Editorial Board:
Editor:
George H. Conklin,
 North Carolina
 Central University

Board:
Rebecca Adams,
 UNC-Greensboro

Bob Davis,
 North Carolina
 Agricultural and
 Technical State
 University

Catherine Harris,
 Wake Forest
 University

Ella Keller,
 Fayetteville
 State University

Ken Land,
 Duke University

Miles Simpson,
 North Carolina
 Central University

Ron Wimberley,
 N.C. State University

Robert Wortham,
 North Carolina
 Central University

Editorial Assistants

John W.M. Russell,
 Technical
 Consultant

Austin W. Ashe,
 Duke University

® 

Volume 8, Number 1

Spring/Summer 2010

Du Bois and Frazier:  A Sociological Look at the Quality of Life in the Black Family in America

by

Cassandra Walston

North Carolina Central University

    The U.S. Bureau of the Census (2008) defines a family as "any two or more related people living in the same household". The family can also be defined as a set of people related to each other by blood, marriage, or adoption.  One of the primary functions of the family is to reproduce persons, biological, and socially (Rice 1996). However, the family unit's makeup has been defined and redefined over and over again. This paper focuses on the African American family by addressing early studies on the Black family by W.E.B. Du Bois and E. Franklin Frazier. W.E.B. Du Bois ([1899],1996;1908) examined the Black family in his sociological work in the early 1900's and found that there were negative contributing factors that determined the state of the Black family at the time.

    Africans were brought to this country as slaves and forced into slavery. They were stripped of their culture and beliefs and robbed of their heritage. They were taught the ways of the white man and expected to assimilate while only being able to obtain limited rights. During slavery Blacks had an intimate relationship with the slave owner's family. The Slave, while being the property of the owner, was in some instances considered a part of the owner's family. Slaves spoke the language of the slave holder, went to the master's churches, interacted with other white family members, and took the sir name of the master (Du Bois 1908). However as stricter slave and emancipation laws were enforced, these laws pushed freedom further away from Blacks making it harder to obtain upward mobility. The inability of the Negro to escape from a servile caste into political freedom turned the problems of the group into problems of family life (Du Bois 1908).

    Following emancipation the free Black population increased through five sources: (1) children born of free colored persons; (2) mulatto children born of free colored mothers; (3) mulatto children born of white servants or free women; (4) children of free Negro and Indian parentage; (5) manumitted slaves (Frazier 1932). Traditional African group life was abruptly broken by the slave ship. Freemen were pushed into a world that they had never experienced. They were uneducated; they did not have money or any real place to go. They had no resources, and they no longer had the protection of their slave owners. These conditions redefined the Black experience. At this point in history there was still no real sense of a family structure. Once free, Blacks were not given full political, economic, and social rights. These types of discrimination lead to further economic and educational problems as well as problems with social mobility. For Du Bois ([1898] 2009) these factors were part of the "Negro problems". Black development in group life was abruptly broken off by the slave ship, directed into abnormal channels and dwarfed by the Black Codes. These codes imposed severe restrictions on freed slaves such as prohibiting their right to vote, forbidding them to sit on juries, limiting their right to testify against white men, prohibiting the carrying of weapons in public places, and working in certain occupations (Du Bois 1908).

    In "The Study of the Negro Problems" Du Bois (1898) outlined an empirically based plan to study of the social problems impacting Blacks at the time. Du Bois was searching for the unbiased truth about African and Black experiences in the United States. Du Bois ([1898]2009) defined a social problem as the failure of an organized social group to realize its group ideals  based on the adoption of desired lines of action to given conditions of life. Du Bois provided an in-depth look at the "Negro Problems" and Black quality of life in his classic sociological study of  Urban life, The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study ([1899] 1996). This book was one of the earliest sociological works to combine the use of urban ethnography, social history, and descriptive statistics (Anderson 1996). The following sections on family size, income, family life and crime provide a more defined look at Black family life in Philadelphia's Seventh Ward. 

