ABSTRACT
Using the critical tools of social science, William Edward Burghardt DuBois challenged the White supremacism of his era. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he presented his views on social inquiry in various programmatic pieces, all the while conducting empirical research on the conditions and experiences of African Americans. W. E. B. Du Bois applied social science to the quest for racial and social justice within the United States. This chapter focuses on Du Bois's programmatic statements from "The Study of the Negro Problems", "The Atlanta Conferences", and the unpublished "Sociology Hesitant” to three exemplary projects. These include: The Philadelphia Negro; The Negroes of Farmville, Virginia; and several of the Atlanta University Publications which he supervised and co-edited in the early 1900s. The chapter outlines the use of social inquiry by Du Bois's predecessors, and some of the prevailing views about African Americans which his studies sought to challenge.
