Editorial Board:
Editor:
George H. Conklin,
 North Carolina
 Central University

Board:
Bob Davis,
 North Carolina
 Agricultural and
 Technical State
 University

Richard Dixon,
 UNC-Wilmington

Ken Land,
 Duke University

Miles Simpson,
 North Carolina
 Central University

Ron Wimberley,
 N.C. State University

Robert Wortham,
 North Carolina
 Central University

Editorial Assistants

John W.M. Russell,
 Technical
 Consultant

Austin W. Ashe
 North Carolina
 Central University

® 

Volume 7, Number 1

Spring 2009
 

W.E.B. Du Bois and Demography: Early Explorations

by

Robert A. Wortham

North Carolina Central University

    Demographic studies have been a part of the development of the American sociological tradition from the beginning.  In his study of American sociology's early years, Odum (1951) identified two Ph.D. dissertations from Columbia as representing the first sociologically based studies on population.  The first was a 1915 study by W. S. Thompson, "Population: A Study in Malthusianism."  The second was a 1920 study on "Negro Migration" by T. J. Woofter, Jr.  Odum devoted several pages to Du Bois' emphasis on "practical sociology," the development of sociology as an academic discipline, his empirical approach to sociological research and his work on race and ethnicity; however, his contributions to population studies and demography was not acknowledged.

    Between 1899 and 1906 Du Bois published three studies that addressed demographic issues and concerns.  Two of these studies, The Philadelphia Negro ([1899] 1996) and The Health and Physique of the Negro American (1906) were book length.  The other study was an article, "The Twelfth Census and the Negro Problems" (1900), which addressed some of his concerns associated with the upcoming 1900 census.  An investigation of these studies reveals that Du Bois addressed such demographic concerns as population size, composition and growth as well as regional variations in racial mortality differentials and the availability of medical care.  For a comprehensive sampling of the sociological issues addressed by Du Bois see Wortham (2009b). 

    Du Bois' The Philadelphia Negro ([1899] 1996) is a classic sociological study in urban social problems.  In terms of methodological sophistication, this study rivals Durkheim's Suicide ([1897] 1966).  In The Philadelphia Negro, readers are first introduced to Du Bois' use of methodological triangulation, his methodological trademark.  Throughout the study, he chose to document the severity of the racial disparities in urban quality of life by coupling available census data with a survey of Philadelphia's Seventh Ward based on schedules for the family, individuals, homes, house servants, streets and institutions.  As he conducted a fifteen month house-to-house survey of 9,675 African American's residing in the Seventh Ward, he also observed the variations in the living conditions prevalent within the Ward and on occasion provided detailed ethnographic commentaries. 

    Social issues addressed in The Philadelphia Negro ([1899] 1996) include: educational opportunities, limited occupational opportunities, family life, organizational participation, crime, alcoholism, housing conditions, racial contact and voting rights.  However, three chapters are devoted to population studies.  "The Size, Age and Sex of the Negro Population" is addressed in Chapter 5 while Chapters 7 and 10 are devoted to "Sources of the Negro Population" and "The Health of Negroes."

    While the utilization of a triangular methodology became the cornerstone of Du Bois' early sociological work, Du Bois appears to have been heavily influenced by the work of Charles Booth and Jane Addams.  In his nine-volume Life and Labour of the People in London (1892-1897), Booth accessed available government statistics and created survey schedules to collect data that was used to address the quality of life of London's residents.  Tables and maps were generated to portray relevant information on such issues as social class and occupation.  Likewise, in Hull-House Maps and Papers (1895), Addams and her Hull-House colleagues utilized a family schedule and a tenement schedule to collect quality of life data on Chicago's slum areas.  Maps were created to depict the spatial distribution of nationalities and different wage-earning groups (social classes).  Du Bois' early formal ties with Addams dated from his early visits to Hull-House to their work associated with the founding of the NAACP in 1909 (Hill and Deegan, 2007; Addams, 1912). 

    The demographic section of The Philadelphia Negro (chapters 5,7, and 10) begins with a discussion of African American population growth in Philadelphia throughout the nineteenth century.  Utilizing available census data, Du Bois (pp 46-50) stated that African Americans had always been a small minority population comprising 4.6% of Philadelphia's 1790 total population and only 3.8 % of the 1890 total population.   Likewise, since 1820 a surplus of women had characterized Philadelphia's African American community (pp 54-55).  This surplus was attributed to the fact that women had more access to industrial jobs and were likely to find work in domestic service.  However, from 1820 to 1890 the sex ratio increased from 71 to 89.  Du Bois attributed this increase to the fact that more males were securing jobs as servants.

