The Sociologist May 2020

On the Cover: Collage of past and present sociologists and inscription of the aspiration of CONTENTS public sociology. Created by Emily McDonald. 3 The Challenge of Public Sociology

– in the Pandemic of 2020

Contributors 5

Aldon Morris The Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois: Britany Gatewood The Centrality of Historically Alexandra Rodriguez Black Colleges and Universities Marie Plaisime Melissa Gouge Andrea Robles 13 Rutledge M. Dennis Truth and Service: The Hundred- Kimya N. Dennis Year Legacy of Sociology at Howard University

19 The Sociologist is published two times a year by the District of Columbia Sociological Participatory Action Research as Society (DCSS) in partnership with the Public Sociology: Bringing Lived George Mason University Department of Experience Back In Sociology and Anthropology. Editors: Amber Kalb, Emily McDonald, Briana Pocratsky, Yoku Shaw-Taylor, Maria Valdovinos, Margaret Zeddies. 27 W.E.B. Du Bois, the First Public Sociologist thesociologistdc.com dcsociologicalsociety.org 36

Ask Us

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Colleges and Universities,” Aldon Morris The Challenge of Public highlights the central role played by W.E.B. Sociology – in the Du Bois, other early African American sociologists, and Historically Black Colleges Pandemic of 2020 and Universities (HBCUs) in challenging the blatant and institutional racism that was Amber Kalb foundational to the discipline of sociology. In Emily McDonald “W.E.B. Du Bois, the First Public Briana Pocratsky Sociologist,” Rutledge M. Dennis and Kimya Maria Valdovinos N. Dennis work to reframe our understanding Margaret Zeddies of W.E.B. Du Bois, positioning him as the first public sociologist. This issue is the product of a collaborative Beyond Burawoy, sociologists such effort of doctoral students in the public as Du Bois demonstrate the commitment and sociology PhD program at George Mason tenacity with which the founders of sociology University. We are interested in exploring the engaged public issues and problems. Du Bois many questions and debates surrounding in particular embodied many roles in his public sociology since Michael Burawoy pursuit of equality and social justice. He was gave his presidential address, “For Public not only a classical and public sociologist, Sociology,” to the American Sociological but he was an empiricist, organizer, artist, Association (ASA) in 2004. and performer. In “Truth and Service: The Our orienting questions for the issue Hundred-Year Legacy of Sociology at included the following: What is public Howard University,” Britany Gatewood, sociology? What does public sociology look Alexandra Rodriguez, and Marie Plaisime like? Why is public sociology important? trace the history of sociology at Howard How is public sociology different from other University, which has centered the analysis public-facing disciplines/(sub)fields, such as of race and the transformation of social public history? More specifically, what are inequality in society for over a century. some sites of public sociology in the

Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia (DMV) area, the home of The Sociologist? The cover image…is meant We are interested in how public sociology to depict a sociology that is may be articulated and practiced. With this special issue of The Sociologist, we collaborative, grounded in the encouraged and welcomed a range of traditions of popular submissions that capture the many understandings and forms of public education, and centered sociology. around the voices all too In responding to that call, we were pleased to find that submissions were all often left at the margins of themed around rooting public sociology in our discipline… the legacy of sociology’s scholar-activism, a legacy that is often framed as a “subfield” or “aspect” of our discipline rather than the very heart of it. In “The Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois: The Centrality of Historically Black

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Finally, in “Participatory Action understanding on issues ranging from human Research as Public Sociology: Bringing rights in the corporate supply chain to the Lived Experience Back In,” Melissa Gouge ongoing marginalization of HBCUs. and Andrea Robles provide a historical Inscribed above the pictures are calls for overview of Participatory Action Research public sociology and engaged scholarship. (PAR) by reminding us of how the sociologists who are often left out of the canon offer practical guidelines for using We believe public sociology PAR to help shape a more robust public sociology. calls us to be engaged in the The cover image is a collage created service of rebuilding and for this special issue and is meant to depict a sociology that is collaborative, grounded in transforming our institutions. the traditions of popular education, and centered around the voices all too often left at They are calls that challenge us to the margins of our discipline, but whose engage with our histories, “turn the light of dissenting calls have encouraged sociology to truth” on wrongs, lend credibility and be an instrument for creating a more just legitimacy to diverse forms of knowledge, society. Included in the collage are symbolic and, above all, democratize the knowledge nods to both sociologists and organizations we seek to create. They are calls for us to that embody or are informed by principles of establish a social ethic and create an public sociology. educational path for a better informed citizenry prepared to change their

communities. We believe public sociology They are calls that challenge calls us to be engaged in the service of us to engage with our rebuilding and transforming our institutions. This issue was created during the histories, “turn the light of COVID-19 pandemic, a time when we lost truth” on wrongs, lend some who have lived out the work of public scholarship and also a time when the need for credibility and legitimacy to public sociology becomes all the more diverse forms of knowledge, pressing. While in no way comprehensive, we hope this issue will stir conversations and, above all, democratize about how public sociology can more the knowledge we seek to holistically be sustained by the rich traditions of scholar-activism and social movements for create. change.

In the collage, sociologists who mobilized their research and pedagogical skills to create abolitionist movements and foster and sustain civil rights movements are positioned next to sociologists of the present who uplift these legacies of activism, mobilize education for freedom, and create Source: pixabay.com spaces for participatory models of

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inferior to western whites. Thus, the global The Sociology of W.E.B. system of racial stratification existed because Du Bois: The Centrality of of the biological and cultural inferiority of people of color. (3) Because White Historically Black supremacy was a natural phenomenon, resistance by black people could not change Colleges and Universities it. Blacks, therefore, did not possess human agency. Indeed, their inferiority erased any Aldon Morris possibility that black people could exercise President-Elect of the human agency capable of transforming racial American Sociological Association inequality. (4) More generally, white

sociologists theorized human agency as an On January 24, 2020, the District of attribute of dominant whites. Thus, only the Columbia Sociological Society hosted a action of whites could decrease racial presentation by Dr. Aldon Morris at the inequality. American Sociological Association (ASA) headquarters. Below is an excerpted version of that presentation. Dr. Morris is Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at This dominant white Northwestern University and was elected sociology…advanced 112th President of the ASA. intellectual justifications for Today I discuss the originality and America’s racial apartheid importance of the sociology of W. E. B. Du Bois and other black sociologists who further and European empires that developed the Du Boisian intellectual colonized colored people agenda. I will then address the relationship between this “black” scholarship and the worldwide. institutional settings from which it blossomed. That is, I will discuss the role that Historically Black Colleges and Universities As a result, the conceptualization of (HBCUs) played in the development of Du the race problem as the white man’s burden Boisian sociology and the development of the became prominent. (5) These postulates of new discipline of sociology during the early white sociology were generated through decades of the twentieth century. armchair theorizing rather than empirical Early White American Sociology data. This type of scholarship Du Bois Before we can understand the non- labeled “car window” sociology. hegemonic structure of Du Boisian This dominant white sociology was sociology, it is necessary to present a brief rooted in social Darwinism; this sociology analysis of early white American sociology advanced intellectual justifications for that remained dominant for a hundred years. America’s racial apartheid and European The major postulates of white American empires that colonized colored people sociology argued: (1) All systems of worldwide. Intense racism, and the domination—that is, class, race, gender, and sociological consensus that black people empire—were generated and sustained by were biologically inferior, went hand-in- natural, even cosmic forces. (2) African hand. Americans and people of color globally were

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The white sociologists who made this inequalities generated immense unnecessary brand of sociology dominant were professors suffering. They abhorred research that argued in elite white northern universities. Among for working class solidarity and labor unions. these institutions were the University of To the contrary, these elites directed funds to Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, Yale those universities that promoted their University, Columbia University and Johns interests. Moreover, the interests of Hopkins University. These professors were capitalists and white male professors upwardly mobile middle-class white males converged. White professors were interested who identified with white elites and shared in joining, or at least co-existing comfortably, their values upholding the racial, class and with these elites. Thus, institutionally and gender status quo (Deegan, 1988). They were intellectually, white professors fell in line not professors out to topple inequality or even with capitalists’ interests in exchange for ruffle the feathers of the social order. attractive professorships. Their sociology was a top down enterprise in the service of rulers. Du Bois alone theorized the Insurgent Sociology I now turn to the insurgent sociology nuanced relationship among developed by the black sociologist, W. E. B. racism, colonialism, slavery, Du Bois (Morris, 2015). In contrast to conservative white sociology, Du Bois western empire building, and developed an emancipatory scientific capitalist development made sociology. First, Du Bois’ sociology theorized that modernity was a product of the possible by these systems of African slave trade, centuries of slavery, and human domination. colonialism. These oppressive systems generated exploitable labor forces and raw materials, enabling western elites to build America’s leading capitalists and capitalist empires. Therefore, human beings, philanthropists funded elite white for the deliberate purpose of exploitation, universities. They provided lucrative funds constructed these systems of oppression. Du for professor salaries and honorific prizes, Bois, like his contemporaries Émile released time from teaching, research funds, Durkheim and Max Weber, and his and graduate student funding. These patrons predecessor Karl Marx, was an analyst of were interested in an “objective” sociology modernity. However, Du Bois alone framed as objective because it rationalized theorized the nuanced relationship among class and racial inequalities. They were racism, colonialism, slavery, western empire interested in theories that valorized building, and capitalist development made capitalism as a superior social order and possible by these systems of human justified rampant social inequalities as domination. natural and inevitable. Second , Du Bois parted ways with These captains of industry were not white sociology that claimed global racial interested in universities and professors who inequality emerged from natural and attacked capitalism as a greedy human biological causes. Rather, Du Bois enterprise bent on exploiting others for interrogated the global color line and its profits. They were not interested in research production of worldwide race stratification. demonstrating that race, class, and gender

