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Volume 3, Number 2
Fall 2005
W.E.B. Du Bois and
His Social-Scientific Research:
A Review of Online Texts
by
Robert W. Williams
Bennett College
In his pursuit of social justice,
W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) used social science as a critical tool. He reiterated
in numerous writings that truth was the touchstone of social-scientific
research. From the truth about the "Negro problems" -- a term from his
era -- would come the knowledge that could inform the efforts of those
in both governmental and private sectors to better the lives of African
Americans and to promote the democratic ideals of the U.S.A. Crucial to
Du Bois' project was the distribution of his social-scientific findings
via many avenues. Despite exclusion in some venues, Du Bois was able to
publish many of his works in academic, governmental, and popular arenas.
At the risk of an anachronistic presumption
I would imagine that the Internet might also serve as a mode of communication
for Du Bois if he were writing in the 21th Century. In that spirit, this
paper has two main goals. The first seeks to highlight Du Bois' works of
social science which are available on the World Wide Web. The second goal
of this essay will sketch the social-scientific importance of those Internet-accessible
works. The increased availability of such primary source materials is a
boon to research on Du Bois as well as his role in the founding of U.S.
social science and his place in movements for social justice here and abroad.
To fulfill the goals this essay will
first briefly outline Du Bois' significance for U.S. social science. Then
the essay will examine Du Bois'
The Philadelphia Negro and "The
Negroes of Farmville, Virginia," as well as the Atlanta University Publications,
many of which he supervised and edited. For each work or set of works I
will indicate the social-scientific significance of the online text(s),
and specify the logistics of accessing them.
Du Bois' Place in U.S. Social Science
Over the last few decades Du Bois has
been increasingly acknowledged as a significant -- indeed, as a founding
-- member of American sociology (Marable 1986: 28 and 2004;
Wortham
2005; E. Wright II 2002a, 2002b, 2005;
Zuckerman 2004) as well as of American criminal justice (Gabbidon 1999).
To extend his status further, Du Bois might also be considered a founder
of the sociology of African American religion. The Negro Church
(1903a),
an Atlanta University publication edited by Du Bois, has become one of
the most frequently cited sources for the study of the place of religion
in early African American life and for the influence of spirituality on
African Americans. Zuckerman writes that t he work "is the first specifically
sociological book-length study of religion published in the United States"
(Zuckerman 2002).
In brief, the importance of Du Bois'
social science lay in its theoretical, methodological, and empirical dimensions,
as Young and Deskins indicated (Young and Deskins 2001). Du Bois' theoretical
dimension involved a quest to understand race as a socio-historical process
and to explain the racial dimensions of African American life chances.
Du Bois' methodological dimensions focused on his use of multiple methodologies:
surveys (interviews), archival work, and field observation. The combination
of methods was intended to reduce error, a major goal of social science
as it developed in the 20th Century. Others have called this Du Bois' "research
triangulation" (see
Wortham
2005; E. Wright II 2002a and 2005).
Du Bois' empirical dimension centered on gathering and interpreting social-scientific
data on race relations and African American experiences in particular places.
Du Bois' primary goal was to gather
data over time via an inductive approach so as generate scientifically
derived knowledge (Du Bois 1904a: 54). Du Bois' secondary goal was to use
social science for reform -- a tenet of his empirical research which was
reinforced by his education in Germany (Barkin 2000; Lemke 2000). Fundamentally,
Du Bois wished to wield social science in ways which would challenge what
he considered to be the inadequate research of "car-window sociologists,"
as he was to call them in The Souls of Black Folk (1903b: ch.
viii). He also hoped to offer accurate information to counter-balance
the misconceptions about, and the negative depictions of, African Americans
which abounded in U.S. popular culture and society.
In an essay entitled "The Study of
the Negro Problems" Du Bois wrote that temporal and spatial variations
were crucial for any adequate study of African Americans (Du Bois 1898c).
This meant that research projects should:
(a) interrogate a prevailing notion of African Americans
as a more-or-less undifferentiated group across the USA and within particular
locales;
(b) delineate the trends of any potential social progress
over time across the USA or in certain locales; and
(c) analyze the societal-historical-political-economic
contexts in which African Americans lived -- contexts which provided both
opportunities but also serious constraints on actions. The three
sets of social-scientific inquiry examined below will exemplify those Du
Boisian research themes.
