W.E.B. Du Bois and the Exhibit of American Negroes

How a racist oversight led to one of the most amazing looks at Black life ever created

In 1893, the “World’s Fair: Columbian Exposition” was held in Chicago to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the New World. It was intended to showcase the technological prowess and financial might of the United States of America. Several cities across the country engaged in an intense bidding war for the right to host the exhibition with prominent local citizens pledging millions of dollars. The House of Representatives itself ultimately awarded the exhibition to Chicago after eight intense rounds of voting, aided no doubt by Chicago banker Lyman Gage’s seven million dollar pledge over and above New York’s own fifteen million dollar one. Gage’s investment paid off. By almost any metric, this monument to American enterprise was a huge success with the event running for over six months, shattering multiple outdoor attendance records, and so impacting the psyche of the city that it is commemorated to this day as one of the four stars on Chicago’s municipal flag. There was, however, one glaring oversight.

The Reason Why the Colored American Is Not in the World’s Columbian Exposition

The oversight was best expressed by activist, educator, and founding member of the NAACP Ida B. Wells in a blistering pamphlet she wrote titled “The Reason Why the Colored…