W.E.B. Du Bois (February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American sociologist, socialist, historian and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist (Source: Wikipedia). At the 1900 Paris Exposition, his team made a historical display. They presented in many charts the situation of Black people in Georgia and the US in general. To draw the attention of passersby, they balanced bold aesthetics with elegant solutions for better readability.
The timelessness of these posters provoked Anthony Starks, Allen Hillery, Sekou Tyler, and Chimdi Nwosu to create and mantain the
#DuBoisChallenge. The proposal was to reproduce Du Bois posters with any tools whatsoever. So, I chose ggplot2
and its many extensions. Furthermore, I used this opportunity to present data on racial inequality and Black achievements in my homeland, Brazil.
Compare the pairs of pieces (from Du Bois' and myself), see which packages were used, and download the data and high-resolution versions of the plots. Access at the Du Bois Gallery
These are the fonts I used:
- Teko font: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/www/fonts/Teko.ttf
- Font Awesome 6 Brands: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/www/fonts/FA6brands.ttf
- Font Awesome 6 Solid: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/www/fonts/FA6solid.ttf
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2024/week06/week06.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1769700309545165038
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2024/week05/week05.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1766445893258014994
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2024/week03/week03.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1761437253446803615
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2024/week01/week01.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1754821135126917301
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2023/week10/week10.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1645542687142027265
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2023/week09/week09.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1643638826386980868
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2023/week08/week08.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1640354194895917059
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2023/week07/week07.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1638187571271331840
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2023/week06/week06.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1636375321523154945
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2023/week05/week05.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1633109934890991616
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2023/week04/week04.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1630575810380804100
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2023/week03/week03.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1629131002743250945
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2023/week02/week02.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1625930883755540496
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2023/week01/week01.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1646694577183637506
Week 10 - Proportion of Blacks and non-Blacks candidates and elected for the Lower House of the Brazilian Congress
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2022/week10/week10.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1514299766271721475
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2022/week09/week09.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1511072124357775367
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2022/week08/week08.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1508975839618215940
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2022/week07/week07.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1506334651538972681
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2022/week06/week06.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1503890070029451270
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2022/week05/week05.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1501323176088780800
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2022/week04/week04.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1498459321243475968
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2022/week03/week03.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1496229656902926336
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2022/week02/week02.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1493768750755041285
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2022/week01/week01.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1516517164727119877
💻 Code: https://github.com/IcaroBernardes/webdubois/blob/main/2022/week00/week00.R
🌍 Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/IcaroBSC/status/1491559819656024071
💬 About this plot: The first plot I did was for both the TidyTuesday and the Du Bois Challenge. They provided us with data about pilots from the Tuskgee Airmen. Seeing the data and the originals from Du Bois, I decided to make a line plot of the number of enemy planes downed by the pilots. The poster I took inspiration from had two periods represented by one line completely in black and another with black borders and the same color as the paper. ggplot
lines geometries (like line, step, etc.) do not have a "border" option. Since I didn't know about ggborderline
, I had to give the illusion of a border to my lines. I created this illusion by placing two lines in the same coordinates, one thicker in black behind another that was lighter and had the background color. Then, I browsed Wikipedia to find context about the numbers of the Tuskgee. These labels were glued to the poster in the original, so the grid is hidden behind them. ggtext
helped me to replicate this effect by creating a box behind the texts in the background color. To make the grid I created a sequence of lines in red and colored the first and last in black. Same thing for the legend in the left. The most interesting detail in it is the repeated icon for the "downed planes". For that I used emojifont
.