Du Bois' The Philadelphia Negro
The Progressive Era of America was a time
when many talked of governmental regulations in favor of those disadvantaged
by industrialization and urbanization. It was also a time when personal
moral uplift was suggested as a way to better oneself (Schafer 2001). The
Progressive era also could be characterized by an often paternalistic regard
for the disadvantaged in society. A typical explanation for the conditions
of the disadvantaged was that they possessed "cultural deficits:" the disadvantaged
lacked the skills and education to achieve success in society (Schafer
2001).
To ascertain the conditions of African
Americans in Philadelphia, Du Bois was commissioned to conduct a detailed
study of the chiefly African American Seventh Ward (D.L. Lewis 1993: ch.
8: 188-189). The impetus for the study came from the highly influential
Susan Wharton of the wealthy Philadelphia Whartons. She convinced the University
of Pennsylvania to pursue a study of African Americans in the city. Samuel
McCune Lindsay, as head of that school's Sociology department, then commissioned
Du Bois to conduct the research. Du Bois left Wilberforce College in Ohio,
where he had been teaching, and with his wife moved to the Seventh Ward
in 1896. Du Bois himself acknowledged in his autobiography that he believed
that there were political motives behind the study, but this did not deter
him (Du Bois 1968).
Published in 1899, The
Philadelphia Negro (TPN) has been one of Du Bois' most highly lauded
works. In its scope, TPN provides us with much pioneering research. TPN
presents the first in-depth social-scientific analysis of an African American
urban community (D.L. Lewis 1993: 190; also see Bay 1998; Brueggemann 1997).
For those studying the sociology of religion, Du Bois' survey of Black
churches in Philadelphia is the first conducted for cities (Baer
1998; also see Zuckerman 2002). Significantly for later social scientists,
Du Bois used a range of methods to examine the conditions and life chances
of the people of the Seventh Ward.
Du Bois offered his own assessment
of the findings in The
Philadelphia Negro. In his autobiography, Du Bois wrote about his
study: "It revealed the Negro group as a symptom, not a cause; as a striving,
palpitating group, and not an inert, sick body of crime; as a long historic
development and not a transient occurrence" (Du Bois 1968: ch. xii: 198-199;
also in Du Bois 1940b: ch. 4: 596). Among Du Bois's conclusions were:
(a) the identification of class distinctions among the
African Americans in terms of occupation, income, and world view (TPN:
sec.22:
100; sec.46:
309-311 [Note: the page numbers refer to the print edition]) -- which thereby
challenged a prevailing discourse that Black communities were homogeneous
and undifferentiated; and
(b) Philadelphia as a whole was negatively affected by
the diminished prosperity and economic waste which attended the failure
to hire, because of racial animus, the best skilled and most educated of
the African Americans (TPN: sec.58:
394). The first conclusion was empirically supported by the data,
while the second was more speculative and based indirectly on the skills
of African Americans which were not utilized (or scarcely so) in the overall
Philadelphia economy.
There are at least two significant
facets of The
Philadelphia Negro which can be stressed. First, Du Bois formulated,
in the words of Lewis, a triadic conceptual framework of race, social class,
and economic system (D.L. Lewis 1993: 208). Those three factors were integral
to the social dynamics causing the problematic conditions and experiences
of African Americans in Philadelphia. Racial prejudice, for Du Bois, hindered
even the most skilled, educated, and industrious African Americans from
achieving more than they had already. Yet the intra-race class distinctions
were in part based on how the upper classes of African Americans, according
to Du Bois, were able to survive in a rough capitalist economic system
via their values of hard work, financial thrift, and moral restraint.
Du Bois set forth an overall dynamic
to explain the condition of African Americans in the city through theoretically
linking personal behaviors, attitudes, and world views to a specific socio-economic
context. For Du Bois, the historical legacy of slavery (TPN: sec.21:
97; sec.24:
145; sec.39:
249; sec.43:
284) and persistent racist prejudice in jobs and business (TPN: sec.23:
134; sec.43:
284; sec.47:
350-351; sec.58:
395) resulted in behaviors and attitudes which, he argued, were not conducive
of a productive lifestyle and good work habits (TPN: sec.57:
390-393). In Du Bois' analysis, only the business entrepreneurs and professionals
in the law, the church, and medicine (among a few others) had assimilated
enough of the requisite cultural values which would enable them to prosper
vis-à-vis the working class blacks, even though all African Americans
lived within an encompassing racist environment. (For a critique of Du
Bois' cultural argument in TPN, see Bay 1998; Zuberi 2004 [synopsis
as PDF file]).