    A detailed spatial, ethnographic description of the Seventh Ward was provided next (pp 58-62).  Du Bois began by portraying the areas adjacent to the Ward.  Businesses and residences were located to the North while working class and middle class residences flanked the Southern border.  African American, Italian and Jewish slums were to the East, and industries and residential neighborhoods were located further West.  A detailed hand drawn map of the Seventh Ward identified the Ward's streets and dwellings.  Each residence was coded by "social condition."  White residences were included in the top status group followed by four grades of African American residences.  Grade 1 included middle class and more affluent households while Grade 2 comprised working class residences.  The poor and the criminal class were included in Grades 3 and 4 respectively.

One of the slum areas was described as follows: The alleys near, as Ratcliffe street, Middle alley, Brown's court, Barclay street, etc., are haunts of noted criminals, male and female, of gamblers and prostitutes, and at the same time of poverty-stricken people, decent but not energetic.  There is an abundance of political clubs, and nearly all the houses are practically lodging houses, with a miscellaneous and shifting population (Du Bois, [1899] 1996: 60).

    The Seventh Ward's African American population appears to have been stratified by birthplace and length of residence in the city.  Du Bois (p. 73) noted that persons were reluctant to report that they were from the South.  The "social distance" between older Philadelphians and newly arrived Southerners was pronounced.  Data on birthplace for the African American population of Philadelphia's Seventh Ward is presented in Table 1.

    When the entire African American population is considered, one discovers that only one in three African American residents in the Seventh Ward were native Philadelphians, and approximately half the Ward's residents were originally born in adjacent, neighboring states.  Among African Americans aged 20 and under, slightly more than two-thirds of the Seventh Ward's residents were native Philadelphians; whereas, only one in five of the Ward's African American population aged 41 and above were native Philadelphians.  Three-fourths of the Ward's African American male population age 20 and under and two-thirds of the Ward's African American female population aged 20 and under were native Philadelphians.  These last two groups appear to represent a significant number of second generation Philadelphians.  One in ten persons reported that they were born in the South.  This finding is interesting as this study includes the first wave of the 1890 to 1930 migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North. 

    Racial differences in mortality were addressed in the chapter on health (pp 147-163).  Du Bois began this chapter with a discussion of the characteristics of "low civilization."  These characteristics included high birth rates, high death rates, early marriages and poor hygiene.  In many respects Du Bois provided a description of what later became known as the first stage of the demographic transition.  Du Bois (pp 148, 150-151, 156) then went on to maintain that Philadelphia's racial mortality differential could be attributed primarily to differences in living conditions and "social advancement" (i.e. social class).  To substantiate this claim Du Bois cited the 1884-1890 crude death rate data for Philadelphia's African American and white populations by Ward.  The crude death rate measure cited was based on the number of deaths per 1,000 population excluding still-births.  He then proceeded to group the wards by a crude measure of social class (slum – poor Wards, best African American Wards and white - domestic service Wards).  As expected the crude death rate (CDR) for African Americans and whites within the same Ward generally declined as one moved from the slum Wards to the white – domestic service Wards.  Du Bois (p. 156) concluded his crude death rate analysis with the statement, "… the Negro death rate is largely a matter of condition of living."

    The results of a statistical analysis of the racial difference in the Philadelphia's 1884-1890 crude death rate by social class are provided in Table 2.  The difference in means test (paired means t test) indicates that the African American mean crude death rate is significantly higher than the white mean rate when all Wards with an African American population greater than 0.1 % are included in the analysis.  The African American mean crude death rate does steadily decline as social conditions improve as Du Bois noted, but so does the white rate.  When one controls for social class, the racial difference in mortality disappears for each social category except working class African American Wards.  This finding is not surprising as racial differences in mortality have been shown to diminish significantly once the impact of age, gender, family structure and socioeconomic status are controlled (Rogers, 1992).  Likewise a U.S. panel study based on a survey of  8,500 men and women for 1972-1991 reveals that the risk of death is primarily a function of variations in income once one adjusts for differences in age, sex, race, family size, education and period (Marmot, 2004).

