"The Exhibit of American Negroes"
A proud display of black culture at the turn of the century
Alex Q. Arbuckle
1900
At the turn of the 20th century, African-American lawyer Thomas Calloway had an idea for an exhibit for the upcoming 1900 World’s Fair in Paris. Writing to over a hundred prominent black Americans, Calloway laid out his vision for a multimedia presentation which would paint a picture of African-American society nearly four decades after the end of slavery. His proposal was heard by Booker T. Washington, who brought it to President William McKinley. With just four months to go before the start of the World’s Fair, Calloway was given Congressional approval and $15,000 to execute the exhibit. To help find, curate and assemble the right content for the exhibit, Calloway recruited Assistant to the Librarian of Congress Daniel Murray and his former Fisk University classmate and prominent intellectual activist W.E.B. Du Bois. The trio quickly assembled a multifaceted exhibit, which included anonymous portraits of “typical” African-Americans, as well as photographs at school, work, church and home. In addition to photographs, the exhibit included books written and patents held by African-Americans, and dozens of charts, graphs and drawings outlining the demographics and economic situation of black people in 1900.
Thousands upon thousands will go [to the fair], and a well selected and prepared exhibit, representing the Negro’s development in his churches, his schools, his homes, his farms, his stores, his professions and pursuits in general will attract attention... and do a great and lasting good in convincing thinking people of the possibilities of the Negro. - Thomas Calloway Exhibit Proposal
Du Bois selected his photographs not as an objective cross-section of black Americans, but as a rebuttal to prevailing representations of black people as inherently inferior or primitive. While the charts and graphs in the exhibit show that most African-Americans were still poor agricultural laborers, the photos prominently feature affluent, educated black people, with a range of hairstyles and sartorial choices.Today, this emphasis on appearance and dress would be considered problematic, a form of “respectability politics,” the conditional linking of inalienable rights like equality and fair treatment to an individual’s fashion, manners, and embracement of dominant values.At the time, however, such images of nattily dressed black people were relatively rare, and one of Calloway’s and Du Bois’ objectives with the hastily assembled exhibit was to convince an elite audience of the worth and accomplishments of black Americans, even if that meant engaging in respectability politics.In April 1900, "The Exhibit of American Negroes” opened in the Palace of Social Economy at the World’s Fair. In the course of its eight-month run, it was visited by over 50 million people.