Regarding the second significant facet
of TPN, Lewis pointed out that the kernel of Du Bois's concept of the "talented
tenth" (later elaborated in Du Bois 1903c) was found in the Philadelphia
research (D.L. Lewis 1993: 209). In TPN Du Bois examined groups of professionals
and entrepreneurs (TPN: sec.22:
100; sec.46:
311) -- or the "best classes" or the "aristocrats" of African Americans,
as Du Bois termed them (TPN: sec.46:
316-318). Du Bois wrote that they were "distanced" from the masses of African
Americans in Philadelphia by their own desire to set themselves apart from
the others, by their key differences of world view, and by the unpredictable
rigors of the economy which required much attention. Du Bois believed,
however, that the professionals and entrepreneurs should serve the "lowest
classes" (to use his phrase).
The full text of The Philadelphia
Negro can be found at Dr. Larry Ridener's Dead Sociologists' Society
web page. Dr. Ridener is a professor in the Department of Sociology and
Criminal Justice at Pfeiffer University.
Du Bois, W.E.B. 1899. The Philadelphia Negro: A Social
Study. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
URL: http://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/DSS/
DuBois/pntoc.html
Du Bois' The Negroes of Farmville, Virginia: A
Social Study
While still conducting his research in
Philadelphia, Du Bois learned of an opportunity with the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, under the supervision
of Carroll Wright, was in the process of commissioning of studies of African
Americans. The Bureau would eventually sponsor nine studies from 1897 to
1903 (Grossman
1974; D.L. Lewis 1993: 194-197; U.S.
Department of Labor n.d.).
During July and August of 1897 -- taking
two months off from the TPN project -- Du Bois traveled to Farmville, Virginia
to conduct field work using the methods of the Philadelphia research: survey
interviews of African Americans, archival studies of various data housed
locally, and participant observation. While in Farmville Du Bois also studied
the nearby and chiefly African American community of Israel Hill. Du Bois
examined various demographic variables like occupations and wages, conjugal
conditions of marriages and divorces, and the value and amount of property
holdings, family expenditures, among others. The resulting report, entitled
"The Negroes of Farmville, Virginia: a Social Study" (NFVA),
was published in early 1898. David Levering Lewis wrote that such methods
became the "standard" for the methodological approach taken with the Atlanta
University Studies, for which Du Bois was soon to become the coordinator
(D.L. Lewis 1993: 195).
The NFVA study was published before
The
Philadelphia Negro and the Du Boisian-edited Atlanta University
Studies. The significance of the Farmville study, according to David Levering
Lewis (1993: 197), was that Du Bois identified the presence of growing
class distinctions within the African American community and drew attention
to the demographic dynamics associated with increasing industrialization
and urbanization (NFVA:
38 [Note: find the page numbers by scrolling through the web page cited.]).
I would like to further frame the importance
of the work in light of Du Bois' long-standing research project. By studying
various aspects of daily life Du Bois sought to uncover the local conditions
of an African American community (see Du Bois 1898c). Du Bois's emphasis
on demographic factors like occupations, educational attainment, conjugal
conditions, and family expenditures invited readers to glimpse the African
Americans of Farmville in ways other than the negative stereotypes often
depicted in the news and popular culture of the era. Readers were also
challenged in the study with data on Whites from the area and from America
as a whole as well as from several European countries like France, Germany,
Great Britain, Italy, Hungary, and Ireland. Such data invited comparisons
of African Americans in Farmville with population groups both in the same
area and with other countries.
We can read the Farmville study as
asking this question: how really different are African Americans in comparison
with America as a whole? We note, for instance, that the jobs are heavily
concentrated in manufacturing (chiefly, tobacco in Farmville) and domestic/personal
services (NFVA:
16, 19, 21). When compared with the U.S. overall, African Americans
in Farmville were more heavily concentrated in such occupations. Despite
some differences, however, African Americans were developing in many ways
along the lines approved by mainstream White America. For example, Du Bois
wrote about the Black entrepreneurs in the area: "The individual undertaker
of business enterprise is a new figure among Negroes, and his rise deserves
to be carefully watched, as it means much for the future of the race."
(NFVA:
17). On a similar theme Du Bois wrote: "Even to-day the economic importance
of the black population of Farmville has brought many white men to say
'mister' to the preacher and teacher and to raise their hats to their wives."
(NFVA:
21-22). Such was a point also made by Booker T. Washington. African
Americans, said the Wizard of Tuskegee, would earn the respect of Whites
and thereby gain some measures of security by providing economically useful
skills, products, and services (see Washington 1899:
335 and 1901:
202-203).
