P01HAPS THE MOST canSlam Trade to the United radal inferiority—their extreme

; biTHiairt and ii^i*eii&i Afiican States of America. 1638-1870, vulnembiMty to cold norfliem di-
Ameiican intellectual c^the 20fli Vfm puhUi^ed in 1896 as the in- mates, for example—recently ad-
cerituiy, WilUam Edwarti augural volume of the Harvard vanced by statistician and insur-
Bui^ardt iW. E B.) DuBois was Historical Studies series. From ance company executive
bora on Fefcraaay 23, 186S, m 1892 to 1894, DuBoK traveled Frederick L. HofTman,' At ihe
Great Bmru^ton, Mass. He was in Germany and completed a same time, DuBois ai^fued that
flie sort of Alfred DuBois, a Hait- mono^ph on the historic of the genuine healfe disparities be-
jan-ttom baAer and itinerant la- soufliHti US a^xulture. In 1896, tween W i i t ^ and Blacks were a
*, and of Mary^Silvina the University of Pennsylvania in- consequence of the poorer eco-
^ a descendant of a vited Mtn to conduct a detailed nomic, social, and sanitary condi-
freed Dutch slave who bad sodoic^cal stiidy of African tions fadng African Americans.
foi^ht bnetly in the American Americans in Philadelphia, whicb DuBois had long been com-
Revoiution. OuBois attendeti a was published in 1,899 as lite mitted to sodal reform by means
rada% integrated public Ugh PhUadelpMa N^v? This study of social sdence. But he now be-
sdiool and gradi^ted with a das- combined ^voc^uy and tmeftil came more directly engaged in
sical college preparatoiy educa- empiricaf scholarship, emphasiz- advocacy £Uid political action, es-
tion. V\^tii scholarshipftindspro- ing historicai and cmajoiitantial peaaliy in response to the risir^
vided hy Great Bami^ort rather flian hereditary explana- tide of southern radal violence.
citizens, he ttien enrolled at Fisk ticms for tbe cotiditions of the Af- He belped found the National
University in Mashwlle, Tenn, a rican American community. Assodation for tbe Advsuicement
Mistorm, soufem college fcamded after
the Civil War to educate teed
la 1897, OuBois mowd to At-
lanta University in Georgia,
of Colored People (NAACP) in
1909, and in 1910 he let At-
slaves, While at Fisk, DuBois had where he taught history, sodol- lanta to become an officer of the
his first extended encounters ogy, and economics and became NAACP, its only Black board
with Afriran American cuiture corresponding secretary and edi- member, and the editor of its
aM southern American racism.' tor of the annual Atlanta Univer- monthly magazine, ttie Crisis.
After graduating &om Fisk in sity conferences for the "Study of DuBois served as editor of the
1888, DuBoJs enrofled as a jun- the Negro Problems." The pro- Crisis for 24 years, taking on
ior at Hanmrd, received a BA ceedings of the Uth sucb confer- such jssu^ as legal and political
Glim iaude in' 1S90, an MA in ence, held in May 1906, were rights, discrimination and race re-
1891, and a PhB in 1895. He published as The Heaith and lations, African American cul-
was deeply influenced by bisto- Physique of the Negro American, tural and inteflccfual advance-
rian Albert BushneU Hart and the source of this reprinted ex- ment, and Pan-Africanism. He
Ae phiiosopher-pi^cbologist cerpt One of DuBois' major also became ino^easingly inter-
William James. His PhD disserta- goais in this pubKcation was to ested in ^ e Soviet Union, Marx-
tion, neSupptvssmnoftheApi- discredit the theories of Black ism, and radaliy based Black

III' [iir lolnl deaths: llien coim; erysipelas, diphtliena, eaneer, 'llic diseases of consunifitiiiti whit(;s, the Negro general deatli
linopintf coiifjh, con- alcohdiisni, old age, diahetes, and pneumonia, infantile maras- rate would have been much less
inanition, pni'umoma. apoplexy, sunstroke, Tatty de- rtuis, cht)iera inljititum, inanition, than the rate for the cit>',
inllainnmtKin nl'[he hr^in, chiid generation ol thc^ luuirt, fatty de heart disease are the diseases (.'oiisumption is the i:hi<;r cause
hii-ih, lyphdid i'(^vcr. epilepsy. jieneraUijn of the liver, softening whicli take the \egroes awa\ of e^ieessive death rate. One out
choiera int'Liiiturri, sli!l birlhs. pi*e- of the hrain. scarlet lever, scrof- iTom these dis(;<tses durai^ the ol' eveiy SL\ Negro peraons who
inatiirr liirlhs, inllainnialion of ula; that is, in the deaths from years of 1900. 1901, 1902, die ID Philadelphia, dies of this
thr kidneys, dysenteiy, liearl dis 17 out of about 50 diseases the 1903. 3,284 persons died, oi^ diseas(f, and |)robably live out of
case and Bnghl s disease Negroes form more than the 51.1 |)i;r cent of the total dt'aths eveiy seven who die between 18
'I he diseHses beinu the iinc, percentage they form of tlie for these lour years ((1424), and 28 die of this disease, Ii at-
i.e., dl'which the Negro popula- total population. For most of Eaeh year thev eonstitnlcd over tacks tlie young men and women
luin die Ul a less |iro|K)rti()n these diseases the same is gen- half of tlie deaths. jusi as th(^y are entering a life of
than they rnrri) of the entire eral in all th(^ Northern cities of If deaths from these eau,ses economic benefit iirul tak(^s them
arc anemia. I have information. . . had heen at the same rate as the away. This disease is probably