    Du Bois (pp 158-161) also focused on primary causes of death.  The leading causes of death for Philadelphia's African American population in 1890 were consumption (TB), diseases of the nervous system, pneumonia and heart disease.  For whites, the first two causes changed places.  As more persons were dying from infectious diseases, it was obvious that Philadelphia had not experienced "the epidemiological transition."  In fact, Du Bois (pp 151-152) argued that consumption was primarily a "social disease" that could be attributed to such factors as poor ventilation, dampness, limited outdoor activities, climate, limited access to medical services and heredity.  Du Bois (p. 160) noted that the Irish had been particularly susceptible to this disease before their social standing in urban communities improved.  Epidemiologists identify consumption as an example of a "crowd disease" (Molnar and Molnar, 2000).

    The chapter on health concluded (pp 160-163) with the identification of factors believed to impact African American health and illness.  Poor housing conditions were at the top of the list.  Undoubtedly, prejudice and discrimination impacted the overrepresentation of African Americans in substandard housing.  Accompanying poor housing conditions were poor sewer connections, inadequate ventilation and dampness.  The cost of medical care also contributed to poorer health.  The impact of stratification was felt here.  Persons on limited income often had to choose between food, rent, clothing and health care.  A general fear of going to hospitals existed, and limited exercise and poor diet took their toll.  Du Bois (p. 161) commented on unhealthy dietary practices such as the consumption of pork that had been fried in grease and noted that many persons were not eating meals on a regular basis.  Moving in the direction of social policy, Du Bois (p.163) called on the African American community to advocate for improved housing and sanitation conditions, better quality food and greater access to fresh air.

    By the end of 1897, Du Bois had completed his work for the University of Pennsylvania and had accepted a position at Atlanta University where he took charge of the activities of the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory, the work of the Atlanta Conferences for the Study of the Negro Problems and contributed to the building of a program of undergraduate and graduate instruction in sociology and economics.  Du Bois' initial tenure at Atlanta University ran from 1897-1910.  He returned to Atlanta University in 1933, and became department chair in 1934.  He remained at Atlanta University until 1944.

    During his initial tenure at Atlanta University, Du Bois edited twelve volumes of empirical research emanating from the Annual Conferences for the Study of the Negro Problems.  By addressing such topics as education, occupational opportunities, religion, crime, family and health, these studies addressed the ongoing changes or lack thereof in African American quality of life.  Graduate and undergraduate students often assisted with the data collection, and these studies were grounded Du Bois' use of a triangular methodology.  Students in the sociology program at Atlanta University were encouraged to utilize library resources to consult primary sources, but Du Bois insisted that students receive training in statistics so that they could work with census and survey data and be able to identify relevant trends.  Field experiences were also provided so that students could appreciate the importance of ethnographic description (Du Bois, [1903] 1995; [1905] 1995).

    Given Du Bois' commitment to empirical sociology and to the training of a new generation of scholars and researchers, it is not surprising that in 1900 he voiced concerns with respect to the format of the new census and the impact it could have on the study of the Negro Problems.  This concern was expressed formally in an article on "The Twelfth Census and the Negro Problems" that was published in the May 1900 issue of The Southern Workman.  Du Bois (1900) believed that the U.S. Census Bureau was the government agency in the best position to collect and assemble reliable data on African American quality of life.  He suggested that census studies could be combined with small area studies ("social studies") to address such topics as population composition and distribution, occupational structure, marital status, mortality, education, crime and land ownership.  The interesting point here is that many of these topics were explored in conjunction with the annual Atlanta University Conferences.

    Du Bois (1900) concluded the article with the recommendation that persons working with the twelfth census collaborate with a "Special Committee for the Study of the Negro Problems."  A clarification of the race measure was identified as one of the first issues to be addressed.  Persons of African descent should no longer be aggregated with the Japanese and Indians.  Second, the 1900 census should include a separate volume of statistics on the African American population.  Third, a series of studies could be generated from the 1900 census data that could address such issues as occupation and wages, property ownership, education and crime.  These proposed collaborative studies would be aimed at "presenting the facts."  Again, many of these issues were addressed in the annual Atlanta University Conference studies, and the 1906 conference particularly addressed the issue of health and health care resources.  Du Bois (1904) would later collaborate with the U.S. Census Bureau on a study about the African American farmer.