Moreover, Du Bois noted where he had
observed conditions needing improvement within the African American community.
For example, Du Bois reported that there were no Black doctors or lawyers
in Farmville (NFVA:
16). Readers of the era seeking "racial uplift," as it was called,
might then be prompted to rectify the situation. As a second example, Du
Bois indicated that "[a] considerable number of idlers and loafers shows
that the industrial situation in Farmville is not altogether satisfactory
and that the moral tone of the Negroes has room for great betterment. One
of the principal causes of idleness is the irregular employment." (NFVA:
22). In t hose examples Du Bois highlighted a causal argument to explain
at least some of the negative determinants on morals: specifically, the
irregular jobs often found in the area's tobacco and manufacturing sectors.
As indicated in the discussion about
The
Philadelphia Negro, Du Bois situated individual behaviors within a
larger socio-historical context. Overall, Du Bois reached the judgment
that "it seems fair to conclude, after an impartial study of Farmville
conditions, that the industrious and property accumulating class of the
Negro citizens best represents, on the whole, the general tendencies of
the group. At the same time, the mass of sloth and immorality, is still
large and threatening" (NFVA:
38). The NFVA study thus presented its readers with potentially actionable
information in a particular locality and community.
The online source for the Farmville
study is the Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia Library.
Du Bois, W.E.B. 1898. "The Negroes of Farmville, Virginia:
A Social Study." Bulletin of the U.S. Bureau of Labor, Vol. 14.
Washington, DC: GPO, January. Pp. 1-38.
URL: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/
modeng/public/DubFarm.html
Du Bois and the Atlanta University Publications
Du Bois' work which eventually lead to
the publication of The Philadelphia Negro had exhibited his social-scientific
skills. On the basis of such accomplishments the president of Atlanta University,
Horace Bumstead, asked Du Bois to come there to teach (D.L. Lewis 1993:
198). Du Bois became the head the Atlanta University Conferences after
1897 (D.L. Lewis 1993: 217-225). The conferences had generated two works
already under the direction of George Bradford. Bradford had utilized surveys
and had scrutinized census data in Atlanta University Publication No. 1,
Mortality
among Negroes in Cities (AUMC:
7-10 [Note: these hyperlinks connect to the cited DjVu-formatted
documents themselves and not to specific pages.]). Under the leadership
of Du Bois, the Atlanta University Conferences would further extend the
social science approach to various other topics, and would balance thereby
the tone of moral rectitude and exhortation which often characterized discussions
of how African Americans might ameliorate their conditions and oppression.
The goals of Atlanta University Conferences
and their associated Atlanta University Publications were clearly stated
and adhered to the research program expressed in Du Bois' "The Study of
the Negro Problems" (1898c). In the Preface to a volume which Du Bois co-edited,
Morals
and Manners among Negro Americans (AUMM
1913), the goals were conveyed as follows.
There is only one sure basis of social reform
and that is Truth -- a careful, detailed knowledge of the essential facts
of each social problem. Without this there is no logical starting place
for reform and uplift. Social difficulties may be clear and we may inveigh
against them, but the causes proximate and remote are seldom clear to the
casual observer and usually are quite hidden from the man who suffers from,
or is sensitive to, the results of the snarl.
To no set of problems are these
truths more applicable than to the so-called Negro problems.
[. . . .]
[M]anners and morals lend themselves
but seldom to exact measurement. Consequently, general impressions, limited
observations and wild gossip supply the usual data; and these make it extremely
difficult to weigh the evidence and to answer the charge.
This study is an attempt to
collect opinion on the general subject of morals and manners among Negro
Americans from those who ought to know. It is by no means complete or definitive,
but it is to some degree enlightening.
[. . . .]
The study is, therefore, a further
carrying out of the plan of social study of the Negro American, by means
of an annual series of decennially recurring subjects covering, so far
as is practicable, every phase of human life. This plan originated at Atlanta
University in 1896. The object of these studies is primarily scientific
-- a careful research for truth...; [. . . .] Our object is not simply
to serve science. We wish not only to make the truth clear but to present
it in such shape as will encourage and help social reform. (AUMM:
5-6)
As was common with
Du Bois, the metatheoretical insights of his research program often were
stated matter-of-factly. This passage summarizes several of Du Bois' conceptions
about the role of social-scientific inquiry, including:
(a) the preeminent importance of the pursuit of truth
via adherence to the tenets of the scientific method (including the neutral
stance of the researcher);
(b) the foundation for social reform lies in the gathering
and analysis of such scientific data;
(c) the crucial relevance of such studies to counteract
extant beliefs about African Americans; and
(d) the necessity of a multiple studies to be conducted
over time on the same topics (and their attendant variables).
