The erasure of black ingenuity in academia has a long, frustrating history. Julian Go, professor of sociology at Boston University, does an amazing job at succinctly pointing out the role of W.E.B. Du Bois in laying the foundations of sociology as a discipline while reviewing The Scholar Denied by Aldon Morris.

‘Du Bois is often noted to be the first “black” sociologist, but Morris’ point here is that Du Bois more rightfully deserves to be among the first empirical sociologists, period. Given his work on Philadelphia and his painstaking research at Atlanta, Du Bois stands as “the first number-crunching, surveying, interviewing, participant-observing and field-working sociologist in America,” even originating what we call today “triangulation.”’

Read the full article on the Berkeley Journal of Sociology here.