    The Health and Physique of the Negro American (1906) was the official publication of the eleventh Atlanta University Conference.  The first half of this publication was devoted to discussions of the nature of race.  Demographic and health related concerns were addressed in the second half where Du Bois addressed such issues as racial differences in fertility and mortality, racial biases in the insurance industry, African American access to hospitals, current medical training opportunities for African Americans and the supply of African American health care personnel.

    For this conference study, Du Bois relied heavily on the findings from the 1900 census.  This underscored his earlier interest in the focus and scope of the 1900 census.  Du Bois (pp 63-90) began the health section of the report with a discussion of fertility and mortality trends.  A summary of the racial differences in fertility, population composition and mortality patterns are presented in Table 3.  Du Bois noted that during the second half of the nineteenth century, fertility levels for African American and white women had steadily declined.  In 1850 fertility levels were slightly higher for African American women, but by 1900, the fertility levels for African American and white women were essentially the same.

    The median age for whites was more than three and a half years higher than that for African Americans; however, the African American median age had increased almost two years since 1820.  Compared to females in each racial group, higher median ages were recorded for African American and white males, and the racial gap in median age by gender was roughly the same, 3.8 years for males and 3.4 years for females.  Youth and elder dependency was roughly the same for African Americans and whites.  The sex ratio differences indicate that the white population was characterized by an oversupply of males, while females slightly outnumbered males among the African American population.  Du Bois (p. 64) attributed the low African American sex ratio to the legacy of slavery.

    Following a framework outlined previously in the chapter on health in The Philadelphia Negro ([1899] 1996), Du Bois, in this Atlanta University Conference on health, provided an expanded discussion of mortality.  A quick glance at the crude death rate data reveals a sizable racial difference in mortality for both the total population (12.3 deaths per 1,000 population) and for urban areas (9 deaths per 1,000 population).  Substantial racial differences in the primary cause of death and infant mortality were also observed.  Compared to whites, African Americans were 2.8 times as likely to die from consumption, twice as likely to succumb to pneumonia and faced a 44% higher risk of death from diseases of the nervous system.  These data indicate that in 1900 infectious diseases were still the primary causes of death for African Americans.

    Similar mortality patterns were noted with respect to infant mortality.  For the total population, the African American infant mortality rate was roughly 2.3 times that for whites.  Although the infant mortality rates were higher for males than females, the racial difference in infant mortality was roughly the same for each sex.  The African American male infant mortality rate was 2.3 times that of white males while the African American female infant mortality rate was 2.4 times that of white females.

    Du Bois (pp 78, 81, 90) attributed these racial differences in mortality to such factors as neglect, poor nutrition among children, unsanitary living conditions and the involvement of African Americans in more dangerous occupations.  Echoing his remarks in The Philadelphia Negro ([1899] 1996) Du Bois claimed that consumption was primarily a "social" rather than a race-specific disease.  He also argued that African American mortality could be lowered if sanitary conditions were improved and if African Americans had access to better educational and occupational opportunities.

   Next Du Bois (pp 91-93) turned his attention to a discussion of the problems African Americans had experienced in obtaining insurance.  Insurance companies had been charging African Americans higher premiums because they were perceived to be a higher risk group.  Insurance companies maintained that African American mortality rates were higher compared to whites and that African Americans were more likely to allow their policies to lapse.  Addressing a report based on the findings from thirty-four insurance companies, Du Bois emphasized that African American mortality rates were lower than those for the Irish population and equal to that for Germans.  Consequently, seven Northern states had passed laws preventing race-based discrimination within the insurance industry.  On the other hand, as a result of prejudice and discrimination, many Black insurance companies had formed.  In effect, the growth of Black Insurance companies illustrates what Portes (1987) later terms the development of "economic enclaves."  When facing discrimination by the larger society, geographically concentrated racial and ethnic groups will begin to offer services to their own communities and will later extend these services to the larger society once an internal economic base has been established.

    Du Bois' demographic treatise concludes with a discussion of the state of African American health care.  A summary description of available Black health services and the number of trained African American medical personnel is presented in Table 4.  While African Americans had access to all hospitals in the North, Du Bois (pp 93-95) addressed the segregation of heath care in the South.  By 1906 there were 42 private Black hospitals, and many of the general hospitals in the South had segregated wards.  Almost half of the private Black hospitals were located in the following Southern states: North Carolina (6), Georgia (5), Tennessee (4) and Alabama (4).

