The Contribution of Blacks to Sociological Knowledge: A Problem of Theory and Role to 1950

Abstract

N THE LATE 1960s sociology was a popular major for black under1 graduates. There was interest among sociologists in what a generation of black scholars might offer the field since it was clear and of great concern that the social sciences were not bias-free. Methods and interpretations of research were conditioned by the scientist's background, experience, and opinions. If blacks and persons from other diverse backgrounds could enter the field, then all would ideally benefit and sociological research, bias withstanding, would reflect and be able to draw on a greater range of talent and experience than it had in the past. After a decade there is now a question of whether this accommodation and addition of backgrounds and experiences into sociological research has occurred or was ever desired. Indications are that there has been some reaction against integration. If there had been interest in having more black researchers, there might now be more than the few who have completed doctorates in the 1970s, given the large number of majors in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As interested blacks got beyond the introductory and intermediate courses, many found the methods and theories they were expected to adopt inadequate and alienating. They also may have been given few opportunities to something constructively and creatively with these ideas and procedures in graduate classrooms and committees. Many left the field bitter. The same experience has reduced the ranks of new black sociologists on their first and second appointments. They are finding little support or interest for their work, and tenure is the final judgment. The present situation leads one to ask another question. Is there a relation between the social uses or the role sociology plays in society and the presence of blacks within the field? We can look at the role of sociology in society by examining its theories and then the contribution or reactions of the past two generations of black sociologists to these theories. I hope to do four things: 1) show the circumstances under which the social sciences emerged, 2) show that the resulting role the social sciences movement took on in England and later in the United States was anti-black, 3) examine the contribution and potential contribution that the first two generations of black sociologists might have made, and 4) provide a historic context for the embattlement of the present and third generation of black sociologists.