Family Size

    There were 7,751 persons who were members of families and 1,924 single lodgers in the Seventh Ward in 1896-97. The average family size without lodgers and boarders was 3.18 persons (Du Bois [1899] 1996). In the Seventh Ward, families took in lodgers and boarders to help supplement their income and assist in paying rent. Du Bois found it to be common when surveying the residences to find several households with strangers living among the families. He noted that this made it difficult to count family size. Du Bois decided to include all parties living in the households as part of the family size. As the data were collected, Du Bois ([1899]1996) found that many of the residents of the Seventh Ward were from the South. These Southerners worked and lodged in Philadelphia while sending money back to their families in the South.

    Family size in the cities was smaller than in rural areas. People married later in life, and this helped keep family size in check. In The Philadelphia Negro, Du Bois documented how the ages of the family members varied from household to household. Few of the better class of males or females could expect to get married early in life, and it was argued that the average size of the Black family would decrease until Black economic well-being could keep pace with the demands of a rising standard of living.

    The research on family size in the Seventh Ward indicated that a large number (58%) of the two person households were couples that were unwed and cohabitating. As one looks at these statistics, one realizes that there were several factors that affected the Negro community in the Seventh Ward. While birth and marriage rates in this area were steadily, poor living conditions, lack of resources, health disparities, and inequality all impacted Black family life.

Income

    Blacks living in the Seventh Ward were disproportionally poor. Nineteen percent of the Black families on average earned five dollars or less per week. Forty-eight percent earned between five dollars and ten dollars a week and twenty-six percent earned between ten and fifteen dollars per week. Only eight percent of the participants surveyed earned over fifteen dollars per week (Du Bois [1899]1996). Du Bois ([1899]1996) noted that problems were associated with the collection of these data. These problems included the way people defined earnings, the consistency of employment, and how to count the number of people in each household. Since people of low economic status did not know how much money they made per year, Du Bois attempted to break income down by number of weeks worked. He also looked at the occupations of the respondents and noticed that some of the salaries were based on a well-known scale of prices.

    Du Bois then compared the results of the income data for the Seventh Ward to that collected by Charles Booth for London. Du Bois found that the percentage of families in extreme poverty in London and among the Blacks of the Seventh Ward were similar (8.4% of families in London and 8.9% of families in the Seventh Ward). However, in London 22.3 % of the families were classified as poor to fair; whereas, in the Seventh Ward, 57.4 % of families were classified as poor to fair. Families considered "comfortable" in London accounted for 51.5% of all families, but in the Seventh Ward only 25.5% of Black families was considered to be living in a comfortable manner. London's middle and upper class families outnumbered those in the Seventh Ward by more than a two-to-one margin (17.8% verses 8.2%).

    Considering the cost of living in relationship to the average family's income, Du Bois ([1899] 1996) found that most Black families were just breaking even. He looked at a case in the Seventh Ward where one family, which was a hard working labor class Black family, consisting of a man who earned $150 per year, his wife who earned $180 per year, and their son who earned $125 per year. The family also took in boarders who helped pay the yearly living expense of $264 per year. Food cost about $190 annually, while fuel cost $35 and clothing cost $134 per year. Adding all these items, one discovers that the family's yearly earning was $455 and their expenses were $ 455 per year.

    Du Bois demonstrated that many Blacks worked only to survive. Another case that Du Bois reported involved a mother and daughter who both worked. Their total yearly expenditure was $683. It is said that this couple was able to put away money and that they were better off than most others in the Seventh Ward.  However, even the people who made a better living lacked job opportunities, security, and stability (Du Bois [1899] 1996).

    In many instances the Black families proportionately spent more than whites on rent, dress, and entertainment. High rents, poor foods, clothing that were priced outside their means, and furnishings that were extravagant were just a few things that impacted the quality of Black family life in the Seventh Ward. According to Du Bois ([1899] 1996) Black families had much to learn about living within one's means, saving money, and avoiding excessive and wasteful expenditures.