2i4 I Voices the I'asr Ar-nencan Journai i»f PUDIIC Healiii ?003, Voi 93. No. 2
economic initiatives. This led tx> founder and editor of 4 joumafe, References
conflict with his more moderate and he had resiiaped forever how 1. Holt TC. WE.B, DUBMS. In: Gar-
NAACP colleagues and to his the experience of Afiican Ameri- raty JA, Cffliies MC, eds. American iVa-
tional Biograpkif. Vol 6. New York, NY;
resignation from that oi^aniza- cans in America could be thought Oxforf UniversJly Press; 1999:944-
tion Mid return to Atlanta in about and understood. • 949.
1934. In 1944, DuBois rejoined Theodore M, Bromn 2. DuBois W E B . TTiePhiladelphia
the NAACP, acknowledging that ElizediethFee Negtv: A Sodal Sttufy. New Yoil!, NY:
Benjamin Bbm; 1899.
it had become more aggressive in
3. Hoffinan FL. Race Traifs and Tm-
the pttrsuit of eamomic and legal
dendes of the American Negro. New
rights. But by 1948 his overt Theodore M. Brotmfewith the Depart- York, NY: American Ectaiomic Assoda-
ments of History and of Comnimitti and tion; 1896.
radicalism and pubUc support for Preventive MetOdm ai the Unwer^itif of
the Soviet Union dmii^ the Cold Hochester, Rodmter. NX EMzahelh Fee is 4. R ^ i ^ r s a d A. DuBois. William Ed-
War forced him out of tlie mth ihe Bistory ofMetUane Division, Na- ward Burghardt. In: Garraty JA, ed. Dic-
iional Library ofMedkine. Natinm^ Insti- tionary of American Bio^pf^. St^qrt. 7,
NAACP a second time. In 1951. tutes ofHealth. Bahesda, Md. 1961-1965. New York, NY: Chartes
he was indicted as an "unre^- Requests for r^rints should be sent Io Scribner's Sons; 1981:2OO-2O5.
tered E^ent of a f o r e ^ power.'"* Theodore M. Bmwn, PhD. De^mtment of
History. UniaersiJif of Rochester.
At Irial, he was acquitted but de- NY 14627 (e-mail: iheo<hre.lm>wn@
nied a passport to travel abroad. vrmc. rochester.edu).
When Uie State Departaient fi-
nally lifted the travel ban in
1958, he left for an extensive
trip to tiie Soviet Union, Eastern
Europe, and China, receiving the
Lenin Peace Prize in 1959.
In 1961, DuBoK accepted an
invitation to move to Ghana and
become a citizen of tiie first
newly independent Aft^can post-
colonial state. Renouncing his
American dtizensh^), he moved
to Ghajia and died ihere on Au-
gust 27, 1963. Just as American
civil rights leaders were assem-
biir^ for the March on Wasdiing-
ton for Jobs and Freedom.
DuBois was the author of 17
books, induding 5 novels, the

the greatest drawback to the The unde-

Negi-o race in this coimtry. niable fact is, then, a mtich greater di-
In 1900 there were 1.467 ba- that in certain diseases vergence li'otn tb(; rate
bies born in Philadelphia and 2 5 the Negi"oes have a much higher among tlie well-to-do Ihan the
per cent died before tliey were rafe^ than the whites, and espe- grounds than ttpon race. I h e difference bet^veen Ncgi^oes and
oiK^ year old. Of every five per- cially in eonsumptton, pneumo- liigh death rate of Philadelphia whites of Amenca. hi P^tiglaud.
sons who die in R year two are nia and infantile diseases. Xegi^oes is yet lower than the according to Mulhall. tiie poor
(•hildren under five years of age. The question is: Is thts racial'.' whites of Savann.ih, CharU'ston, have a rate twice a.s high as the
The disease of cholera infantum, Mr Hollinan woitld lead us to New Oi'leans and Atlanta. rich, and the well-to-do are b(!-
inanition and marasmus, which say yes, and to tnfer that it means If the population were divided tweei! tht: two. The same is true
are sitnpiy the doctor's way of that Negi'oes are ijiherently infe- as to sodal and {•cotiomic <:otidi- iti Swedeti. Genuauy aud other
saying lack of nourishment and rior in physique to whiles. tion the matter of race would be ixmiUries. In Chicago tlie death
lack of eare. cause nian\ unnec- Jiiit die ditTcrencc in Philadel- almost entirely eliminated. Pov- rate among whites of the stock
essary' df^iiths of children. . . . phia can be exjilained on other erty's death rate in Russia shows yarcis distiict is liighf^r Ihan tiie

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