Black Families: Sociological Profiles.

This paper has a dual purpose. First, it relates the research and writings of DuBois, a social scientist and humanist in the best intellectual tradition of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, to the sociology of the black family in the United States; and second, it presents selected data having to do with the structure and functioning of contemporary black families. Probably even more than being descriptive, the presentation has to do with issues of knowledge, theory, methodology, and social policy raised by the study of family life among blacks. Since DuBois' time, and before, a popular profile of the black family stresses family composition and makes extensive and important inferences about behavior and achievement. The data, based on census figures, is not satisfactory for explaninig how and why a family functions. The discussion of the several intellectual hats and dimensions DuBois brings to the study of the family and experiences of blacks suggests that research and writing on the black family, aside from considerable datedness, much unevenness, and many gaps reflects as many approaches as there are traditions or modes of intellectual activity. It also serves to underscore several issues, among them the fact that more studies in the field and in some depth are needed of various types or expressions of family activity and among blacks in many settings. Any sociological profile of the black family demands a balance between objectivity and caring about human values. (Author/AM)