"THE CIVILIZED WORLD STANDS AGHAST AT THE CRIMES COMMITTED ALMOST DAILY BY RACE HATRED IN THIS COUNTRY": VERY SCARCE FIRST EDITION OF EFFORTS FOR SOCIAL BETTERMENT AMONG NEGRO AMERICANS, 1910, NO. 14 IN THE ATLANTA UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS SERIES SPEARHEADED AND EDITED BY W.E.B. DU BOIS

DU BOIS, W. E. Burghardt, ed. Efforts for Social Betterment among Negro Americans. A Social Study made by Atlanta University, under the patronage of the Trustees of the John F. Slater Fund. Atlanta: Atlanta University Press, 1909 (i.e. 1910). Octavo, original printed gray self-wrappers; pp. 136. $1500.

First edition of a major work edited by Du Bois in the landmark Atlanta University Publication Series directed by him, central to his creation of "the first American school of sociology," here documenting the importance of Black churches, women's clubs and Black newspapers, and highlighting the disenfranchisement of Black voters, calling it a form of "political serfdom," with many full-page and in-text illustrations, charts and graphs, very elusive in fragile original wrappers.

Du Bois gave "voice to Black people's historical travail in powerful and mythic ways" (New York Times). On the night he died, in exile in Ghana, 250,000 Americans were gathering at the Lincoln Memorial in the 1963 March on Washington. The next day, a deep silence fell over the crowd when Roy Wilkins announced the death of Du Bois, declaring "his was the voice calling you to gather here today in this cause." When he had arrived in Georgia to join the Atlanta University faculty, the 29-year-old Du Bois was already the first African American to earn a PhD from Harvard, and had "completed a pioneering sociological investigation," The Philadelphia Negro (1898). His years in Atlanta "were, by his own admission, decisive ones… he attracted national achievements that placed him on the frontier of social science scholarship… although he was ignored by white Atlanta, he organized a frontal assault on all efforts to deny African Americans first-class citizenship. In a real sense his tenure at Atlanta University was the final preparation for a career that ultimately touched several continents" (Gatewood, W.E.B. Du Bois, 206-8).

It was there that Du Bois created "the first American school of sociology" and demonstrated how an "all-Back institution located in the heart of the Jim Crow American south… pushed back against individual and institutional forces demanding that it conform to racist policies that were implemented at most institutions." He edited the yearly Atlanta University Publications (1898-1909) and co-edited four issues with Augustus Granville Dill (1910-1913). Edited by Du Bois, this very elusive first edition of No. 14, in that series, Efforts for Social Betterment among Negro Americans, is based on detailed "questionnaires, census data and reports" that covered the complexity of Black life. It documents the work of Black churches, "the only African institution to survive the institution of slavery," as well the importance of women's clubs, "artistic training for Black youth," child care for working parents, and the vitality of Black newspapers. Efforts for Social Betterment particularly notes "the discrepancy in the level of funding for Black and White public schools" and the disenfranchisement of Black voters, calling it a form of "political serfdom" (Wright, First American School of Sociology, 81-89, 52-4). Its concluding pages plainly state: "the darkest spot on our national escutcheon is race prejudice… the civilized world stands aghast at the crimes committed almost daily by race hatred in this country." First edition: Atlanta University Publications, No. 14. Title page imprint: "1909"; "Copyright, 1910, by Atlanta University" on copyright page. Containing numerous illustrations, graphs and charts. Work, 529. Partington 2339. Not in Blockson.

Interior fine, expert restoration to fragile original wrappers.