Yet the goal of longitudinal inquiries
as the scientific basis of knowledge was not achieved by Du Bois. Several
years prior to the end of the Conferences, Du Bois had departed to New
York in 1910 to take on the responsibilities of editor of The Crisis,
the N.A.A.C.P.'s periodical of record (D.L. Lewis 1993: 386). Funding shortages
eventually led to the end of the Atlanta University Conferences (D.L. Lewis
1993: 379, 383). The last report was published under the editorship of
Thomas Brown in 1917. Years later, Du Bois encouraged various Land Grant
Colleges in the 1940s to set up a plan of social-scientific studies akin
to the earlier Atlanta University reports (Du Bois 1968: ch. xviii: 309ff).
Despite being adopted by the participating colleges, the proposed studies
generated little research due to a lack of funding (Du Bois 1968: ch. xviii:
324-325).
Although Du Bois' vision of a sustained,
institutionalized research project did not materialize, the Du Bois-led
Atlanta University conferences did yield at least two important benefits
(Gabbidon 1999; E. Wright II 2002a and 2005).
First, they provided some data to highlight problems in specific geographical
areas and on specific topics. For example, in The College-Bred Negro
(AUCN 1900) Du
Bois wished to answer "mainstream concerns" over whether Black colleges
were generating "too many" graduates and making African Americans "unfit"
for the available jobs (also see Du Bois' "The Atlanta Conferences," 1904a:
59). Du Bois countered with survey results which may have pleased some
Whites of the era: the majority of African American college graduates were
gainfully employed in a range of professions (AUCN:
37; 63, 72).
As a second benefit of the Atlanta
University Conferences, some of the Studies provided more anecdotal data
than statistically analyzable data points. For example, Morals and Manners
among Negro Americans provided pages of verbatim answers by the respondents
to the survey questions (AUMM).
Such passages certainly have their social-scientific uses. Although the
responses were not the result of in-depth interviews and were not subjected
to content analysis, such voices fleshed out, and thereby made more human,
the "arid" statistical averages also presented in the Studies. Du Bois
likewise had done this to some extent in The Philadelphia Negro
(e.g., TPN: sec.47).
Such brief glimpses into the minds of respondents perhaps could have been
used for the formulation of hypotheses at a later time -- maybe even in
the 21th Century.
Not all of the published studies, collectively
called the Atlanta University Publications, are available online. For a
full list of the Studies see E. Wright II (2002b). The Library at the University
of Georgia (UGA) has made many of them accessible online, and plans to
post more of them (UGA Main Reference 2005). The main web page for the
Atlanta
University Publications is located in the Facsimile
Books Section at the University of Georgia Libraries. Another good
source for several of the Atlanta University studies is the "Documenting
the American South" project at the University Library of the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
The documents at the University of
Georgia Libraries are readable only in the DjVu format. This format is
designed for efficient distribution of digital documents and color images.
Reading DjVu files will require the relatively simple installation of a
special viewer for use with Internet-capable browsers. There are DjVu plug-ins
for Windows, Macintosh, and Unix systems. Here is the download page at
the company, Lizardtech, which offers free
plug-ins for those various systems. (Note: Although I have not had
any problems with the DjVu format or plug-in, I can neither legally guarantee,
nor do I claim, that computer programs or software related to the DjVu
format will work effectively for others).
The Atlanta University Publications
are arranged below by number, and not necessarily by date of publication.
The publisher for the works is "Atlanta, GA: Atlanta University Press."
Chase, Thomas N. 1903. Mortality Among Negroes in Cities,
2nd Edition, Abridged. No. 1.
URL: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/
E185x5xA881p/aup01
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
books/bv.fcgi?rid=history.chapter.115
[History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine]
______. 1897. Social and Physical Condition of Negroes
in Cities. No. 2
URL: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/
E185x5xA881p/aup02
Du Bois, W.E.B., ed. 1898. Some Efforts of American
Negroes For Their Own Social Betterment. No. 3.
URL: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/
E185x5xA881p/aup03
URL: http://docsouth.unc.edu/
church/duboisau/menu.html
______, ed. 1900. The College-Bred Negro. No. 5.
URL: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/
E185x5xA881p/aup05
______, ed. 1901. The Negro Common School. No.
6.
