W.E.B. Du Bois’ study ‘The Philadelphia Negro’ is still relevant 125 years later

A mural dedicated to Du Bois and the Old Seventh Ward is painted on the corner of 6th and South streets in Philadelphia. Paul Marotta/Getty Images by Elijah Anderson, Yale University W.E.B. Du Bois is widely known for his civil rights activism, but many sociologists argue that he has yet to receive due recognition as the founding father of American sociology. His groundbreaking study, “The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study,” was published in 1899 and exhaustively detailed the poor social conditions of thousands of Black Philadelphians in the city’s historic Seventh Ward neighborhood. We spoke with Elijah Anderson, Sterling Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Yale University, about the importance of Du Bois’ seminal study and why it’s still relevant for Philadelphians 125 years later. How did the ‘Philadelphia Negro’ study come about? Much of Philadelphia’s elite of the day believed that the city was going to the dogs, and that the reason was the huge influx of Black people from the South. Susan Wharton, the wife of Joseph Wharton – after whom the Wharton School is named and then-provost at the University of Pennsylvania – invited Du Bois to come to Philadelphia to study Philadelphia’s Black population...