| "The
Problem of the Twentieth Century is the Problem of the Color Line."
--W. E. B. Du Bois
"The
problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line."
These words are among the most prophetic in American history. They were
written by the historian and sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois for the Exhibit
of American Negroes displayed at the 1900 Paris Exposition. They are
words whose force has echoed throughout this century.1
This digital archive/exhibit is an attempt at an historical reconstruction.
It tries as much as possible, within the limitations of the documents
that have survived, to recreate and interpret the Exhibit of American
Negroes at the 1900 Paris Exposition--an exhibit that was on display
for a few brief months, at the dawn of the twentieth century.
The reconstruction attempted here is by definition imperfect.
Although
the great majority of the material from the exhibit survives, important
parts were lost--in particular the physical artifacts of the exhibit.
The Exhibit of American Negroes was a collaborative creation of Black
colleges and universities and the Library of Congress. The driving force
behind the exhibit was the Black sociologist and historian William Edgar
Burghardt Du Bois.2 He described
the materials sent to Paris as:
...an honest straightforward exhibit of a small nation of people, picturing
their life and development without apology or gloss, and above all made
by themselves. In a way this marks an era in the history of the Negroes
of America. 3
 The
Exhibit of American Negroes, part of Group XVI (Economie Sociale
Congres), was displayed in a large, plain white building along the banks
of the Seine, opposite the Rue des Nations. According to Du Bois, the
building and its exhibits were intended to:
...have housed the world's ideas of sociology. As a matter of fact,
any one who takes his sociology from theoretical treatises would be
rather disappointed at the exhibit: for there is little here of the
`science of society.' 4
Instead, according to DuBois, most of the exhibits were a miscellany
of different aspects of philanthropy and programs intended for social
improvement. Exhibits were included on the building and mutual aid societies
of France; the working-man's circles from Belgium; the city governments
of Sweden; the Red Cross; and Germany's state insurance program.5
In the United States section of the building there were models of tentement
houses, a small exhibit of the American Library Association, as well
as various exhibits related to industrial regulation.6
In the right hand corner of the American exhibit, just as one entered,
was the Exhibit of American Negroes, which perhaps more than any other
display in Group XVI, reflected an attempt to develop an exhibit of
scientific sociology. The intention of the exhibit, as described by
Du Bois, was:
...to give, in as systematic and compact a form as possible, the history
and present condition of a large group of human beings.7
The exhibit was "planned and executed by Negroes, and collected
and installed under the direction of a Negro special agent, Mr. Thomas
J. Calloway."8
The purpose of the exhibit was fourfold: first, it was concerned with
showing the history of the American Negro; second, it attempted to decribe
"his present condition;" third, "his education;"
and fourth "his literature."9
The Exhibit of American Negroes
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