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He concluded that whites, to ensure white supremacy across the globe, constructed such stratification. That color …long before the civil rights line, Du Bois famously predicted, was “the movement…Du Bois problem of the twentieth century” (Du Bois, 1903). That color line, he argued, structured predicted: “Someday the the relation of the darker to the lighter races Awakening will come, when of men in Asia and Africa, in the Americas and the islands of the sea. Therefore, to the pent-up vigor of ten understand modernity, its racial dynamics million souls shall sweep had to be centered in the analysis. Third, Du Bois’ theory of the human irresistibly toward the self diverged from white theories of the self Goal…” that emphasized communication and social interactions as benign processes engendering self-formation (Itzigsohn and Brown 2015). While Du Bois’ concept of “double African Americans to produce movements consciousness” stressed that the self emerged that liberated themselves. Du Bois’ through social interactions and emancipatory sociology of African communication, his formulation went beyond Americans demonstrated the following: (1) the ideas of Charles Horton Cooley (1902) African Americans were equals to all other and George Herbert Mead (1934) by races because racial oppression, not highlighting the role that racial dynamics and biological traits, relegated Blacks to the power relations played in shaping the self. bottom of the racial hierarchy. (2) There was Fourth, in Black Reconstruction in no such thing as “black crime” because social America (1935) and Damnation of Women conditions, and not racial traits, produced (1920), Du Bois like Ida B. Wells (1895) and crime. (3) The black community usually Anna Julia Cooper (1892) analyzed class, portrayed as a homogeneous mass, was race, and gender interactions thus heterogeneous, consisting of various social anticipating intersectionality and critical race classes and diverse experiences. (4) The paradigms. White sociology paid no attention black church was the central cultural and to how systems of domination interlocked organizational institution of the black and reproduced social inequality. Fifth, Du community. Bois constructed a bottom-up sociology that Hence, long before the civil rights interrogated the social world from the movement, Du Bois predicted that such a perspective of the oppressed. He theorized movement, based in the church, would arise that people’s social position shaped their to overthrow racial inequality. As early as lived experiences. Thus, his analysis 1903 in Souls of Black Folk (1903), Du Bois proceeded from the perspective of the predicted: “Someday the Awakening will oppressed. His sociology of African come, when the pent-up vigor of ten million Americans posed a profound question: How souls shall sweep irresistibly toward the does it feel to be a problem? Goal, out of the Valley of the Shadow of From this perspective, Du Bois Death, where all that makes life worth identified the sources of cultural creativity living—Liberty, Justice, and Right—is and organizational strength that enabled marked ‘For White People Only.’” Thus, Du Bois differed from white sociologists, who,

7 on the eve of the civil rights movement, had Finally, Du Bois rejected the claim no idea it was coming. Indeed, white that sociology should be an aloof detached sociologists clung to the belief that such a science operating above social and political movement was an impossibility because they realities. Yet, Du Bois insisted that sociology thought racial change only ensued from white embrace objectivity in its search for the truth. agency. Nevertheless, for Du Bois, the purpose of those truths was to provide scientific guidance for efforts of liberation. In his …two decades before the struggles for black liberation, Du Bois made clear, “history and the other social sciences Chicago School conducted were to be my weapons, to be sharpened and empirical studies, Du Bois’ applied by research and writing.” To be sure, Du Bois utilized sociology to engage in Atlanta School executed numerous political struggles to free numerous empirical studies humanity. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. analyzing rural and urban expressed: “It was never possible to know populations. where the scholar, Du Bois, ended and the organizer, Du Bois began. The two qualities in him were a single, unified force” (King, Emancipatory Sociology 1968). For Du Bois, a dispassionate, aloof Du Bois emerged as the first sociology was a dry as dust enterprise steeped American sociologist to articulate the agency in scientific and political irrelevances. Given of the oppressed. Moreover, Du Bois moved its theoretical and empirical power, Du Bois’ easily from the standpoint of the oppressed to intellectual agenda would become the that of the oppressor: touchstone of an insurgent black sociology “High in the tower, where I sit…, I know embraced by pioneering black sociologists many souls that toss and whirl and pass, but housed in black colleges and universities. none…intrigue me more than the Souls of White Folk. Of them, I am singularly clairvoyant. I see in and through them. I view them from unusual points of vantage…I see … for black sociologists to these souls undressed and from the back and side” (Du Bois, 1920). Therefore, Du Bois embrace the white academy created a scientifically rigorous and and its ideas would mean emancipatory sociology. In contrast to white dominant sociology of the period, Du Bois personal and race suicide. pioneered multi-methods by relying on both Their only rational choice quantitative and qualitative methods to provide empirical evidence on which to base was to develop a critical research findings (Wright, 2012). Indeed, approach to white academia two decades before the Chicago School conducted empirical studies, Du Bois’ and its racial science.

Atlanta School executed numerous empirical studies analyzing rural and urban populations.

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The Academy The lived experiences of pioneering Relative to white colleges, black sociologists were radically different from white sociologists. They were members HBCUs were severely of a despised race who encountered disadvantaged. Like the economic exploitation, political disenfranchisement, racial segregation, students who attended them, lynching and daily insults. As Du Bois the larger society considered powerfully related, “I rode Jim Crow.” Even the college experience disempowered the black colleges inferior and personhood of black sociologists. Du Bois treated them as such. recalled, “When I entered college in 1885, I was supposed to learn there was a new reason for the degradation of the coloured people sociology that critically dissected systems of that was because they had inferior brains to domination, especially racial oppression. whites” (Du Bois, 1958). Unlike upwardly They sought a new sociology that functioned mobile white sociologists eager to join white as a liberating weapon that imagined elites, black sociologists initiated struggles futuristic societies rooted in social structures for survival and devised measures to protect and processes free of racial oppression. As their intellectual integrity. Consequently, Andrew Douglas contends, black sociologists when Du Bois encountered doctrines of black required black colleges to serve as a locus of inferiority in college, he responded, “This I critique and to develop transcendent immediately challenged. messages in opposition to white oppression. The white academy cooperated in furthering black sociologists’ quest for a For their undergraduate critical sociology by sorting them into academic institutions segregated by race. As education, almost all black Francille Wilson (2006) posited, black sociologists attended sociologists became the segregated scholars. For their undergraduate education, almost all historically black colleges black sociologists attended historically black located in the south. colleges located in the south. Thus, Ida B. Wells, Anna Julia Cooper, Du Bois, Richard R. Wright, Jr., Edmund Haynes, E. Franklin I knew by experience that my own brains and Frazier, Charles Johnson and Saint Clare body were not inferior to the average of my Drake attended southern HBCUs. white fellow students…I early, therefore, If it were not for HBCUs including started on a personal life crusade to prove Fisk University, Atlanta University, Howard Negro equality and to induce Negroes to University, Hampton University, Tuskegee demand it.” Thus, for black sociologists to University, Spelman University, Tougaloo embrace the white academy and its ideas College, Savanna State University, Virginia would mean personal and race suicide. Their Union University, Saint Augustine’s only rational choice was to develop a critical University, and Morehouse College, there is approach to white academia and its racial a great likelihood that there would have been science. For them, their crucial need was a no black sociologists. Relative to

9 white colleges, HBCUs were severely concerned, black scholars produced no ideas disadvantaged. Like the students who and intellectual agendas which white attended them, the larger society considered sociologists were bound to respect. black colleges inferior and treated them as Yet, despite these daunting such. Because of racially restricted funds challenges, HBCUs educated the first from state legislatures and philanthropists, generations of black sociologists, thanks to black professors were perennial victims of dedicated black and white teachers who low pay and overwork. Crucial facilities embraced their educational mission as a including libraries and labs suffered due to sacred trust to lift the descendants of ex- limited resources. Moreover, white elites slaves from ignorance and poverty. Black monitored HBCU’s curricula, making sure students possessed a dogged determination to subversive thoughts were expunged and that attain education as attested to by one enrollee descendants of ex-slaves absorbed industrial who declared, “tell the white people we are education. arising!” HBCUs prepared the first generations of black sociologists to attend white graduate departments of sociology and …despite these daunting earn doctorates, enabling them to become professional sociologists. Though white challenges, HBCUs educated departments alienated black sociologists with the first generations of black their theories of black inferiority and the righteousness of racial inequality, HBCUs sociologists, thanks to had prepared them to persevere while dedicated black and white keeping their eyes on the prize of earning advanced degrees necessary for those who teachers who embraced their would challenge white sociology. educational mission as a Professional Black Sociologists With degrees in hand, black sacred trust… sociologists settled in segregated academic positions as professional sociologists. Even though the American Sociological In fact, racially conservative white Association honors four great black administrators and presidents ran most sociologists—Du Bois, Frazier, Cox and HBCUs well into the twentieth century. This Johnson—white sociologists know little white control led to many black student about the institutions where they worked and revolts that sought academic freedom and the unique challenges they faced in those self-determination. institutions. HBCUs suffered double jeopardy All pioneering black sociologists because their racial and regional statuses shared the experience of never holding relegated them to the academic periphery professorships in white universities because outside the purview of prestigious and rich white supremacy would not permit such an white universities of the north. Because of outcome. Thus, they spent their entire careers their position in the academic hinterlands, in economically poor, isolated and oppressed black scholars and their intellectual HBCUs. To understand black sociologists’ contributions suffered marginalization and careers in HBCUs, it is instructive to hear Du even erasure. White mainstream sociologists Bois’ account of the experience, for his entire proceeded as if they were the only viable academic career unfolded in two HBCUs. intellectual game. As far as they were

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are often raised in the case of colored candidates. It is practically impossible for the Negro in the South even to Du Bois complained about enter…scholarships examinations.” Thus, we see that extensive racial discrimination how lack of resources experienced by HBCUs caused black severely handicapped his sociologists to face staggering odds in their mission to produce an emancipatory research and writing. sociology. Yet, the wonder of it all is that black sociologists triumphed against these staggering odds, building major sociology He writes: programs and producing theoretical and “If young colored men receive empirically based sociology that countered scientific training almost their only opening the racist narratives dominant in the white lies in the Negro university of the South… the mainstream. difficulty here… is that very few of these institutions have the facilities for research, nor can they grant teachers the time to devote to it. The young scientist who goes to such an institution is usually given a heavy load of teaching covering several branches of scientific work. If he can find any time for research, he not only has few facilities at his disposal at the institution, but he has a body of college students handicapped by restricted high school and elementary school training. Few of them have seen laboratories before coming to college or have been used to rigorous scientific methods...Not only does the young Negro scientist find difficulty in pursuing scientific research in a Negro institution. He lives usually in an intellectual desert so far as the surrounding world is concerned. State libraries will lend books to colored students but usually the reader must be segregated in separate and often inconvenient rooms. [Black scholars] are placed in rooms by themselves… In general, the libraries, museums, laboratories and Aldon Morris at ASA headquarters, January 2020. scientific collections in the South are either Source: Julie Anderson. completely closed to Negro investigators or are only partially opened and on humiliating Sociological Wisdom terms” (Du Bois, 1939). Hence, during the embryonic years of Du Bois complained about how lack American sociology, pioneering black of resources severely handicapped his sociologists, led by Du Bois, constructed an research and writing. He explained, “In the emancipatory scientific sociology useful to matter of scholarships and prizes, difficulties those fighting for freedom around the globe.

