W E B DuBois on the history of empirical social research

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis review of The Scholar Denied by Aldon D. Morris emphasizes the importance of DuBois for the start of American empirical social research. A.D. Morris correctly shows why W.E.B. DuBois was rejected, forgotten and suppressed by white sociologists for almost 100 years. Racial prejudices and scientific racism among American sociological elites prevented both Du Bois and his work from receiving the attention they rightly deserve. But my paper accentuates the role of Du Bois in the development of sociology as an empirical social science discipline. He created and published a programme of research on the African-American population. Publishing ‘The Philadelphia Negro’, he provided an excellent example of how to do such research. He also headed the first school of sociology on the American continent at the Atlanta University from 1898 to 1910.