Family Life

    In The Philadelphia Negro, Du Bois ([1899]1996) talked about how the concept of the monogamist home was new to Blacks. Cohabitation was a common practice in the absence of legal marriage. The number of single parent households was increasing, and children were growing up without fathers. Children lacked adequate supervision, and alleys and sidewalks became the primary agents for the socialization of children. Furthermore, when men were not able to find jobs that paid enough to support a family, women had to go out and find work. Du Bois described how women were sometimes forced to go far from their homes to find work. These women were often gone for long periods at a time leaving the children unattended. When the children were left unattended, they had a tendency to get into mischief. This mischief often involved the destruction of property. These factors contributed to landlords charging higher rents. Tenants became reluctant to take in boarders because some male lodgers took inappropriate actions with female children that had been left at home alone. There were also reports of husbands taking advantage of female lodgers that might rent from a boarding family.

    Du Bois also, noted that there were few neighborhood and family gatherings among the Negroes during these times. The lack of social gatherings might have been due to a lack of disposable income or resources. People may have been unable to attend such social functions because they had to work to insure survival. The Black Church seemed to be the only real social outlet for Blacks in the Seventh Ward. People would go to church in their best clothes on Sunday. They would go to church for Christmas, Thanksgiving, family festivals, and other special events to fellowship. The home was destroyed by slavery, struggled after emancipation, and was being neglected among urban Blacks (Du Bois [1899]1996).

Crime 

    Crime was an aspect of the "Negro problems" that affected everyone in the community. Crime was viewed as an outcome of social disorganization (Du Bois [1899]1996). Economic problems, educational problems, and problems involving social morality made it more difficult for Black men to earn a living or spend their earnings as they pleased. These problems resulted in poorer schools and restricted contact with cultured classes. These factors contributed to discontent, lawlessness, laziness, and injustice.

    The data that Du Bois ([1899] 1996) collected on the Seventh Ward indicated that an increase in the number of Blacks arrested occurred as a large number of Blacks began migrating into the Seventh Ward. Du Bois also noted that, while the general educational attainment level of the Black community had increased, education alone failed to stop crime in the face of other powerful factors, such as poverty, lack of resources, and oppression. According to Du Bois ([1899]1996), crime occurred as a result of misdirected intelligence under severe economic and moral strain. The types of crimes committed in the Seventh Ward that were most commonly reported were theft, fighting, arguing, and gambling. Du Bois later discussed the fact that alcohol and the lack of resources could be correlated with crime in Black communities.

    According to E. Franklin Frazier (1932), the transition from slavery to freedom required a change in the physical organization of a plantation that had been adapted to gang labor under the direction of an overseer. Slave rows were broken up, and tenant houses were scattered over the plantation in order that each family might carry on an independent existence. Emancipated Blacks often called the overseer, the "supertender." The overseer was an unsatisfactory agent because each man felt that a natural desire to be his own "boss."

    For the first time in the history of the country, Black men were in a position of authority over their families because of new economic arrangements. Frazier, like Du Bois wrote about how Blacks moved from the South to the North primarily to escape the prejudice and discrimination experienced in the South and to find work and a better life through education and opportunities.  Frazier (1932) discovered that the general character of the Black community had been determined by the same economic and cultural forces that had shaped the organization and the larger society. Typical patterns emerged because of competition for land and other resources as the population increased and the city expanded. In The Negro Family in the United States, Frazier (1932) documented the move of Blacks after emancipation to the Northern areas in order to find work, resources, and other opportunities that they were not offered in the South. As the migration of Blacks occurred, the population of New York, Maryland, Chicago and Philadelphia grew. 

Income

    While Frazier did not discuss income in detail in The Negro Family in the United States (1932), he did note the tendency on the part of the higher occupational class to move toward the periphery of the Black community and fit into the general pattern of the larger society. The Black middle class of the 1920's and 1930's was more educated. They were going to college or sending their children off to college. This new class of Blacks was also making enough money in the 1930's to become home owners. They were able to throw lavish get togethers at their homes, play cards, and socialize outside of the church setting. This family was more conservative with their spending than Blacks had been in the past. Spouse ties were stronger, and men were responsible for taking care of the formal needs of the family while women at home and took care of the children.