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knowledge for the purpose of understanding and transforming humanity (Morris, 2015). If an innovative insurgent References scientific sociology could Cooley, Charles Horton. 1902. Human Nature and the Social Order. New York: Charles take root…amid terrorism of Scribner’s Sons. Cooper, Anna Julia. 1892. A Voice from the lynch mobs…and South: By a Black Woman of the South. Xenia, discrimination from a racist Ohio: The Aldine Printing House. Deegan, Mary Jo. 1988. Jane Addams and the society…then maybe there is Men of the Chicago School, 1892-1918. New Brunswick: Transaction Books. hope for all who work to Du Bois. W.E.B. 1903. The Souls of Black Folk. produce knowledge Chicago: Chicago: A.C. McClurg and Company. ____ 1935. Black Reconstruction in America, for…transforming humanity. 1860-1880. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ____ 1939. “The Negro Scientist.” The That sociology placed at its center the American Scholar Vol. 8, No. 3 (summer), pp. examination of systems of human 309-320. domination, the social structures and ____ 1958. “The Early Beginnings of the Pan- processes inhibiting human freedom. That African Movement.” W.E.B. Du Bois Papers sociology emphasized the empowering (MS 312). Special Collection and University agency of the oppressed anchored in their Archive: University of Libraries. Amherst: culture and institutions, and the sociological University of Massachusetts Amherst. wisdom that exploitative hierarchies are Itzigsohn, Jose and Karida Brown. 2015. “Sociology and the Theory of Double edifices made by real human beings and thus Consciousness: W.E.B. Du Bois’s Phenomenology can be torn asunder by human agency. Also, of Racialized Subjectivity”, Du Bois Review, 12, at the center of insurgent black sociology was (2). the requirement that scientific scholarship King, Martin Luther, Jr. 1968. "Honoring Dr. Du anchor itself in systematic study and rigorous Bois," Speech delivered at Carnegie Hall in New reasoning. York City, February 23, 1968. I close by noting that despite Mead, George Herbert. 1934. Mind, Self, and Society from the Standpoint of a Social overwhelming odds, pioneering black Behaviorist. Chicago: The University of Chicago sociologists armed with a scientific desire to Press. be free who were housed in generative Morris, Aldon. 2015. The Scholar Denied: HBCUs constructed an invaluable insurgent W.E.B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern sociology. Much of it, though Sociology. Oakland: University of California unacknowledged, has been incorporated in Press. mainstream sociology, and constitutes its Wells, Ida B. 1895. A Record: Lynching in the intellectual fountainhead. If an innovative United States. Chicago: Donohue & Henneberry, Binder and Engraver. insurgent scientific sociology could take root Wilson, Francille, R. 2006. The Segregated in the worst of times, amid terrorism of lynch Scholars: Black Social Scientists and the Creation mobs, attacks from elites within the of Black Labor Studies, 1890–1950. community it sought to liberate, and Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press. discrimination from a racist society that Wright, Earl, II. 2012, “Why, Where, and How to withheld crucial resources, then maybe there Infuse the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory into the is hope for all who work to produce Sociology Curriculum” Teaching Sociology, 40(3): 257-270. Sage Journal.

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Black American life. The Department Truth and Service: The continues to be a powerhouse of Black Hundred-Year Legacy of intellectual thought and upholds the legacy of truth and service. Sociology at Howard The Beginnings At the turn of the 20th century, University Howard University was the only institution for Blacks with University status. Like most Britany Gatewood HBCUs, its purpose was to educate Blacks in Alexandra Rodriguez trade, particularly in agricultural, Marie Plaisime mechanical, and industrial subjects, for the workforce (Office for Civil Rights 1991). In The motto of Howard University, “In Truth the 1890s, Howard University began to adopt and Service,” is embodied by its scholars, a liberal arts framework over vocational students, and faculty. A century ago, Dr. training, which led to a period of curricula Kelly Miller established the Department of and scholarship expansion (Jarmon 2013). Sociology to uncover the truth about the Howard became a Mecca for Black scholars “race problem” in the United States. Since and students who were interested in social 1919, the mission of the department has been sciences and disciplines outside of industrial “to prepare students to analyze, transform, education (Jarmon 2013). Black scholars, and overcome conditions of oppression, including Dr. Kelly Miller, lectured about the exploitation and injustice” (Howard “race problem” within the United States University 2020). Howard University, during the 1890s (Jarmon 2003). notably called the Mecca, was “for scholars leading the intellectual discourse on the most pressing problems of Blacks in the U.S. and Africa, problems associated with race ideology, economic power, and social class” (Jarmon 2003). The Department became a home for scholars who believed in centering issues of inequality which marginalized the Black community. Howard University is the only Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in the United States with a doctoral program in sociology. Within the nation’s capital, the Department is also the only program in the District of Columbia that offers a Ph.D. in sociology. The Department has produced a wave of Black Ph.Ds. in sociology and cultivated generations of Black leaders in communities, organizations, and institutions. Legendary scholars in the Dr. Kelly Miller. Source: Casey Nichols. 2007. Department, such as Kelly Miller, E. Franklin https://www.blackpast.org/african-american- Frazier, Joyce Ladner, and Andrew history/miller-kelly-1863-1939. Billingsley, have contributed to the discipline of sociology and enhanced the scholarship on

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Miller believed that sociology Franklin Edwards, continued to consolidate provided an “objective perspective on the department and add courses that questions of race and social inequality” addressed the challenges of the Black (Jarmon 2003:366). In 1903, Miller piloted a community (Jarmon 2003). Frazier’s new sociology course at Howard, and by advocacy for using theory in practice and for 1919 the Department of Sociology was the continuous pursuit of research and social founded. Miller would serve as chairman policy for Black Americans would inspire the until 1925, expanding the scope of the Department for decades to come. program’s courses and faculty. Howard has The notion of biological determinism long been dedicated to the study of racial and the innate inferiority of the Blacks relations in society. During Miller’s tenure as permeated social science research throughout chair of the Department, the curriculum the early 20th century (Dingwall, Nerlich, included traditional sociological theory and and Hillyard 2003; Jarmon 2013; Miller and methods but centered social inequality and Costello 2001; Platt 1991). In continuing race (Jarmon 2003). Kelly’s mission to bring objectivity and truth to the race question, Frazier was committed to producing studies against scientific racism Frazier’s advocacy for using (Jarmon 2013). Frazier, much like his mentor W.E.B. Du Bois, wrote controversial pieces theory in practice and for the on race, class, and the reality of Black continuous pursuit of research American life. In 1939, he published The Negro Family in the United States, which and social policy for Black challenged the view of biological inferiority Americans would inspire the of Blacks and centered social and economic relations (Jarmon 2013). Department for decades to come.

The Frazier Era Blacks continued to demand more educational opportunities and college-level courses outside of vocational training throughout the U.S. in the early 20th century. Howard University and other HBCUs were fighting against structural and political forces that tried to limit higher education for Blacks. E. Franklin Frazier, who assumed the position of chairman in the Department in 1934, strived for academic rigor that could rival departments at primarily white institutions (Jarmon 2003). In his first year, he revamped the curriculum, increased the Source: Poster from Office of War Information. educational standards of the Department, and Domestic Operations Branch. News Bureau 1943. instituted the M.A. program (Jarmon 2003; Platt 1991). Frazier and his protégé, G.

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Frazier became known for his (Jarmon 2003:370). Their resistance and the scholarship on race relations within the subsequent curriculum adjustments continue United States and globally. In 1948, Frazier to influence the teaching of sociology in the was elected by the American Sociological Department today. Association (ASA) as the first Black From the late 1960s to 1970s, the president. In his ASA Presidential Address, Department shifted towards a more radical Frazier stated that “sociology as an academic sociological perspective which “combined discipline did not deal specifically with the elements of the Internal Colonial model, the problem of race relations” and his role was to Historical Materialism model, the Pan- bring attention to this phenomenon within the African model, and the Critical Race model” discipline (Frazier 1949:2). Following this (Gomes 2018:10). address, Frazier published two of his most renowned books, The Negro in the United States (1949) and The Black Bourgeoisie (1955). Frazier’s recognition of the need for new perspectives and to adjust to an ever- changing society planted seeds of change within the Department and the discipline (Jarmon 2003).

From the late 1960s to 1970s, the Department shifted towards a more radical sociological perspective… Howard University Student Protest Organizing meeting, 1968 Source: Kyra Azore, The Hilltop News Reporter.

