Early traditions of African-American sociological thought

This article documents the empirical, methodological, and theoretical contr ibutions of African-American sociologists from the late 1800s until 1945, a n era that constitutes the early tradition of African-American sociological thought. African-American sociologists came to the discipline with the des ire to assess the stake of African Americans in modernity, which centered o n their transition to the urban sphere and the industrial socio-economic or der in American society. Despite the connections between the sociological p roject writ-large and the quest of African-American sociologists in particu lar, the latter remained little regarded in the profession for years to com e. While providing an overview of the contributions of African-American soc iologists and the assessments made by other scholars about those contributi ons, this essay focuses upon the ways by which African-American sociologist s have depicted the social character of black Americans. This essay also ac counts for the ways that such scholars have introduced or enriched the stan dard paradigms and methodologies employed in American sociology, and docume nts the legacy that these efforts had on later sociological depictions of A frican Americans.