    There were also 160 Black drug stores in 1906, and by 1905 African Americans could receive medical training at five different Black medical schools.  These schools provided training for physicians, dentists, pharmacists and nurses.  These schools in order of establishment were Howard University Medical Department (1867), Meharry Medical College, Walden University (1876), Leonard Medical School, Shaw University (1882), Louisville National Medical College (1887) and Flint Medical College, New Orleans University (1889).

    Detailed descriptions of each program were provided, and a brief description of Shaw University's Leonard Medical School (pp 95-96) is provided here as an example.  The medical complex included four separate structures.  The Leonard Medical building included lecture rooms, an amphitheater, a laboratory and dissecting rooms.  A medical dormitory provided housing for 60 students, and the hospital building included three wards.  The dispensary was housed in another structure.  The medical faculty numbered 12 for the 1905-1906 academic year, and the total student enrollment was 178.  The majority of the students (147) students were in the four year medical program, and 31 students were in the three year pharmacy program.

    In 1900 the number of African American physicians totaled 1,734 of which 91 % were male (p. 96).  The number of African American physicians also nearly doubled over the 1890-1900 decade.  Du Bois (pp 97, 106-107) provided evidence that by 1905 the number of African American physicians had declined slightly.  Available records indicated that there were 1,252 African American graduates from the five Black Medical Schools and by 1906 that another 213 African Americans had graduated from Northern medical schools.  The Black medical schools had also graduated 116 dentists and 243 pharmacists by 1905.

    Du Bois (pp 98, 101-105) also exposed some of the prejudice and discrimination experienced by African American medical personnel and medical students.  First, he noted that the Southern Dental Association grew out of the National Dental Association because African American dentists in positions of authority were not respected by Southern white dentists.  Likewise, African American students were not welcome in many of the medical programs in the Border States and in the South.  The following statement from the Medical Department of the University of Georgia is offered as an example:

There are no niggers in this school and there never have been and there never will as long as one stone of its buildings remains upon another (Du Bois, 1906: 90).

One of these eight graduates I should rank as being exceptionally good, and the others as about the average of our pass men.  If the colored men had sufficient means to pay their way without being obliged to do work and drudgery for a living through college, their chances would be much better (Du Bois, 1906:101). 

    Many of Du Bois' early sociological writings included a demographic focus.  He routinely addressed such important issues as population size, composition, and spatial distribution as well as population dynamics.  Du Bois believed that the U.S. census provided some of the most reliable data that could be utilized to document the social inequalities being experienced by the African American community.  He also showed how area studies could be combined with census data to provide a more comprehensive understanding of racial inequality in the United States.

    Demographic analysis was shown to be very useful in providing a structural analysis of racial differences in quality of life.  His empirical study of the "Negro Problems" was grounded in his use of methodological triangulation.  This process routinely involved integrating the findings presented in available census data with those obtained from survey analysis and ethnographic description.  Du Bois' commitment to this methodological approach was further underscored by his insistence that sociology students at Atlanta University receive training in statistical analysis, the use and analysis of census data and field observation.

    The studies reviewed indicate that Du Bois made significant contributions to the development of demographic studies in the United States.  First, he was among the first to comment on the sex ratio imbalance within the African American population.  Second, he provided documentation for the beginning of an important migration stream from the rural South to the urban North in his discussion of birthplace data for the African American residents of Philadelphia's Seventh Ward.  Third, his discussions of African American migration into slum areas and then subsequently into more affluent neighborhoods anticipated the discussions of "ethnic succession" popularized by the Chicago School twenty-five years later.  Fourth, he underscored important links between racial differences in mortality and variations in social class (social conditions).  Finally, the social nature of certain infectious diseases like consumption was addressed and the need for better housing, proper ventilation, exercise and proper diet was highlighted in two book length studies.

    In more recent years, Du Bois' contributions to the development of the American sociological tradition have received increasing attention (Wortham, 2008; 2005b; 2005c: Morris, 2007).  Atlanta University's sociological laboratory represented one of the United State's earliest, comprehensive sociology programs.  In fact Wright (2006; 2005; 2002a and 2002b) maintains that the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory was the first sociological "school" in the United States.  While Du Bois' work in the area of race relations was acknowledged early (Odum, 1951), his pioneering work in such fields as the sociology of religion have been recognized only recently (Wortham, 2009(a); 2005a; Zuckerman, 2003; 2002).  Perhaps, now his contributions to the development of demographic studies in the United States may be recognized as well.

