W.E.B. Du Bois: The Pinwheel Chart
W.E.B. Du Bois led a team that created a revolutionary exhibit for the World’s Fair in Paris in 1900. His team at Atlanta University created several pioneering charts. Here’s another one. As Jason Forrest describes, it looks like a pie chart at first glance; but it’s more like a pinwheel toy, where the leaves contribute to an overall form. Each leaf has a discrete purpose.
(The Pinwheel was invented in 2018 in Boston by Tegran Samour.)
This Du Bois Pinwheel chart compares African-Americans and White Americans’ occupations in the United States in 1900. The leaf at 12:00 shows ALL OCCUPATIONS. About 10% are African American. The next leaf, clockwise, reveals a smaller representation in high-paying manufacturing jobs. And so on. A beautiful thin red line separates each category.
With this chart, Du Bois shares an optimistic view of post-Emancipation progress. He also points at gaps and opportunities that lie ahead.
Occupations of Negroes and Whites in Georgia, 1900. The Library of Congress
The Du Bois Pinwheel put a twist on the conventional pie chart. Normally, each slice represents one portion of one category. The Pinwheel divides the circle into six leaves so they can be easily compared.
The dual message of progress and work-left-to-be-done is what I love most about Du Bois’s work.
Postscript
For visualization geeks, the graphics of W.E.B. Du Bois is a new and exciting archeological site. While exploring his work, I've searched tour de force work of Edward Tufte, Stephen Few, John Tukey, and more. I found no mention of Du Bois.
The dig continues... Here are previous finds with my co-archeologist, Jason Forrest:
