★ Plate No. VII · Volume I · The Du Bois Reappraisal ★

The Doctorates of
the Nation, 2023

Les doctorats décernés aux États-Unis et la part du Nègre, 2023
Doctoral Degrees Awarded at United States Institutions
All doctoral degrees awarded, 2023 among which the Negro is numbered 55,000 All doctorates 2,800 Black doctorates (5.1%) 1,100 Black STEM (2.0%) 500 Black CS / Engineering (0.9%) ( no axis needed — area is proportional to count — the eye does the math )
Four squares, each drawn to scale. The outer square contains all fifty-five thousand doctoral degrees awarded in the United States in 2023. The innermost red square — Black computer science and engineering doctorates — is so small it nearly vanishes inside the field. No axis is needed. The area is the argument.

★ The Finding ★

0.9% of all PhDs
In 2023, of all doctoral degrees awarded in the United States, approximately five hundred went to Black scholars in computer science and engineering. Du Bois was the seventh Black PhD in the nation in 1895. One hundred twenty-eight years later, the entire annual production of Black doctoral engineers and computer scientists would not fill a single lecture hall.

★ The Underlying Data ★

Category Count Share Source
All doctorates ~55,000 100% NSF Survey of Earned Doctorates, 2023
Black doctorates ~2,800 ~5.1% NSF Survey of Earned Doctorates, 2023
Black STEM doctorates ~1,100 ~2.0% NSF Survey of Earned Doctorates, 2023
Black CS / Engineering ~500 ~0.9% NSF SED + CRA Taulbee Survey

Method Note

This plate uses nested squares to show part-to-whole relationships without a coordinate axis. The area of each square is proportional to the number it represents: the outer square is all doctorates, and each inner square shrinks by the ratio of its population to the total. The side length of each square is proportional to the square root of its share — so a population that is 5% of the total occupies a square whose side is roughly 22% of the outer square's side. The visual result is that small percentages produce dramatically small squares, which is the point.

Du Bois used proportional area extensively in his 1900 plates — nested rectangles, proportional circles, and scaled blocks. The nested square is a direct descendant of that tradition: the simplest possible geometric comparison, requiring no legend, no axis, and no explanation beyond "look."

This is a preview plate for conversation, drafted April 2026. The production plate for The Du Bois Reappraisal, Volume I will cite exact figures from the most recent published NSF Survey of Earned Doctorates and CRA Taulbee Survey. No figure will appear in the production plate that cannot be traced to a primary source.

★ This plate seeks its patron ★
Commissioned by   — add your name.