The Transformative Years During this transformation, the The Civil Rights Era brought social Department added new faculty to revamp the and political change, not only in the program. With the addition of Dr. Joyce Department but in the wider society. Ladner, Dr. Robert Staples, Dr. Ralph C. Howard’s Sociology and Anthropology Gomes, Dr. Jonnie Daniel, and Dr. Joan Departments merged in 1957, and Mark Harris to the faculty, the curriculum Hanna Watkin, the first African American to unapologetically focused on topics of scholar earn a Ph.D. in anthropology, became the activism, the Black community, and a critical Department chair from 1961 to 1968 (Davis analysis of the discipline. Ladner, who later 2019; DPAAC Staff 2016). Students were became chair of the Department, was a influenced by the movements and ideologies catalyst for change by expanding the of the time and demonstrated against the curriculum to encourage perspectives outside curriculum of the Department. Students of Euro-American sociological theories resisted the mainstream sociological (Gomes 2018). With the influx of new faculty perspectives being taught because they and the expanding need to develop Black deemed it to be “too conservative and sociology, the Ph.D. program was established promoted the incipient movement towards by Dr. Gomes in 1974 (Gomes 2018). Urban Black sociology and dialectical materialism”

15 sociology, intergroup relations, social control matriculate cohorts of M.A. and Ph.D. and deviance, social organizations, and social students through the program and produce psychology were concentrations offered dozens of studies and articles. within the doctoral program (Gomes 2018). Public Sociology in the New Millennium These specializations centered around social Since 1895, the instruction of issues within the Black community and sociology at Howard University has focused influenced the scholarship of future scholars on increasing the collective understanding of matriculating through the program. Dr. Ivor social inequality and race. Between 1997 and Livingston, who received the first sociology 2002, thirty-four articles on social inequality doctorate degree from the Department in and or race relations were published by 1979, later became, and continues to be, a scholars within the Department. During the professor within the Department. early 2000s, much of the Department’s coursework examined several dimensions of inequality, statistics, methods, social Although public sociology psychology, and administrative justice (Jarmon 2003). gained popularity in The Department also embraced mainstream sociology, the criminology as a critical area of study within sociology, and in 2016 changed its name to Department has always been the Department of Sociology and a center of scholar activism. Criminology. Although public sociology gained popularity in mainstream sociology, the Department has always been a center of Considering economic and political scholar activism. The purpose of public movements during the 1980s and 1990s, sociology is to collaborate with historically many policies were impacting communities exploited and oppressed communities to across the United States. Specifically, new guide policy and social movement activism racial politics and social policies, such as the to create solutions to societal problems War on Drugs and the disappearing social (Katz-Fishman and Scott 2006). The surge of safety net, transformed the lives of people of interest in public sociology within the color and women (Alexander 2012; Williams discipline has attracted students and faculty 2003). The Department was affected by the to the Department because of its legacy of increasing financial restrictions happening in service to the community. the broader society and at most HBCUs. Dedication to public sociology and Since the 1990s, the Department has reduced researching Black social life extended to the number of faculty, decreased financial various events and projects hosted by the support for graduate students, and reduced Department. To examine the racial shifts due the number of specializations (Gomes 2018). to the election of President Obama, faculty The Department became more and students from across Howard University interdisciplinary by collaborating with other created a polling center to assess Black Howard graduate programs and professional voters’ perception of the presidential election schools which gave it flexibility to adapt to in 2016. Dr. Terri Adams, who will later the changing environment (Gomes 2018). serve as chair of the Department, led the Although the Department has felt the effects polling center along with sociology doctoral of the financial crisis of the 2000s and students. Over 40 student callers contacted reduced funding allocations, it continued to individuals who self-identified as Black or

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African American to discuss topics on voter Disease Control, and have taken faculty registration, political affiliations, political positions in academic institutions nationally issues facing Black America, racism, income and internationally. inequality, and social justice. Public The Department continues the legacy sociology continued to permeate the of Dr. Kelly Miller. For over 100 years, Department’s programming, and the “How will you use this knowledge to help inaugural Community Engagement Open your community?” has been a common House was hosted in 2016. This annual event theme throughout the scholarship, research, brings together community organizations, mentorship, and teaching at the Mecca. The students, and the broader community. undergraduate and graduate curriculum continues to center social inequality and critical discourse with an integration of For over 100 years, “How scholar activism and public sociology. Centering inequality, the Black experience, will you use this knowledge and service has distinguished Howard from to help your community?” other sociology departments. The sentiments of current students attest to the environment has been a common theme that has been cultivated for over 100 years. throughout the scholarship, “Howard has curated a space for critical dialogue around the intersections of race, research, mentorship, and class, oppression, and social institutions.” - teaching at the Mecca. Cassandra Jean, 3rd year Ph.D. student “Howard University creates a community for young Black scholars, while bringing a The Legacy of the Mecca diverse culture to the environment. I The Department of Sociology and personally have gained a wealth of Criminology at Howard University has made knowledge and connections with Black numerous contributions to the discipline and educators with different backgrounds and American society. The accomplishments of concentrations who are determined to faculty and students include articles, award- educate others and bring awareness to the winning books, distinguished career awards, injustices within America.” - Sydni Turner, nd coveted fellowships, and government 2 year M.A. student contracts and grants. Organizations, “Howard has always been the helm of Black including the Thurgood Marshall College thought, critical and revolutionary ideology, Fund, National Oceanic and Atmospheric and activism. The Department has operated Administration, and the Ford Foundation, this way historically and continues to embed have supported research that has ranged from these ideals for current and future scholars. inequalities within the criminal justice Every professor centers the Black voice, system to the impacts of natural disasters on when oftentimes within sociology, our voice communities of color. Since the is left unheard. Howard teaches us not only Department’s inception, the graduate to highlight our perspectives but its program has produced over 100 M.A. significance and its power.”- Anthony th degrees and over 150 Ph.Ds., with a majority Jackson, 5 year Ph.D. Candidate being Black scholars. Graduates have gone Looking Towards the Future on to positions in the government, including The Department has had profound for the U.S. Census Bureau and Center for influences on the discipline of sociology and

17 in local, national, and international Davis, Kiara. 2019. “One Hundred Years of communities. Miller founded the Department Sociology at Howard University by Kiara Davis on Prezi.” Retrieved April 2, 2020 (https://prezi.com/- during the Jim Crow era, a time where there 7daf9eztnaf/one-hundred-years-of-sociology-at- were few opportunities for Black scholars. Its howard- faculty and students resisted oppression and university/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=cop segregation during the Civil Rights y). Movement. Howard continues to endure Dingwall, Robert, Brigitte Nerlich, and Samantha Hillyard. 2003. “Biological Determinism and through the current, intensified Symbolic Interaction: Hereditary Streams and marginalization of HBCUs. The scholarship Cultural Roads.” Symbolic Interaction 26(4):631–44. produced out of the Department continues to DPAAC Staff. 2016. “Watkins, Mark Hanna.” be innovative and give voice to the Black Retrieved April 14, 2020 community by Black scholars. In the years to (http://dh.howard.edu/finaid_manu/262). Frazier, Franklin E. 1949. “Race Contacts and the come, the department will continue Miller Social Structure.” American Sociological Review and Frazier’s legacy by centering social 14(1):1–11. inequality, uplifting the community, and by Gomes, Ralph C. 2018. The Expansion of Graduate bringing truth and service to the discipline. Studies in Sociology During the Decade of the 1970s. Washington, D.C. Unpublished Manuscript. Howard University. 2020. “Department of Sociology and Criminology.” Retrieved April 14, 2020 (https://sociologyandcriminology.howard.edu/). Jarmon, Charles. 2003. “Sociology at Howard University: From E. Franklin Frazier and Beyond.” Teaching Sociology 31(4):366–74. Jarmon, Charles. 2013. “E. Franklin Frazier’s Sociology of Race and Class in Black America.” Black Scholar 43(1–2):89–102. Katz-Fishman, Walda and Jerome Scott. 2006. “A Movement Rising: Consciousness, Vision, and Strategy from the Bottom Up.” Pp. 69–81 in Public Sociologies Reader, edited by J. Blau and K. E. Iyall Smith. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Left to right: Walda Katz-Fishman, Marie Plaisime, Joyce Miller, Eleanor M. and Carrie Yang Costello. 2001. Ladner, Britany Gatewood, Shannell Thomas, Anas Askar, “The Limits of Biological Determinism.” American Tia Dickerson. Source: Britany Gatewood. Sociological Review 66(4):592–98. Office for Civil Rights. 1991. Historically Black “The most important part of the continuing Colleges and Universities and Higher Education legacy of the Sociology and Criminology Desegregation. Washington: US Department of Department at Howard is to fight to keep, in Education (ED). Platt, Anthony M. 1991. E. Franklin Frazier a new moment, that vision of a transformative Reconsidered. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers sociology for the people who are most University Press. marginalized, oppressed, and most exploited. Williams, Linda Faye. 2003. The Constraint of Race: Howard is where this marginalized section of Legacies of White Skin Privilege in America. society sends its intellectuals to be University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. educated.” - Dr. Walda Katz-Fishman, Professor of Sociology. References Alexander, Michelle. 2012. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York, NY: The New Press.