URL: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/
E185x5xA881p/aup06
______, ed. 1902. The Negro Artisan. No. 7.
URL: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/
E185x5xA881p/aup07
______, ed. 1903. The Negro Church. No. 8.
URL: http://docsouth.unc.edu/
church/negrochurch/menu.html
______, ed. 1904. Some Notes on Negro Crime Particularly
in Georgia. No. 9.
URL: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/
E185x5xA881p/aup09
______, ed. 1905. A Select Bibliography of the American
Negro. No. 10.
URL: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/
E185x5xA881p/aup10
______, ed. 1907. Economic Co-operation Among Negro
Americans. No. 12.
URL: http://docsouth.unc.edu/
church/dubois07/menu.html
Du Bois, W. E. B. and Augustus Granville Dill, eds. 1913.
Morals
and Manners among Negro Americans. No. 18.
URL: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/
E185x5xA881p/aup18
URL: http://docsouth.unc.edu/
church/morals/menu.html
Brown, Thomas I., ed. 1917. Economic Co-operation among
the Negroes of Georgia. No. 19.
URL: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/
E185x5xA881p/aup19
Closing Remarks
As time passed, Du Bois' social-scientific
mode of data-driven research increasingly was replaced with document-based
research, as works like The Negro (1915),
Black
Reconstruction in America (1935), and The World and Africa (1947)
bore witness. Those writings, together with his editorial duties at The
Crisis, his world travels, and his Pan-Africanist activities, tended to
occupy more and more of his attention over the years.
The later Du Bois, certainly, did not
eschew social science or its advocacy. He edited a journal, Phylon, which
encouraged and published social-scientific research (Du Bois 1940a). Moreover,
Du Bois did try to rekindle the Atlanta University studies in the 1940s
(Du Bois 1968: ch. xviii; see also D.L. Lewis 2000: 490-494). While that
attempt sputtered out, Du Bois' goal of rigorous social-scientific inquiry
into the conditions of African Americans did not.
Researchers have followed Du Bois'
lead throughout the 20th Century and into the 21st, including Richard R.
Wright, Jr. (1903),
Monroe Nathan Work (1922),
and E. Franklin Frazier (1939), among others (see Young & Deskins 2001).
Quite appropriately, the DuBois Institute at Clark Atlanta University has
reintroduced annual conferences on socially relevant issues (DuBois Institute:
n.d.).
Other institutions of higher education -- even some of those with which
Du Bois had been associated -- continue to carry on empirical inquiries
with public policy implications. At the risk of slighting others, let me
point out the Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania;
the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University; and the Du Bois Institute
for African and African American Research at Harvard University. The latter
Institute publishes the Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race
[journal
home page].
Du Bois' social-scientific works have a varied and lasting
significance. Not only is there a wealth of detail in the data he gathered,
but also his research approaches are still useful nowadays when probing
the causes of racial differentiation, marginalization, and disproportionate
burdens. The Internet, via its myriad and virtual pathways, permits the
distribution of such information and allows us to spread the challenge
of W.E.B. Du Bois to a broader audience.
Regarding the References
* Bibliographic citations for the Atlanta University Publications
are included in the text above.
* I have tried to choose primary and secondary works
at "institutional/ized" web sites in an attempt to provide somewhat predictably
stable sources. Such would include academic-related web sites and Project
Gutenberg. Nonetheless, the ephemeral dimension of the Internet means that
the hyperlinked sources contained within this essay may disappear. In addition
to using Internet search engines like Google
or Yahoo Search to track down "lost"
pages, one might be able to locate them via the Internet Archive's "Wayback
Machine" (www.archive.org).
* References which are marked by "[DjVu]"
indicate the DjVu format and require the free browser plug-in before viewing.
References: The Works of W.E.B. Du Bois
1898a. "The Negroes of Farmville, Virginia: A Social Study."
Bulletin
of the U.S. Bureau of Labor, v. 14. Washington, DC: GPO (January):
1-38.
Online: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/
toc/modeng/public/DubFarm.html
Accessed: 4 April 2005.
Editor. 1898b. Some Efforts of American Negroes For
Their Own Social Betterment. No. 3. Atlanta, GA: Atlanta University
Press.
Online: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/
E185x5xA881p/aup03
[DjVu]
Online: http://docsouth.unc.edu/
church/duboisau/menu.html
1898c [1978]. "The Study of the Negro Problems." Annals
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