Deconstructing Power: W.E.B. Du Bois at the 1900 World’s Fair

A review of the Cooper Hewitt exhibit.

Deconstructing Power exhibit at Cooper Hewitt Museum is now showing througn May 29, 2023.

To all the fans of W.E.B. Du Bois and his data visualizations, I encourage you to check out the Deconstructing Power exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Museum. Cooper Hewitt’s mission is to educate, inspire and empower people through design. If there is any work that managed to accomplish that at the turn of the 20th century, it was Du Bois’ exhibit for the 1900 World’s Fair.

I recently took my college class to visit the Deconstructing Power exhibit and it was an exciting moment for all of us. We have been studying his sociological approach all semester and recently wrapped up a lecture on his data visualizations for the 1900 World’s Fair. I have been researching and lecturing about Du Bois work for a few years now. The moment we walked past these 22x28 posters hanging up in the hall of Cooper Hewitt was surreal. It made all of my lectures and research tangible.

Photo of the Exhibit of American Negroes at 1900 World’s Fair. Du Bois and his Atlanta University students made 63 hand-drawn diagrams that used shape, line, and color to showcase the success Black Americans had achieved despite facing pervasive racism in the United States and the global community.

As we entered the corridor on the 2nd floor of the Cooper Hewitt museum, the scene was set with a poster of the World’s Fair in Paris. In fact, the Deconstructing Power exhibit reminded us of…