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Julia Cooper, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, W.E.B. Participatory Action Du Bois, Paolo Freire, Orlando Fals Borda, Research as Public Septima Clark, Ella Baker, Myles and Frances Horton, and many unsung scholars Sociology: Bringing Lived who have yet to be admitted to the canon among the “greats.” Experience Back In One approach to social science research, Participatory Action Research Melissa Gouge (PAR)1, a collaborative, solutions-based Andrea Robles approach does as Mills (2000) suggested sociology should; it connects personal In 2004, Burawoy gave his presidential troubles with public issues. It is also an address, “For Public Sociology,” to the orientation toward deep engagement with American Sociological Association causing a publics and is intended to bring about social stir within the discipline, its effects still felt transformation, liberation, conscienziacion today in graduate seminars and in debates (to free oneself -- Freire 1970) to create a about the current state and future of more humane and just world. Rather than sociology. In one speech, Burawoy simply engaging in dialogue with diverse reinvigorated the historical promise of publics, as Burawoy suggested, imagining sociology as a discipline that can implementing a PAR approach requires both explain society and work towards a researchers working alongside ordinary more just world. In the wake of his address, people, utilizing social science research to debates arose around the meaning and produce useful and valid findings while at the purpose of public sociology (Clawson same time alleviating (or reversing) harms. Sussman, Misra, et. al. 2007). What public sociology is, what it looks like, are questions that have led to Unlike traditional sociology, a vigorous thought experimentation but little noticeable change in the discipline. PAR approach is an example Burawoy’s call may have reinvigorated the of critical sociological sociological debate about discourse with diverse publics, but it fell short of suggesting scholarship that focuses on sociology should look to its own history to re- knowledge building and learn how to engage with many publics and, more importantly, to embrace worlds outside liberation and actively seeks of the academy, to learn and to solve to alleviate suffering through problems together. Solving problems together through action. collaboration between scholars and publics was a central feature of the sociological research community long before Burawoy This article describes the PAR gave his address. The systematic study of approach, an orientation for “doing” public structural forces and their impact on human sociology in the historical tradition of the thriving were employed among public people mentioned earlier and in answering intellectuals (though not always sociologists Burawoy’s call for more engagement with by training), among the likes of Jane diverse publics. First, we discuss Addams, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Anna participatory research as an approach with

19 theoretical foundations. Next, we describe 2001). To do so, key principles guide data the three pillars, which are the core to this collection strategies. Two of the most approach, and the deep relations and trust common are: first, an emphasis on reliability, necessary to do this work successfully. We using instruments that generate the same then provide a set of considerations for results each time they are used; and second, a increasing participation and engaging belief in objectivity in which “researchers communities across research phases utilizing should remain distanced from what they the PAR approach. Finally, we provide links study so findings depend on the nature of to PAR approach resources, journals, what is studied rather than on the personality, professional associations, and suggested beliefs, and values of the researcher” (Payne reading to learn more. and Payne 2004: 152). When employing this traditional social science approach, it is most common In effect, the orientation not to use quantitative research methods, like surveys, experiments, and secondary data only enables the production of analysis. Likewise, PAR is an approach trustworthy scholarship, but rooted in critical theory and from various reactions to the German philosopher, Hegel. also allows the researcher to For critics, empiricism was too simplistic and “take sides” against that mechanistic to build critical analysis or understand the nuances and patterns of which causes harm to the human life. Building on Hegel’s work, Karl communities we work with. Marx and other canonical sociological theorists, such as those in the Frankfurt School and Weber, to name a few, continued Participatory Action Research Approach and developing theoretical approaches to its Theoretical Roots distinguish the social sciences from natural PAR approaches are becoming better science, to understand human behavior from known in sociology and other disciplinary the perspective of communities and fields. However, there remains confusion and individuals, and to improve material and misperceptions about what it is, and what it is social conditions. th not. This is partly due to the interdisciplinary In the 20 century, a small number of theoretical underpinnings of participatory social theorists and activists in the U.S. and research, how it has emerged and evolved elsewhere continued to build on these across disciplines, and its focus (e.g., approaches, and more importantly, began to transformational, systems change). PAR is an apply these theories to work in and alongside approach or orientation to how research is communities to improve living conditions. conducted with a set of action goals, as Given the intent to understand lived opposed to a research method. experiences rather than formulation of social For illustration, we will describe key laws, research methods often employed are elements of a better-known comparison case, qualitative, including interviews, focus a more traditional positivist approach groups, ethnography, participant observation, founded by early sociologist Auguste Comte, and critical discourse analysis. generating universal laws for the social world Unlike traditional sociology, a PAR that are validated by empirical data, in a approach is an example of critical mode similar to natural science (Turner sociological scholarship that focuses on

20 knowledge building and liberation and to-action process has benefits for the research actively seeks to alleviate suffering through and the communities. Individuals with lived action. PAR researchers choose not to experience bring local expertise, have local “ignore the oppressive values and networks they can engage, and can help discriminatory practices of the status quo” bridge the divide and build trust between the (Feagin and Vera 2008). In effect, the researcher and the community. Their orientation not only enables the production of knowledge and perspectives contribute to trustworthy scholarship, but also allows the crafting research questions and instruments researcher to “take sides” against that which that represent the issues or phenomenon that causes harm to the communities we work the study seeks to understand and measure, with. In addition to the production of new and therefore we argue, maximizes validity. knowledge, PAR is guided by several In this research approach, trained individuals principles, including: 1) PAR is a democratic with lived experience and local expertise and equitable process; 2) power-sharing and contributing the entire research-to-action co-learning are crucial to successful process is considered a benefit to the process, implementation; 3) respect for individuals’ not a lapse in objectivity. knowledge, experience, and perspectives is key, and 4) agreeing to disagree is expected. In our view, three pillars are essential This type of collaboration to a participatory research approach: 1) active engagement of the community, ideally in the means working with people entire research-to-action process, 2) using a who may have different lived research design or methods to collect data systematically, and 3) using the findings to experience, and thus requires generate action plans and increase team building, flexibility, and community engagement to improve social conditions. respect for different types of These three pillars working together knowledge. make this approach distinct from traditional social science and moves it beyond elements of critical theory to not just explain the social Communities build capacity as they world but work with publics to transform it. conduct PAR including how to build Putting it simply, if researchers conduct a knowledge around an issue, research ethics study in a community because they are and confidentiality, data collection, analysis, interested in explaining a particular and how to translate findings and present phenomenon (e.g., redlining, lack of public those findings to their community so they are services, disproportionate impact of the understood and can be utilized outside of the coronavirus), and only engage the academy. Because of their methodological community to obtain feedback as opposed to and theoretical training, and general interests working in partnership with the community in understanding power dynamics, without direct action, this would still be an sociologists have an important role to play in example of a traditional research approach participatory research. Like any research regardless of the theoretical underpinnings study, it is important to know how to develop driving the study. a defensible research design and at the same Social scientists working with time know how to obtain the type of data communities and stakeholders in a research- necessary for the community to make

21 evidence-based choices to seek the change This often begins with connecting with they desire. community organizers, non-profits, or other Despite our skills and training, many community-based groups with an interest in sociologists have little exposure to PAR. Our understanding issues and harms intent is to describe features of the PAR systematically in order to alleviate them approach to not only make an argument for through self-directed action. In practice, this why PAR is an opportunity to “do” public may mean many conversations, explaining sociology by working alongside people with the approach, its benefits, and working to lived experience but also to pique the interest counter mistrust of research(ers). Be of sociologists to do this work. The sections prepared to listen and put in work you may that follow are instructive for this second feel is unrelated to research. In addition, purpose. community building with the broader community includes thinking about how to reach out to more community networks and It is also important to stakeholders at each step. Gathering information and feedback early and often establish roles, determine the from multiple stakeholders will bring more type of expertise needed, interested parties to the table for action planning and implementation which is key to devise shared principles, successful social change. conduct skills and cultural Community Building with a Research Team Conducting an authentic participatory asset mapping, resolve issues research study requires forming partnerships around representation… between individuals with diverse knowledge–a research team can be composed of a researcher, community members, and Considerations for Engaging Communities other stakeholders. This type of collaboration Across Research Phases Utilizing the PAR means working with people who may have Approach different lived experience, and thus requires Given that the underlying principles team building, flexibility, and respect for and goals of “doing” participatory research different types of knowledge. Crucial is are to address power dynamics, through trust, knowing when to step in as the leader and community and relationship building, how do facilitator and when to step back. you engage communities to conduct PAR? As the research team is established, Engagement and collaboration at each stage collaboration to understand community of the research-to-action process is essential issues follows. to meeting these goals and is one of the It is also important to establish roles, distinguishing features between traditional determine the type of expertise needed, and participatory research approaches. Below devise shared principles, conduct skills and are some suggestions on how researchers cultural asset mapping, resolve issues around could think of working with the community representation (is there agreement that the to create these opportunities. right people are “at the table?”), and deal with Community Building power differentials. Fruitful implementation of PAR requires building authentic relationships.

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Source: Andrea Robles.

PAR is intended to build capacity in the can understand how to adapt methods and community, yet participants are often the instruments to be culturally appropriate. You same people in our society who are may teach research skills including un(der)compensated for their labor confidentiality and protection of human (including emotional labor). Consequently, subjects, engage in discussions about the logistical issues like recruitment and advantages and disadvantages of different remuneration for the labor, transportation, types of traditional and nontraditional and meals for participants are important research methods, and practice by role during this phase. There should be a playing. commitment to regular gatherings for Once the team understands the training, reflection, and team building that methods, you may facilitate a process or are agreed to during the initial phase as well. conduct workshops about choosing the most Research Design and Execution appropriate research methods to answer the By now, you may be wondering what study's research question given the resources is the role of the PAR facilitator (that’s you, and develop instruments and data collection the “researcher”)? You may facilitate a protocols. Research methodology process to develop your study’s research development requires time for reflection, question(s) with your team. They may dialogue, circling back to topics as needed so emerge from an existing community need or the team (you included) feels knowledgeable, interest, a workshop, or through a more and comfortable to do the data gathering elaborate six-step approach like the SEED work. Common methods used in method devised by Zimmerman (2020). participatory research include (but are not A trained sociologist has a toolbox of limited to): qualitative and quantitative research methods 1. Surveys, focus groups, one-on-one they can employ, teach, and implement to interviews2: Research teams may decide to collect data systematically and ethically, and use these more traditional social science

