How Bessie Stringfield, 1930s woman of adventure, could have used Tableau.

Bessie Stringfield, the first African American woman to ride solo across the United States on a motorcycle in the 1930s, faced many challenges during her travels, including finding a place to stay overnight. To overcome this challenge, she could have used Tableau, a powerful data visualization tool, to analyze which towns would provide her with a place to stay overnight. Here is how she could have done this.

1. Data Collection: To start with, Bessie would have needed to collect data about the towns she planned to visit. This data could include information about the population, economic status, racial demographics, and the availability of lodging options. She could have gathered this data from various sources, including libraries, news articles, and travel guides.
2. Data Cleaning and Preparation: Once Bessie had collected the data, she would have needed to clean and prepare it for analysis. This could involve removing missing or incorrect values, converting data into a consistent format, and aggregating data into meaningful categories. this is usually an onerous task, but well worth the time invested as it makes your viz clearer and more understandable.
3. Data Analysis: Bessie could have used Tableau to analyze the data and identify which towns would provide her with a place to stay overnight. She could have used various data visualization techniques, such as bar charts, histograms, and scatter plots, to understand the relationship between different variables and make informed decisions about which towns to visit.
4. Creating Dashboards: Bessie could have created interactive dashboards in Tableau to view and analyze the data in a more user-friendly manner. For example, she could have created a dashboard that showed the distribution of population by race and economic status, and used this information to determine which towns would be more likely to have lodging options that would accommodate her.
5. Data Sharing: Bessie could have shared her findings and insights with others in her network, such as other motorcycle riders or members of the African American community. She could have created a Tableau public account and published her dashboards (if websites also exist in this parallel universe I am imagining), allowing others to access and use the information she had gathered.

By using Tableau to analyze the data, Bessie could have made more informed decisions about where to stay overnight during her travels, reducing the risk of being turned away or facing discrimination. Bessie’s bravery amazes me. She could have also created a valuable resource for other travelers, especially members of the African American community, who faced similar challenges during their travels.

Yes, it seems that Tableau could have been a valuable tool for Bessie Stringfield in her cross-country travels, helping her to overcome the challenges she faced and providing her with a more accurate picture of the towns she planned to visit. I like to think of her cruising down the road on a 1934 Indian Scout, a favorite motorcycle of that time. It was a nimble and powerful machine, with a sleek and streamlined design, and a powerful engine that made it a favorite among adventurous riders like Bessie.

When I first read about Bessie Stringfield, I marveled at how she just took her own destiny into her own hands and cast aside society’s restrictions on women, especially black women. There are many women in history that we do not hear about who achieved inspiring accomplishments. Sometimes I feel like we just hear about Rosa Parks and a few others. Parks was very brave but riding a motorcycle solo across the country in the 1930s deserves at least an honorable mention for bravery and derring-do.

Years ago, I decided to buy a van camper and live in it. I spent many hours driving up and down up the East Coast. Once I drove all the way up the Taconic Parkway in upstate New York. This is a thrilling mountainous highway, especially in the middle of winter. I feel now that the spirit of Bessie Stringfield was within me, just a little. During the time I was driving my mother complimented me on my bravery. And if you know my mother you would know that getting praise out of her was an accomplishment.

By using data visualization and interactive dashboards, she could have made more informed decisions, and created a resource for others to benefit from. It would have been great! I am Sharon, and I tutor data analysis to college students on zoom. Let me know if you would like a session.