W.E.B Du Bois and the Erasure of Scholarly Contributions
Dr. Aldon Morris highlights W.E.B. Du Bois’s often overlooked contributions to the foundations of scientific sociology in his chapter “W.E.B. Du Bois at the Center: From Science, Civil Rights Movement, to Black Lives Matter.” He argues that it was Du Bois who founded the first school of American Scientific Sociology at Atlanta University. Morris demonstrates the ways that denying Du Bois’s work and influence in favor of a white narrative has impoverished the practice and teaching of sociology from the beginning.
The first department of sociology was founded at the University of Chicago in 1892; however, this first generation was far from scientific. It was also very racist. White scholars of sociology, along with other scientific disciplines, used their positions to create unsupported theories that supported white supremacy over all other races, particularly black people. Du Bois, who was one of the most educated people in the world, challenged the idea that God made Black people inferior. He wanted to use real science to overthrow scientific racism.
He was aware that many sociologists based their theories on nothing more than rumors and assumptions and that many of them did not use empirical data or in-depth observation when studying a population. In contrast, Du Bois set out to develop a scientific method and set of standards for a new sociology that would be based on observation and empirical data. This new sociology would challenge white supremacy rather than uphold it.
Du Bois believed this new sociology would be beneficial for everyone. He believed it would liberate white minds from the ignorant belief in the myth of white supremacy and that it would simultaneously empower black people. In retrospect, many of his ideas hold kernels of what would become theories and frameworks of anti-colonialism, intersectionality, and critical race theory. He also often collaborated with other talented researchers rather than developing his ideas in isolation. Through his connections, he participated in activism while creating scholarship. He demonstrated how radical scholars can work as change agents, disputing the idea that science must remain separate from politics in order to stay “pure.”
Finally, Morris concludes that Du Bois should be more incorporated and foundational in college education. Curricula should be diversified to make them both more accurate and more comprehensive. Failure to include Du Bois and other black and minority figures in the history and development of science is academic racism. Du Bois’s exclusion also calls into question where else in education we are ignoring and erasing important figures. What other voices and contributions have been unjustly erased and forgotten?
Additionally, we must examine how much of the overarching ideas and directions of science are driven exclusively by elitist interests. What could we be discovering if we asked our research questions from a new or previously neglected point of view? Imagine all of the minds we could inspire if we finally overthrew the myth that sociology was created by and belongs to white researchers in Chicago. Diversity in academia and curricula benefits scholars of the past who have been erased as well as the potential scholars who will be our future.
About the Author
Stella Hudson is a Graduate Assistant with the Baha’i Chair for World Peace. She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 2021 with a B.A. in English. She is attending the University of Maryland and pursuing a Master’s of Library and Information Science.