23 methodologies. PAR often employs acquired by a team or other expert participant diagramming, dot-voting, and other methods (van Exel and de Graaf 2005). of expression to use during interviews and 5. Oral histories, storytelling, and focus groups to elicit responses for less testimonios3: Research team members learn talkative people or people from diverse how to prepare an interview guide with linguistic communities. questions and probes for follow-up questions 2. Community mapping, transect to solicit depth and detail based on the walks: This is a systematic walk along a research question(s). Then they recruit, defined path with local people, typically a schedule, and conduct the interviews. group, who will collectively: observe, ask, Training may be necessary for record- listen, and look at their surroundings. These keeping procedures, interview research and are excellent techniques to open preparation, interview setting, use of the opportunities for conversation. Data is often equipment, interviewing techniques, represented with maps. Also conducted by transcription, coding, and theme building. viewing Google maps to analyze change over time (i.e., neighborhood development and gentrification). PAR is but one example of an 3. Photovoice (or photo elicitation): Community researchers take photographs approach to “doing” public that illustrate issue(s) of interest and discuss sociology…It is a return to the them in a group setting, specifically, how the photos illustrate the issue(s), their historical roots of sociology to community’s needs, assets, connections to re-learn to embrace publics structural forces. This method increases visibility of those often invisible, is a less and solve social problems intimidating way to share feelings, increases together. participants ability to reflect, helps produce a clearer understanding of issues, and produces compelling photographic records for Collaborative Data Analysis and political/local change-makers (Wang and Interpretation Burris 1997; Clark-Ibáñez 2004). As with any social science research, 4. Q-sort: This method helps the once the data has been collected, it must be research team to understand multiple analyzed. The researcher needs to spend time perspectives on an issue by ranking and teaching, mentoring and reviewing the work. sorting a series of statements (or It is exciting for the entire team to discuss and photographs) developed by the research interpret the findings they have devoted so team. It brings to light many perspectives much time to learn. However, unlike a sole with a low barrier to participation and does researcher’s work there may be multiple not require similar understandings or interpretations of the data and decision orientations to an issue. The team develops making on the form findings may take. This the data to be analyzed, recruits participants, requires creating openings for honest conducts the sorting activity (from least to discussion, debate, and ultimately might take most preference with a roughly normal practicing the principle of “agreeing to distribution of data), and conducts disagree.” analysis/interpretation. This method does require some software expertise which can be

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Presenting Findings and Developing Action technique is that it captures both the intended Plans effects of the work but also the unintended Presenting findings and developing effects that are often left out of traditional action plans with the team and other evaluation methods. stakeholders is part of an action-reflection Conclusion cycle. The team with expert knowledge about PAR is but one example of an the community can decide on how best to approach to “doing” public sociology that present the results themselves in ways that extends beyond Burawoy’s call for discourse can be understood, utilized, and exciting for with diverse communities. It is a return to the multiple audiences who are not only historical roots of sociology to re-learn to interested in learning about the issue embrace publics and solve social problems investigated but also enthusiastic to be part of together. It extends beyond traditional social transformation. sociological efforts to understand and explain the social world regardless of whether it is to establish social laws or learn the nuances of …the opportunity to produce human life. This approach is unapologetically about bringing people into a knowledge that is liberating research-to-action process who have lived for us and the communities experience, their own perspectives, beliefs, and are interested in using knowledge to we work with can reconnect make positive social change in their us with our disciplinary respective communities. Like traditional research, PAR may history. lead to peer-reviewed publications, books, conference presentations, and policy or position papers. Unlike much traditional An important part of action planning research, this work may also lead to deep and is stakeholders committing to how to use the long commitment to communities, skill findings to improve local conditions. During development and empowerment of presentations, audiences can provide participants, and celebration! This approach feedback on next steps and engage in action may not be for everyone. However, the planning. An action plan may be internal to benefits, skills and knowledge gained for all an organization or externally facing (i.e., to team members, the enjoyment of working policy makers, city councils, written as a with an enthusiastic team, and the newspaper article, etc.). Reports are opportunity to produce knowledge that is traditional ways to present information but liberating for us and the communities we there are also other creative methods such as work with can reconnect us with our presenting the findings through poetry, disciplinary history. theater, songwriting, or memory books, in Notes community meetings or during data walks to 1. We are referring to the approach as Participatory engage the public further. Action Research throughout this article. More Evaluating transformational but no less collaborative than other closely related approaches called participatory Can PAR work be evaluated? Yes, research, action research, Community Based this work can be evaluated using traditional Participatory Research (CBPR). See suggested or participatory strategies like Ripple Effects readings for more discussion on distinctions among Mapping (Chazdon, Emery, Hansen, et al. them. 2017). One advantage of this evaluation

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2. These methods are known to most sociologists and Health: From Process to Outcomes, 2nd Edition. San will not be described further here. Francisco, CA: John Wiley and Sons; Reason, P. and 3. Described as narraciones de urgencia (emergency Bradbury, H. (eds.) (2001) Handbook of Action or urgent narratives); a means to bear witness to Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice, injustices through spoken or written word (Caxaj, Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications Inc. 2015). Payne, G. and Payne, J. (2004). Key Concepts in References/Suggested Reading Social Research. “Objectivity”, Pp. 152-156. Sage Bergold, J. & Thomas, S. (2012). Participatory Publishing: Thousand Oaks, CA. Research Methods: A Methodological Approach in Pink, Sara. (2007). “Photography in Ethnography.” Motion. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 13 (1). Doing Visual Sociology. Sage Publications. Art. 30, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114- Richie, Donald. (2003). Doing Oral History: Using fqs1201302 Interviews to Uncover the Past and Preserve it for Caxaj, C.S. (2015). Indigenous Storytelling and the Future. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Participatory Action Research: Allies Toward Stringer, E (1999). Action Research, 2nd edition, Decolonization? Reflections from the Peoples’ Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications Inc. International Health Tribunal. Global Qualitative Turner, J.H. (2001). International Encyclopedia of Nursing Research, 2, Jan-Dec 2, doi: Social and Behavioral Sciences, First Edition. 10.1177/2333393615580764 Elsevier: New York, NY. Clark-Ibáñez, M. (2004). Framing the social world van Exel, J., & de Graaf, G. (2005). Q methodology: with photo-elicitation interviews. American A sneak preview. Retrieved from website: Behavioral Scientist. 2004;47:1507–1527. https://qmethodblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/qm Clawson, D., Sussman, R. Misra, J., Gerstel, N., ethodologyasneakpreviewreferenceupdate.pdf Stokes, R., Anderton, D.L., eds. (2007). Public Wang, C. and Burris, M. (1997). Photovoice: Sociology: Fifteen Eminent Sociologists Debate Concept, Methodology, and Use for Participatory Politics and the Profession in the Twenty-first Needs Assessment. Health Education & Behavior, Century. University of California Press: Berkeley, 23(3), 369-387. CA. Yosso, Tara J. (2005). “Whose Culture Has Capital? Fals Borda, O. (1998). People’s Participation: A Critical Race Theory Discussion of Community Challenges Ahead. New York and London: Apex Cultural Wealth.” Race Ethnicity and Education Press and Intermediate Technology Publications 8:69‐91. Feagin, J. & Vera (2008). Liberation Sociology, 2nd Zimmerman, Emily B. (2020). Researching Health ed. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers. Together: Engaging Patients and Stakeholders, From Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed, New Topic Identification to Policy Change. Sage York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Publications: Thousand Oaks CA. Israel, B., Eng, E., Schulz, A.J., Parker, E.A. (eds) Resources (2005). Methods in Community-Based Participatory A Field Guide to Ripple Effect Mapping Research for Health, San Francisco, CA: John Wiley https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/190639 & Sons, Inc. Center for Collaborative Action Research: Jason, L A., Keys, C. B., Suarez-Balcazar, Y, Taylor, http://cadres.pepperdine.edu/ccar/resources.html R.R., and Davis, M.I. (eds.) (2004). Participatory Community toolbox (University of Kansas) Community Research: Theories and Methods in https://ctb.ku.edu/en/toolkits Action, Washington DC: American Psychological Critically-engaged Civic Learning Framework: Association https://adpaascu.wordpress.com/2018/02/21/campus- Kindon, S., Rachel Pain, and Mike Kesby. (2007). spotlight-moving-from-service-learning-to-critically- Participatory Action Research Approaches and engaged-civic-learning-at-salem-state/ Methods: Connecting people, participation, and Data Walks: An Innovative Way to Share Data with place. New York: Routledge Studies in Human Communities: Geography. https://www.urban.org/research/publication/data- Krishnaswamy, A. (2004). Participatory Research: walks-innovative-way-share-data-communities Strategies and Tools. Practitioner: Newsletter of the Developing and Sustaining CBPR Partnerships: Skill- National Network of Forest Practitioners, 22: 17-22. Building Curriculum, University of Washington Mills, C.W. (2000 [1959]). The Sociological https://depts.washington.edu/ccph/cbpr/ Imagination, 40th Anniversary Edition. Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK. Minkler, M. and Wallerstein, N. (eds.) (2008). Community-Based Participatory Research for

