THE COLLEGE-BRED NEGRO AMERICAN

Atlanta: Atlanta University Press, 1910. First edition. Very good plus.. Rare installment of this important and influential scholarly series primarily edited by W.E.B. Du Bois — this title revisiting a topic originally addressed by the series in 1900. The Atlanta University Publications was a numbered series of monographs published by Atlanta University, with text and other content drawn from information presented at the annual Conferences for the Study of Negro Problems. As University president Horace Bumstead explained the series' origins: "One was the inauguration, for the first time in any American college, of a thoroughly scientific study of the conditions of Negro life, covering all its most important phases, and resulting in a score of annual Atlanta University Publications, conceded to be the highest authority" (quoted in Morris 91). Gathering speeches, studies, and other data from that annual event, the university issued these groundbreaking sociological annuals until 1917 when publication was halted for financial reasons. Taken as a whole, the Atlanta University series presented the most comprehensive sociological study of Black America available at the time, and covered topics pertaining to African American health, economics, culture, discrimination, education, family life, and the like. In his autobiography, Du Bois (who edited most of the volumes and contributed much of the text) wrote of the series' importance: "For 13 years we poured forth a series of studies; limited, incomplete, only partially conclusive, and yet so much better done than any other attempt of the sort in the nation that they gained attention throughout the world."

This installment, an expansion on the fifth number in the same series from 1900, formed much of the philosophical underpinning for HBCUs, according to Ernest Kaiser: "Du Bois's THE COLLEGE-BRED NEGRO [...] Laid the basis for the Negro colleges of today."

All titles in this series are now scarce, with most copies either purchased for libraries or discarded, and are rare in this condition. A nice example of a significant volume in this pioneering scholarly project. 8.75'' x 6''. Original grey printed wrappers. 104 pages. Atlanta University Publications No. 15. Faint toning. Shallow 1.75'' chip to rear wrapper. Else bright, sharp, and sound. (Inventory #: 53023)