The Georgia Negro: A Social Study - Graph shows increases and decreases of property owned by African Americans in Georgia between 1870 and 1900 [LCCN2013650441]
The pattern
This still is filed under Data as proof.
Define
A chart, map, or count that is the argument, not an illustration next to the argument.
Mechanism
Sighted evidence. The reader is asked to believe their eyes: a bar, a share, a spread on a map.
Verdict
The claim is comparative or quantitative and the figure can be read without a caption doing the sell.
Why it works
This is a line chart converted into an argument by annotation. The data line states what happened; the hand-lettered events placed on top of the curve assign cause, and because the labels sit inside the plot rather than in a legend the reader cannot separate the two readings. The line's extreme weight makes the shape legible at exhibition distance while the annotations reward close reading, so one sheet works at two viewing ranges. Setting KU-KLUXISM and FINANCIAL PANIC vertically at the two moments the curve breaks turns typography into a timeline marker. The separate DOLLARS column, ruled like a measuring stick and left mostly unlabelled, keeps the plot field clear for the argument.
Steal this when
Use this when a metric's turning points are caused by events outside the team's control and you need that on the record. Put the events in the plot field at the exact x-position of each inflection, and let the reader draw the causal line themselves.