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that he encapsulated all four types of W.E.B. Du Bois, the First Burawoy’s sociological orientations, often all Public Sociologist at once. Beginning in the 1970s, a number of Rutledge M. Dennis sociologists (Green, 1973; Dennis, 1975) Kimya N. Dennis began to explore the role of W.E.B. Du Bois as one of the early, yet neglected and forgotten classical sociologists alongside Michael Burawoy’s (2004; 2005) Durkheim, Weber, Simmel, and Sumner. We challenging and provocative articles on all know of Du Bois’s role as a civil rights public sociology sought to remind sociology leader. As a black man in a world where race of its historic origins as a “moral science.” In and color had taken center stage, race as a these articles, Burawoy juxtaposes what he social idea and value became the central believes sociology has become, and how and focus of Du Bois’s intellectual and scholastic why it has morphed into an entity critiques and analyses. unrecognizable from its origins and legacy. This paper explores the world of Du Throughout the 2005 article, Burawoy cites Bois, the sociologist, and in particular, his W.E.B. Du Bois, along with Jane Addams, transition from sociologist to public Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, and Max Weber sociologist. W.E.B. Du Bois cannot be fully as early pioneers and representatives of this understood as a sociologist, at least not as a sociological approach, oriented toward one public sociologist, without an understanding of many publics, and committed to of the persistent and recurring late 19th and addressing one or more public issues and early 20th century national and international problems. As a first step in the codification events he sought to address and resolve. In of sociology as a discipline, Burawoy created the U.S., and especially in the South, the four typologies of knowledge corresponding nation chose not to grapple with the vestiges to four distinct types of sociological of slavery, the Civil War, and orientation: professional, critical, policy, and Reconstruction, which Du Bois (1935) public. analyzed and critiqued intensely. Our focus on Burawoy’s articles is important because like him, we believe the role of public sociology continues to be necessary. Burawoy’s effort to highlight its A young Du Bois took to the importance cast a much needed light on what stage, designating himself the has been a neglected orientation of the discipline. His frequent mention of Du Bois self-declared socio-political within the context of public sociology missionary destined to conveys a deep understanding and appreciation of Du Bois’s role as one of the address the ills of his people early founding fathers of public sociology, at and the nation. In reality, his a time when the discipline was attempting to establish its identity. Beyond Burawoy’s concerns were more global… appreciation, we assert that Du Bois was the first public sociologist and furthermore, that he consciously carved out a role for himself as a public sociologist. Viewing Du Bois’s life in its entirety, we are able to appreciate

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Du Bois and the Making of a Public Europe was simultaneously a prey to all the Sociologist in a World of National and forces previously described as acting International Strife separately toward the intensification of race- Du Bois contended with several beliefs…Nationalism was an acute and legacies of slavery, among them the violence universal fever…imperialism and prestige- and intimidation that became diplomacy was clutching at every argument institutionalized in the form of the Ku Klux for the furtherance of commercial aims in Klan and other white vigilante groups. The Africa, America, and the Far East…” purpose of these groups was to frighten and intimidate blacks, prevent them from voting, and prevent them from showing any public This missionary spirit was on displays of success and prosperity. Additionally, Southern racial policy was also full display while celebrating predicated on the idea that education and his 25th birthday in 1893 in schools for blacks should not be given any priority. The premise underlying this policy Germany, the point at which was that an impoverished, poorly educated, he began to define his role as and powerless black population would better ensure the economic and political superiority an integral agent in solving and success of whites. Further, the last two the problems of his people. decades saw the emergence of Darwinism and social-Darwinism, with the latter adhering to a philosophy of human “survival The Berlin Conference of 1885 (Du of the fittest” and a policy of “right makes Bois, 1940) in particular, constituted the most right,” along with the continuing policy of far-reaching and devastating event of the “manifest destiny” applied to America’s century for the African continent as it indigenous populations. represented the beginning of a sustained Thus, social-Darwinism (Dennis, European imperialist and colonialist attack, 1995) coupled with an emerging practice of conquest, and occupation of the continent IQ testing, resulted in a new version of racism with dire economic, military, and political known as “scientific racism.” Lastly, the consequences for Africa’s development th transition into the 20 century witnessed the (Rodney, 1972). emergence of America as a new imperial A young Du Bois took to the stage, power following the victory in the Spanish- designating himself the self-declared socio- American War and acquisition of spoils; political missionary destined to address the namely, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and ills of his people and the nation. In reality, his Hawaii. It was at this time that America concerns were more global, as he viewed emerged as a major urban and industrial himself as the centerpiece of a national and economic behemoth whose productivity world-wide missionary program to save came to outpace England as the major people of African descent. This missionary capitalist stronghold. spirit was on full display while celebrating In Europe, nations and principalities his 25th birthday in 1893 in Germany, the were still recovering from the Napoleonic point at which he began to define his role as wars and the war of 1848, also known as the an integral agent in solving the problems of war of intellectuals. According to Jacques his people. Per Du Bois’s own words (Du Barzun (1965:133), “between 1870-1900 Bois, 1985 reprint: 28-29):

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“…I am firmly convinced that my own best message which they are capable of development is now one and the same with giving…For the development of the Negro the best development of the world…The genius, of Negro literature and art, of Negro general proposition of working for the spirit, only Negroes bound and welded world’s good becomes too soon sickly together, Negroes inspired by one vast ideal, sentimentality. I therefore take the work that can work out in its fullness the great message the Unknown lay in my hands and work for we have for humanity” (Du Bois, 1970 the rise of the Negro people, taking for reprint: 73-85). To make this message a granted that their best development means reality, Du Bois proposed the creation of the best development of the world.” “race organizations,” whose formation would be the responsibility of the Talented Tenth and would include such institutions as colleges and universities, newspapers, Du Bois almost takes a business organizations, schools of literature and art, all of which would feed into a “chosen people” approach… national “intellectual clearing house” to be known as the American Negro Academy.

In a second essay (Du Bois, 1897b) Thus, Du Bois projected himself into delivered as a speech on November 19, 1897 history and the world in a way that C. Wright before the American Academy of Political Mills (1959) eventually came to describe as a and Social Science, Du Bois focused mainly feature of the “sociological imagination.” In on the development of the newly emerging two 1897 essays, Du Bois laid out an action discipline of sociology. plan whose substance and objective reside in what we would call public sociology, with the focus being the problem of race, class, social injustice, and inequality. In his action Du Bois believed white plan, the messengers would be a cadre of researchers lacked both the educated blacks dedicated to achieving freedom for their people and liberating the skills and objectivity to study larger white society from its prejudice. Du blacks… Bois (1968[1903]) called this cadre, the educated elite, or the Talented Tenth. In an essay entitled, “The The speech entitled “The study of the Conservation of Races,” presented as a Negro Problem,” expanded upon his first lecture before the American Negro Academy, essay and proposed the main sociological Du Bois (1970 reprint) made the case for methods he sought to use in pursuing this line cultural and racial pluralism opposing what of inquiry: observation, research, and many were advancing at the end of the 19th comparison. According to Du Bois, trained century: that the race problem could be minds, such as the Talented Tenth, would be resolved if only the African race were to central in these studies and therefore, disappear either by being absorbed into the responsible for disseminating and conveying European race, or being deported to Africa or the results of these studies to the larger Latin America. Rejecting these options, Du society via magazines, journals, newsletters, Bois almost takes a “chosen people” public lectures, and other media. This new approach, believing “the Negro race-has not approach to the issue of “the Negro Problem” as yet, given to civilization the full spiritual would be addressed by black researchers

29 already engaged in this line of inquiry, such and working on a research project (August as the Atlanta University Laboratory Studies 1896-December 1897) designed to study the by Earl Wright (2016). existence of and problems facing blacks living in the Seventh Ward of Philadelphia (Du Bois, 1967[1899]. This would be the first …through his focus on race community study in the country, and Du Bois saw the opportunity to collect objective facts and class, we see a profile of about blacks which, according to him, would Du Bois the public stem the rampant disinformation circulating about blacks in the larger white community. sociologist. The book, “The Philadelphia Negro (1967 reprint),” continues to serve as a model of early attempts at conducting fieldwork and The key to this research would have survey research in a large urban setting. to be black researchers, as Du Bois believed white researchers lacked both the skills and objectivity to study blacks, a point emphasized by the use of foreign scholars, This early empirical stage such as Gunnar Myrdal (1944), to study reflected…Du Bois’s faith America’s racial problem. In these two speeches, and through and belief in science, the his focus on race and class, we see a profile scientific approach, and of Du Bois the public sociologist. The key issue was the proviso highlighting the scientific methodology as importance of accurate data, the paths to social truths and understanding of that data, and the dissemination of information to black and social reality. white audiences by trained researchers and educators such as the Talented Tenth. Since During the course of his career, Du dissemination of information was crucial, the Bois also led four U.S. government funded information itself, and its interpretation research projects. In “Negroes of Farmville, would also be crucial. Virginia (1898b),” we find a model for In these two early speeches, we see comparative research as it took place in a the kernel of Du Bois’s vision for what a small rural town located in the south, psychology addressing public issues of providing both size and geographic location concern to a public should be and should as comparatives. The three other studies accomplish; that is, address issues of great included “The Negro in the Black Belt concern to one or more constituent groups on (1899),” “The Negro Landholder of Georgia important local, regional, and national issues (1901),” and “The Negro Farmer (1904).” Du and problems. Having made information and Bois also conducted a fifth study in Lowndes data pre-requisites for social action and social County, Alabama 1906, but it was never policy, Du Bois set out to gather this published. Because the study was deemed information and data. counter to Booker T. Washington, it is The Public Sociologist as Empiricist believed to have been destroyed (Du Bois Du Bois’s entry into the world of 1968). These studies were valuable tools in empirical research began while he was Du Bois’s intellectual and sociological teaching at the University of Pennsylvania

30 arsenal as he sought ways to better study and pronged strategy of attack. This strategy understand the problems confronting blacks. included creating a base for black community development and launching a frontal assault against the system of segregation and social This desire to unearth data as injustice. The Academy was an all-male a reflection of social organization; however, beyond excluding conditions, attitudes and women, it also excluded the ordinary working man. For Du Bois, these exclusions values, was an early feature were purposeful. He believed that the goals of the public sociologist. and objectives of the Academy would largely appeal to the educated, the Talented Tenth. Du Bois believed, in the true spirit of They also yielded data he would use the Luke theorem, that those blessed with throughout his life as he sought statistics to intellectual talents and worldly possessions bolster his arguments related to the injustices should be expected to give much in return. being perpetrated towards blacks in society. For him, this meant sacrificing time, energy, This desire to unearth data as a reflection of and even money to support their freedom. social conditions, attitudes, and values, was Just as Lenin (Lukacs, 1974) viewed the an early feature of the public sociologist. creation of the vanguard party organization With it, Du Bois sought to refute racial myths as the main vehicle for organizing and and misinformation. This early empirical coordinating the societal class struggle, Du stage in Du Bois’s academic and scholastic Bois’s (1903) view of the Academy served as life did not merely reflect an orientation a vehicle to organize and coordinate the towards data and facts. It also reflected Du societal racial struggle. Bois’s faith and belief in science, the scientific approach, and scientific methodology as paths to social truths and …the public sociologist, social reality. The Public Sociologist’s Use of actively engaged in creating Organizations as Insurgent Weapons and promoting economic, Du Bois viewed organizations as important strategic and tactical weapons in a political, and cultural links subordinate group’s quest for equality and between Africans on the social justice. In his 1897 speech before the American Negro Academy, where he was to continent and Africans in the become the second president, Du Bois diaspora. outlined the need for black organizations to serve as foundations for addressing community social and psychological needs. Du Bois was also an organizer of the Du Bois saw the potential for these first national organization to address racial organizations to serve as home bases for inequity, the Niagara Movement which collective action against a dominant white restricted membership to fifty-nine black society. The Academy would be the first of men. Created in 1905, the Movement failed many organizations either created by Du and in 1910, the majority of its members, Bois, or joined by him, to launch a two- along with a few invited whites, formed the

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National Association for the Advancement of resulted first, in the decolonization of India. Colored People (NAACP). In the 1950s and 1960s, the challenges posed by the various Congresses to the West’s commitment to democracy and freedom led His tireless commitment and to the almost complete decolonization of Africa. Du Bois’s role as scholar-activist- total devotion to the cause was organizer was central to the success of the unmatched. congresses just as it had been central to the success of the NAACP.