Addams, Jane. 1895. Hull-House Maps and Papers.  New York: Thomas Y. Crowell and Company.

_____. 1912. Twenty Years at Hull-House, with Autobiographical Notes.  New York: Macmillan.

Booth, Charles. 1892-1897. Life and Labour of the People in London, Nine Volumes. New York: Macmillan.

Du Bois, W.E.B. [1899] 1996.  The Philadelphia Negro, introduction by Elijah Anderson. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

_____. 1900. "The Twelfth Census and the Negro Problems." The Southern Workman 29: 305-309.

_____. [1903] 1995. "The Laboratory in Sociology at Atlanta University." Pp. 165-168 in W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader, edited by D.L. Lewis. New York: Henry
Holt.

_____. 1904. "The Negro Farmer." In Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census, Bulletin, No. 8, 69-98. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of the Census.

_____. [1905] 1995. "Atlanta University." Pp. 237-252 in W.E.B. Du Bois: A Reader, edited by D.L. Lewis. New York: Henry Holt.

_____. 1906. The Health and Physique of the Negro American. Atlanta: The Atlanta University Press.

Durkheim, Emile. [1897] 1966. Suicide. A Study in Sociology. New York: The Free Press.

Guttentag, Marcia and Paul F. Secord. 1983. Too Many Women? The Sex Ratio Question. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

Hill, Michael R. and Mary Jo Deegan. 2007. "Jane Addams, the Spirit of Youth, and the Sociological Imagination Today."  Paper presented at the 2007 American Sociological Associations' 102nd Annual Meeting, New York City.

Marmot, Michael. 2004. The Status Syndrome: How Social Standing Affects Our Health and Longevity. New York: Owl Books. Henry Holt and Company.

Molnar, Stephen and Iva Molnar. 2000. Environmental Changes and Human Survival: Some Dimensions of Human Ecology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
 

Morris, Aldon. 2007. "Sociology of Race and W.E.B. Du Bois: The Path Not Taken." In Sociology in America: A History, edited by Craig Calhoun, pp 503-534. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Odum, Harold. 1951. American Sociology: The Story of Sociology in the United States through 1950. New York: Longmans, Green and Company.

Park, Robert E., Ernest W. Burgess and Roderick McKenzie. 1925. The City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Portes, Alejandro. 1987. "The Social Origins of the Cuban Enclave Economy of Miami." Sociological Perspectives 30: 340-372.

Rogers, Richard. 1992. "Living and Dying in the U.S.A.: Sociodemographic Determinants of Death Among Blacks and Whites." Demography 29: 287-303.

Wortham, Robert. 2009(a). "W.E.B. Du Bois, The Black Church, and the Sociological Study of Religion." Sociological Spectrum 29: 144-172.

_____.2009(b). W.E.B. Du Bois and the Sociological Imaginatin: A Reader, 1897-1914.  Waco: Baylor University Press.

_____. 2008.  "Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt (1868-1963)."  In Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society, Volume 1, edited by Richard T. Schaefer, pp 423-427.  Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

_____. 2005a. "Du Bois and the Sociology of Religion: Rediscovering a Founding Figure." Sociological Inquiry 75: 433-452.

_____. 2005b. "An Introduction to the Sociology of W.E.B. Du Bois." Sociation Today 3.1: www.ncsociology.org.

_____. 2005c. "The Early Sociological Legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois."  Pp. 74-95 in Diverse Histories of American Sociology, edited by Anthony Blasi. Leiden, The Netherlands: E.J. Brill.

Wright II, Earl. 2006. "W.E.B. Du Bois and the Atlanta University Studies on the Negro Revisited." Journal of African American Studies 9: 3-17. 

_____. 2005. "W.E.B. Du Bois and the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory." Sociation Today 3.1: www.ncsociology.org.

_____. 2002a. "Why Black People Tend to Shout! An Earnest Attempt to Explain the Social Negation of the Atlanta Sociological Laboratory Despite Its Possible Unpleasantness." Sociological Spectrum 22: 335-361.

_____. 2002b. "The Atlanta Sociological Laboratory 1896-1924: A Historical Account of the First American School of Sociology." The Western Journal of Black Studies 26: 165-174.

Zuckerman, Phil. 2003. Introduction to the Sociology of Religion.  New York: Routledge.

_____. 2002. "The Sociology of Religion of W.E.B. Du Bois." Sociology of Religion 63: 239-253.

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