgamation in Georgia (plate 13), March 4 (Tableau Public)
“Race Amalgamation in Georgia” is a single bold monolith of a stacked bar chart, showing the ethnic make-up of people of color in Georgia, using literal colors to describe them (Black, Brown, and Yellow).
Reflections:
- Very simple bar chart, very powefull, vibrant colors.
- Used again shape fill hack to get closer to the orginal colors.
Challenge06: Amalgamation of the White and Black elements of the population in the United States (plate 54), March 11 (Tableau Public)
“The Amalgamation of the White and Black Elements of population in the United States”, the mountain-like area chart shows how the gradient of racial identities changed between 1800 and 1890.
Reflections:
- Again lost of hacking there with extra sheets.
- A few elements in the original plate I could not replicate but to time constraints.
Challenge07: Illiteracy of the American Negro compared with other nations (plate 47), March 18 (Tableau Public)
“Illiteracy of American Negroes compared with that of other nations” shows Black American’s illiteracy in red, in the middle of a sea of green, higher than countries like France, but better than others like Russia.
Reflections:
- Beautiful 2 colors chart, red works really well to attract attention on the USA bar.
- Didnt have time to apply the fill shape effect here.
- Added labels/scale to the chart to make it easier to read, I think that was missing from the original chart.
Challenge08: The Rise of Negroes from Slavery to Freedom in One Generation (plate 50), March 25 (Tableau Public)
“Uses two stacked bars to show how a group of people, largely enslaved in 1860, transformed into a group where nearly one-fifth owned their own farms and homes in the face of discrimination, and without state aid.“
Reflections:
- Ran out of time to complete and create the fine lines that link the 2 charts
- Filled effect applied as it is easy to create on thsi kind of stacked bar.
- The original chart 19% in 1890 was not at scale, so I applied the more correct scaling.
Challenge09: Proportion of Freemen and Slaves (plate 51), April 1 (Tableau Public)
“With the green waters of Freedom plunging down a waterfall set on the dark base of slavery, “Proportion of Freeman and Slaves Among American Negroes” shows number of enslaved and free from 1790 to 1870.“
Reflections:
- An other simple and not simple chart to re-create with Tableau.
- Beautiful green, black colors and use of labels applied to tell a strong story.
Reflections:
- Who would have thought that rotating a pie chart in Tableau would be so complicated! Had to do some data hacking (thanks Raisa Hannus for the idea!)
- The US map above was a bit tricky too, as states are this time dont really match US states now, so the map is approximative.
Overall Reflections:
- As a first timer, it was a privilege to participate. I learned quite a few data visualisation, Tableau and Mapbox tricks, but more so, I learned heaps about US history and slavery at this time.
- Thanks you to the Dataviz Society and Antony Stark for hosting this challenge.
- I’m also thrilled to have been awarded a Top Contributor Award for having completed the 10 weeks!.
And 10 weeks in one Tableau Public gallery (Tableau Public link)
Data Visual.blog 
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