Both organizations were designed to confront and challenge discrimination and to These periodicals were a part set agendas for both black and white America on how to enact social policy to promote of his overall strategy to not social and racial change. Du Bois played an only inform the public (both activist-sociologist role or in other words, the public sociologist role in both organizations black and white) but to also as he provided sociological insights on shock the public into shedding societal issues while demonstrating and petitioning as sociologist-citizen-activist. He old racial habits and adopting played a similar organizational role new ones. internationally within the Pan-African Congresses. Du Bois’s interest in the socio- His tireless commitment and total cultural life of Africans and their links to devotion to the cause was unmatched. In Africans in America was first conveyed in his essence, he was a one-man organizational doctoral dissertation (1896). Keenly aware of unit, and the organization, and committed the disconnect between Africans in Africa, members, the Talented Tenth, served as the Caribbean, and North and South America, weapons in the struggle. One could include in Du Bois, the public sociologist, actively this section Du Bois’s use of magazines, engaged in creating and promoting periodicals, and newsletters, to get the economic, political, and cultural links message out to blacks and whites on issues of between Africans on the continent and race because the creation of these outlets also Africans in the diaspora. requires organizational skills. Because Du Among the central themes in all of the Bois had little faith that whites would publish congresses (Du Bois, 1940) was the his views on race, he invested considerable challenge western colonialism and time and energy on the development of media imperialism directed towards Africa, as well for blacks. These media outlets included: The as towards Asia and Latin America. To Moon (1906); The Horizon (1907-1910); The develop and cement this relationship between Crisis, the house organ owned by the the continent and the diaspora, Du Bois NAACP; The Brownie’s Book (written for organized a series of Pan-African Congresses children) 1920-1921, and later Phylon in 1919, 1921, 1923, and 1927 (Du Bois, (1938), a review of race and culture, created 1940). These congresses were instrumental in at Atlanta University where Du Bois was a setting the groundwork for the groundswell sociology professor. These periodicals were movement (Du Bois, 1965;1968) which a part of his overall strategy to not only

32 inform the public (both black and white) but examples of how Du Bois sought to get the to also shock the public into shedding old message to black audiences not only of the racial habits and adopting new ones. greatness of Africa but also of blacks in America. Importantly, he believed that blacks needed to be able to concisely define what …the more we dig into the and who they wished to be in relation to European-American people and culture. This richness of his vast was a call for cultural and social pluralism, intellectual and scholastic rather than racial separation. Du Bois the aesthete, also tried his treasure chest, the more we hand at novels as a medium for telling the see and understand how stories of black life from 1919 onward. The first of these novels was “The Quest of the driven he was to insert life Silver Fleece (1911).” Others followed, into a seemingly moribund including “The Dark Princess (1928)” and the trilogy, “The Black Flame (1957).” With American society… Du Bois the public sociologist as creative artist and performer, a clear picture emerges of the wide array of academic, scientific, and The Public Sociologist as Creative Artist and artistic tools he used in pursuit of his goal to Performer convey the story of black life and black Du Bois’s writings have always been experience. characterized as having a “literary bent.” In The Legacy of Du Bois as Public Sociologist “The Souls of Black Folk” (1903), the It is clear that Du Bois was the first “Coming of John,” Du Bois uses allegory to public sociologist in our era. Like Karl Marx highlight a racially charged story involving before him, the more we dig into the richness the death of white John by black John, and of his vast intellectual and scholastic treasure the eventual lynching of black John. Du Bois chest, the more we see and understand how as public sociologist, sought every vehicle driven he was to insert life into a seemingly available to him to help move the issue of moribund American society glued to some of race and blacks and their life experiences, the vestiges of its mixed good/bad society history, and culture forthrightly into the and its good/bad history. However, despite public square so that it could be accessible. the ambiguities of the present and past, Du Bois the poet-dramatist-creator (Du Bois, throughout his life, Du Bois seemingly 1963; Freedomways, 1965; Agbeyebiawo, sought to create a black Balzacian Comedie 1998), came alive through the poems “The Humaine, portraying and analyzing almost Song of Smoke,” “A Hymn to the Peoples,” every aspect of black life, culture, and “Revelation,” “Almighty Death,” “The experience in his poems, pageants, novels, White Man’s Burden,” “Ghana Calls,” short stories, historical studies, sociological “Suez,” and the long epic poem, “A Litany at research studies and essays. Atlanta.” These poems, and his pageant of the history of blacks from Africa to the New World, “The Star of Ethiopia,” were

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Portrait of W. E. Burghardt Du Bois. Winold Reiss. Courtesy: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

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Indeed, his contributions in these areas have ____ 1928. Dark Princess. New York: Harcourt and been astonishing, a fact now recognized by Brace. ____ 1935. Black Reconstruction in America. New the academic-scholastic-literary world. York: Free Press. Volumes of books currently in print dissect ____ 1938. A Pageant in Seven Decades. Atlanta: his contributions in many areas of American Atlanta University Press. and world history, including sociology, ____ 1940. Dusk of Dawn. New York: Harcourt and political theory, economics, literature, and Brace. ____ 1957. The Black Flame-The Ordeal of Mansart. even criminology, where he is now New York: Mainstream Publishers. increasingly recognized by many as the first ____ 1963. W.E.B. Du Bois: An ABC of Color. criminologist. Berlin: Seven Seas Publishers. His record of devotion to public ____ 1965. “The W.E.B. Memorial Issue” issues and problems in so many venues, his Freedomways, Vol.5, No.1. ____ 1967. The Philadelphia Negro. New York: organizational strategies for collective Schocken Books. change, and his prodigious and scholarly ____ 1968. The Autobiography of W.E.B. Du Bois. productivity over more than sixty years is New York: International Publishers. nothing short of amazing, as is the tenacity ____ 1969. The Suppression of the African Slave with which he persisted. Du Bois was a Trade. New York: Schocken Books. ____ 1970. “The Conservation of Races” Pp. 73-85 in public scholar, public intellectual, but above W.E.B. Du Bois Speaks. Edited by Philip S. Foner. all, a public sociologist. This was conveyed New York: Pathfinder. by his analysis of issues and the solutions he ____ 1985. “Contributions to the Negro Problems” in sought for them. He continued to use his Against Racism: Unpublished Essays, Papers, valuable sociological reasoning and logic Addresses 1887-1961 By W.E.B. Du Bois, edited by Herbert Aptheker. Amherst: University of Mass. long after he disengaged from and disavowed Press. the discipline in its entirety - a discipline he, Dennis, Rutledge M. 1995. “Social Darwinism, like Burawoy, loved, but ultimately Scientific Racism and the Metaphysics of Race” denounced, as the profession increasingly Journal of Negro Education, 64: 243-252. moved away from its once great calling. ____ 1975. The Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois. Ph.D. References dissertation. Washington State University. Agbeyebiawo, Daniel. 1998. The Life and Work of Green, Dan S. 1973. The Truth Shall Set You Free: W.E.B. Du Bois. Accra: Daniel Agbeyebiawo. The Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois. Ph.D. dissertation. Barzun, Jacques. 1965. Race: A Study in Superstition. University of Massachusetts. New York: Harper and Row. Lukacs, Georg. 1971. Lenin: A Study of the Unity of Burawoy, Michael. 2005. “For Public Sociology.” His Thought. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. American Sociological Review 70: 4-28. Mills, C. Wright. 1959. The Sociological Imagination. Du Bois, W.E.B. 1898a. “The Study of the Negro New York and London: Oxford University Press. Problem.” Annals of the American Academy of Myrdal, Gunnar. 1944. The American Dilemma. New Political and Social Science 11(January) 1-23. York: Harper and Row. ____ 1898b. “The Negroes of Farmville Virginia: A Rodney, Walter. 1972. How Europe Underdeveloped Social Study” Bulletin of the U.S. Department of Africa. London: Bogle-L’Overture. Labor, Vol. 3(January, 1898) pp. 1-38. Wright, Earl. 2016. The First American School of ____ 1899. “The Negro in the Black Belt. Bulletin of Sociology: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Atlanta the U.S. Department of Labor, 647-777. Sociological Laboratory. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate. ____ 1900. “The Negro Farmer” Special Report of the Census Office. ____ 1901. “The Negro Landowner of Georgia,” Bulletin of the U.S. Department of Labor, 647-777. ____ 1903. The Souls of Black Folk. New York: McClurg and Company. ____ 1911. The Quest of the Silver Fleece. Chicago: McClurg and Company.

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