PSC Research Associate, Camille Z. Charles, talks about W.E.B. Du Bois in a Penn Today article. In 1896, W.E.B. Du Bois was appointed an assistant instructor at Penn and began his investigation of Philadelphia’s Seventh Ward—research that he would turn into his groundbreaking work, “The Philadelphia Negro.” Today, it is considered the world’s first scientific study of race. “He was a person of color at a time when we weren’t supposed to be so smart and have such strong opinions and when it was socially acceptable to exclude and ignore their contributions,” says Camille Charles.