Monroe Nathan Work didn’t enter high school he was 23, but became one of the leading sociologists of his time. He was born August 15, 1866 in Iredell County, North Carolina.
Work born to parents who were former slaves. When his mother died, Work moved to Cairo, Ill. to work with his father on a farm. After entering high school at 23, Work tried his hand at preaching and teaching school ahead of entering seminary school in Chicago. Work left the seminary to enroll into the University of Chicago to study sociology.
According to accounts, Work believed that the pursuit of education and presenting of facts could potentially eradicate racial prejudice. After earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the university, Work began teaching at what is now Savannah State University, becoming a member of W.E.B. Du Bois’ Niagara Movement.
In 1908, Work accepted a position with Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, now Tuskegee University, to continue his study of Black lives. Work believed that if he could use research and data to eliminate bigotry and racism spinning a false narrative about Black Americans.
White at the university, Work founded the Department of Records and Research, a massive historical resource that would go on to inform and inspire the publication of the first Negro Year Book in 1912.
In 1928, Work published the “Bibliography of the Negro in Africa and America,” the first book of its kind to catalogue over 1,700 references to African-Americans. Scholars and readers who wanted to learn more about Black American lives used this book for research.
Work passed in 1945.
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