Family Life

    In Northern cities the fertility rate for Blacks was low. The percentage of Black homes with no children under ten in 1930 ranged from 28.5% in rural-farm communities to 52.5% in communities of 250,000 and more population. The data suggested that Black women living in cities had lower fertility rates, had limited job opportunities, and made a conscious choice not to have children (Frazier, 1932).

    In Chicago and Harlem, Black businesses seemed to be on an upward swing. Blacks controlled almost all the businesses providing personal services and other types of enterprises not requiring large amounts of capital. Blacks here were not as likely to be property owners or controllers of assets because they were unable to secure large amounts of capital (Frazier 1932).

    In 1935 there were several Blacks insurance companies and two Black newspapers in Harlem. Harlem at this time was the center of Black political and cultural life. Social life consisted of political clubs, fraternal organizations, health centers, libraries and churches. Blacks in Harlem engaged in a large variety of social activities (Frazier 1932).

    Frazier (1932) looked closely at Black quality of life, and his research uncovered some social problems within the family that were not very easy to see from the surface. Family desertion has been one of the inevitable consequences of the urbanization of the Black population. Family structure was weakened when the unit was broken. Men were leaving their families to find better jobs, new opportunities, new adventures, and military service. Some of these men had every intention of coming back to their families when they left. However, the draw of the city proved fatal to family ties. In Northern cities with a total population of 100,000 or more from 10 to 30 percent of Black families were headed by females (Frazier 1932). The lack of help made it hard for females in this situation to earn a living; it limited the type of life-style the family could enjoy because women had to satisfy financial and care giving roles.

Conclusion

    Du Bois and Frazier studied the Black family from a perspective that integrated sociological and historical analysis. Du Bois and Frazier analyzed the progression of the Black family from slavery to emancipation to the Jim Crow era. In the late 1890's Du Bois looked at the social structure of the Black community and painted a picture of a group of people who were uneducated, unhappy, sickly, poverty stricken, isolated, and trying to survive. The social problems that Du Bois called, "The Negro Problems," primarily existed in the community because of a lack of self-sufficiency that could be attributed to discrimination, inequality, competition, and lack of resources.

    Frazier addressed the economic concerns of the Black family in his work, but he provided a more positive spin. Frazier documented a change  in the 1920's -1930's that showed upward mobility, more educational attainment,  property ownership, better jobs, better living conditions, and a less segregated environment in the North. While Frazier talked about social problems that affected Blacks during these times, he, like Du Bois, argued that many of the issues confronting the Black family were an outcome of the legacy of slavery.

    The social problems that have affected and continue to impact the Black family have been studied by many scholars. Moynihan (1965) reported that the Black community was a "tangle of pathology" and that at the heart of this was the deterioration of the Black Family. He felt that the major problem in the Black community was the large number of young Blacks growing up in mother centered families without the helpful influence of two parents. Andrew Billingsley (1968) believes that a "strong family life" and a person's experiences are the keys to upward mobility.

    In many respects the social issues impacting Black quality of life that were identified by Du Bois and Frazier continue to affect the Black community today. Crime, inequality, and poverty are still major factors impacting Black quality of life. 

Anderson, Elijah. 1996. "Introduction".  In The Philadelphia Negro, W.E.B. Du Bois, ix-xxxvi. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Billingsley, Andrew. 1968. Black Families in White America, Englewood Cliffs. NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Du Bois, W.E.B. [1898] 2009. "The Study of the Negro Problems".  In W.E.B. Du Bois and the Sociological Imagination: A Reader; 1897-1914, edited and introduction by Robert Wortham, 33-50 . Waco, TX: Baylor University Press.

______. [1899] 1996. The Philadelphia Negro. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 

______. 1908. The Negro Family. Atlanta: Atlanta University Press 

Frazier, Franklin E. 1932. The Free Negro Family. Nashville, TN: Fisk University Press. 

Moynihan, D.P. 1965. The Negro Family: The Case National Action. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office. 

Rice, F.P. 1996. Intimate Relationships, Marriages, and Families (3rd ed). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company.

U.S. Census Bureau. 2008. Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division, Fertility and Family Statistics Branch Family. Http://www.census.gov/population/www/cps/cpsdef.html