ABSTRACT
W. Ε. Β. Du Bois (1868-1963) was the outstanding African-American intellectual of the early twentieth century. He was always concerned in his work as historian, sociologist, essayist and editor of the N.A.A.C.P.'s journal, The Crisis, to investigate and value the distinctive features of African-American culture as well as to demand civil and political equality for blacks. He recognised the importance of the church in black life and gave an account of its organisation and workings in one old African-American community in his study of Philadelphia (1899).
