About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

568 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. 7 (2000)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0568 and id is 1 raw text is: PREFACE The articles were prepared for a conference titled The Study of African American Problems, held at the University of Pennsylvania on February 23 and 24, 1999. These words are a manifestation of the rich scholarly legacy cre- ated by W.E.B. Du Bois at the end of the nineteenth century, a legacy that continues to bear fruit at the turn of the twentieth. While the works in this volume of The Annals are based on Du Bois's prospectus, The Study of the Negro Problems, originally published in this journal 100 years ago and reprinted here, they follow strongly the spirit rather than the letter of that article. This is because times have changed, even as the problems persist. Du Bois's article was written as a prospectus for apprehending the problem of the Negro people as they confronted industrialism and increasing urbanization in the dual context of white supremacy and American democracy, for coming to terms with the problem of black immigration into the American econ- omy and society. Du Bois acknowledged that blacks were disadvantaged compared to European immigrants both because of their lack of human capi- tal with which to compete for place and position-the result of centuries of slavery-and because of their devalued skin color. For Du Bois the question was, How do you study this? Born and raised in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois received his first B.A. at Fisk University in Tennessee and a second B.A. and then his Ph.D. at Harvard. He subsequently taught for two years at Wilberforce Uni- versity, a black college in Ohio, before being invited to Philadelphia by Susan Wharton under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania in order to study the black population of the city. A great believer in science, in this case social science, Du Bois felt that if the situation of African Americans was systematically described and analyzed, the findings would be used by the leaders of society to change the situation for the better. Then living in the old Seventh Ward, which stretched along Pine and Lombard streets from Sixth to Twenty-third, this community indeed yielded a wealth of information on the topics Du Bois had identified-in particular, why employers were not using black labor as they were white immigrant labor. But, to Du Bois's dismay and eventual disillusionment, his study did not immediately change attitudes or conditions. Although he went on to conduct similar social research in Atlanta, after the publication of The Philadelphia Negro Du Bois began to lose faith in social science and became more of an activist. His writing turned increasingly to pamphleteering and literary portrayals of the black experience, such as The Souls of Black Folk. Du Bois's methodology changed, but his purpose did not. His life's work was to focus the attention of society on the problems of African Americans, and these were centered on the need to develop leadership and social capital for blacks within a wider system that was unwilling to include them. Du Bois felt that this effort had to encompass the black race in its fullness by 7

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most