1900: DuBois Photographs

Atlanta University Professor of Sociology W.E.B. DuBois collected these photos of black life in Georgia for the 1900 Paris Exposition – he intended that the visitor would find “several volumes of photographs of typical Negro faces, which hardly square with conventional American ideas.”

Below, a selection sorted by major themes:

Scenes of Education:

“Four African American Women Seated on Steps of Building at Atlanta University, Georgia”

“Kindergarten at Haines Normal and Industrial Institute”

“Class in Calculus”

Upperclass black life:

“Home of Bishop Turner”

“Home of Bishop Gaines”

“Home of Mr. Nash”

“Home of Bishop Holsey”

“African American man (doctor?), carrying small leather bag, standing on steps to residence, horse-drawn carriage in the foreground”

“African American man standing on porch of house in Georgia”

“House of an African American lawyer, Atlanta”

“African American man giving piano lesson to young African American woman”

Portraits:

“Young African American Woman, half-length portrait”

“Young African American Woman, three quarter length portrait”

“Bazoline Estelle Usher, Atlanta University student”

“Three African American girls”

Church:

“African American men, women and children outside of church”

“African Americans posed outside of church”

“African Americans in church in Georgia”

“African American women holding umbrellas to provide shade from the sun, with two men, and with a building (church or meeting house)”

“Members of the First Congregational Church, Atlanta”

“Exterior view of church with group of African Americans standing on steps in Georgia”

“African American men and women standing outside Church”

Stats:

“The Georgia Negro: Family Budgets”

“The Georgia Negro: Occupations of Negroes and Whites in Georgia”

“The Georgia Negro: Condition of 300 Negro Farm tenants after 1 year’s toil, 1898”

“The Georgia Negro: Income and Expenditures of 150 Negro families in Atlanta”

“The Georgia Negro: Number of Negro Students taking the various courses of study offered in Georgia Schools”

Life in Georgia:

“Interior of Grocery Store in Georgia”

“African American family standing in a yard”

“Houses along unpaved road in Georgia”

“Two African American men in horse-drawn carriage and two standing alongside”

“Two African American children sitting on steps to porch”

“Three women and one man hoeing in field”

“African Americans and horse-drawn wagon in front of country store, two women standing on balcony”

“Nine African American women, full length portrait, seated on steps of building at Atlanta University, Georgia”

“African Americans standing on sidewalk in front of house in Georgia”

“African American boy seated on porch of house, another African American boy standing with bicycle on porch of another house, with two young African American women on steps, Georgia”

“Two African American women with two girls and a dog in backyard“

“African American baseball players from Morris Brown College, with boy and another man standing at door, Atlanta, Georgia”