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''The Philadelphia Negro'' is a
sociological Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...
study of
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
s in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
written by W. E. B. Du Bois, commissioned by the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
and published in 1899 with the intent of identifying social problems present in the African American community. It was the first sociological case study of a black community in the United States and one of the earliest examples of sociology as a statistically based
social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...
. Du Bois gathered information for the study in the period between August 1896 and December 1897. Du Bois carefully mapped every black residence, church, and business in the city’s Seventh Ward, recording occupational and family structure. Du Bois’s Philadelphia research was pivotal in his reformulation of the concept of race. He deduced that, "the Negro problem looked at in one way is but the old world questions of ignorance, poverty, crime, and the dislike of the stranger." He supports these claims with examples and survey analysis breakdowns throughout the journal.


Problem identification

In the 1890s the Negro population in Philadelphia was afflicted with many of the problems seen across the U.S. in areas of low socioeconomic status. Crime, poverty and drug addiction are among the many issues that the Philadelphia Negro population dealt with that added to the apparent social blight of the community.


Survey conduct

In order to collect survey data, Du Bois and his wife moved into the 7th ward of Philadelphia and he distributed the survey in impoverished quarters on Saint Mary Street, from 1896 to 1897. With his only appointed assistant, Isabel Eaton, Du Bois employed "archival research, descriptive statistics, and questionnaires". These surveys entailed questions about occupations, health, education, and religious, social, and family life. From conducting a door-to-door examination of the ward, Du Bois and Eaton were able to collect over 5,000 personal interviews. This survey data included a census number of Black individuals within the city, information about their places of birth, occupation, the age of the respondent, the sex of the respondent, etc. The sample size for Du Bois's study was limited in that it was a neighborhood study of the central Seventh Ward, which encompassed from Spruce to South Street and from Seventh Street to the Schuylkill River. However, within this neighborhood, there was an incredible diversity. Its western fringe was occupied by affluent whites, its center filled with one of the nation’s densest concentrations of black elites, and its eastern front inhabited by numerous poor from both races. The eastern side was also notorious as the city’s black ghetto.


Findings of the study

The findings of Philadelphia research revealed a community of diversity and advancement; yet it simultaneously reaffirmed the reality of poverty, crime, and illiteracy. Addressing this contradiction, Du Bois explained that black members of the community possessed their own internal class structure, and therefore should not be judged solely by the “submerged tenth”, the 10% beneath the surface of socioeconomic viability. Likewise, the “Negro problem" was ostensibly “not one problem, but rather a plexus of social problems,” and had less correlation to a black “social pathology” than to whites’ enforcement of racial discrimination and a provision of unequal opportunity. Du Bois emphasized socio-economic and historical causes of the "Negro problem", notably the exclusion of blacks from the city’s premier industrial jobs, prevalence of black single-family homes, and the continued legacy of slavery and unequal race relations. Such biased provision was evident in housing. Du Bois found that African Americans had to pay “abnormally high rents for the poorest accommodations, and race-prejudice accentuates this difficulty, out of which many evils grow.”


Possible solutions

Du Bois ends his study with a section entitled "The Meaning of All of This." In this section he explains how the overarching dilemma that Negros in America faced laid in their image in the eyes of the majority of Americans. By changing how Blacks are perceived in America, from inferior to equally capable, many of the problems seen in the Black community would subside. Du Bois documents that if change is expected to occur in Philadelphia's Black communities, both the Black and White communities must work in tandem. He assigns responsibilities for Blacks and Whites in this section.


Contemporary recognition

In spring 2008, Philadelphia's Mural Arts Program, in partnership with The Ward project, memorialized the history of ''The Philadelphia Negro'' with the mural ''Mapping Courage'' on the side of Engine Company 11's building at S 6th Street and South Street. The company was one of the original 22 fire companies established by Philadelphia's first paid municipal fire department in 1871. Until the
Philadelphia Fire Department The Philadelphia Fire Department provides fire protection and emergency medical services (EMS) to the city of Philadelphia. The PFD's official mission is to protect public safety by quick and professional response to emergencies and through the pro ...
officially desegregated in 1952, Engine 11 was Philadelphia's de facto African American firehouse. The company's original building at 1016 South Street still stands and belongs to the Waters Memorial African Methodist Church.


See also

*
History of the African-Americans in Philadelphia This article documents the history of African-Americans or Black Philadelphians in Philadelphia. Recent 2010 estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau put the total number of people living in Philadelphia who identify as Black or African-American ...


References


External links


''The Philadelphia Negro'', digital text
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Philadelphia Negro, The 1899 non-fiction books Works by W. E. B. Du Bois History of Philadelphia Sociology books African-American history in Philadelphia Books about Pennsylvania