Du Bois and Locke on the Scientific Study of the Negro

The Souls of Black Folk has been canonized as Du Bois’s literary masterpiece. But, given all that it contains, it is clearly more than that. In chapter 9, Du Bois poses the question of the color line in terms of “the contact of European civilization with the world’s undeveloped peoples.”¹ He characterizes the history of such contact as “not a pleasant chapter in human action.” His tacit endorsement of the “nobler outcomes” envisioned by the leading Social Darwinists of the period is somewhat of a surprise alongside his acknowledgment that a claim of “the triumph of strength over weakness, of righteousness over evil, of superiors over inferiors,” has provided an excuse for “war, murder, slavery, extermination, and debauchery.” He cautions, however, that “it would certainly be soothing if one could readily believe all this” (SBF, 114). But how much of the Social Darwinist story about evolution and racial difference are we to believe? Du Bois raises the question of whether, in the case of European colonial expansion, “the triumph of brute force and cunning over weakness and innocence” has been adequately explained by science (SBF, 114). His purpose, of course, is to show that science cannot be used to justify a social policy of racial domination.

If Du Bois, as a scientist, means to condemn the practice of modern science for its role in justifying European global domination, he now faces the problem of how to employ that very science to dismantle the system of oppression it supports.² He tells us in the forethought to Souls that he has presented a “sketch” of the spiritual world in which the masses of peasants in the black belt “live and strive” (SBF, xxxi). His conception of the spiritual dimension of black life encompasses more than religion. Indeed, Du Bois invites his readers to step within the Veil—“raising it that you may view faintly its deeper recesses,—the meaning of its religion, the passion of its human sorrow, and the struggle of its greater souls” (SBF, xxxi).

I want to emphasize the scientific orientation of Du Bois’s frequent references to the strivings of African Americans (SBF, 115).³ He is entirely focused on the South in Souls, but we must bear in mind how this collection of essays is related to his earlier sociological study, The Philadelphia Negro, which already had been published in 1898, and to his earlier government study of the black community of Farmville (SBF, 115).⁴ More significantly, perhaps, is the fact that Souls was published when Du Bois was engaged in a comprehensive long-range study of African Americans at Atlanta University. In many respects, his proposal for a scientific study of race contacts in Souls is in keeping with this larger project.

Du Bois’s historical writings and his work in social science often reflect his interest in the empirical study of group progress, especially the role of human action in bringing about social change. The publication of Souls was motivated by his realization, as a social scientist engaged in field research, that observations of external behavior are limited in providing an adequate account of the operation of the will in human action. Nevertheless, in Souls, he suggests that such an account is possible: “We feel and know that there are many delicate differences in race psychology, numberless changes that our crude social measurements are not yet able to follow minutely, which explain much of history and social development” (SBF, 114). He insists that we must turn to “a conscientious study of the phenomena of race-contact,—to a study frank and fair, and not falsified and colored by our wishes or our fears” (SBF, 115). Notice that here he does not question whether science can provide an adequate account of a group’s development. Instead, he restricts his critique of scientific practice to a worry that an unbiased empirical study of matters...