# Monroe Work > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Monroe_Work > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Monroe_Work.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Work > Source revision: 1320903061 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Infobox person | name = Monroe Work | image = Monroe N. Work 0092.jpg | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Monroe Nathan Work | birth_date = {{Birth date|1866|08|15}} | birth_place = [Iredell County, North Carolina](/source/Iredell_County%2C_North_Carolina), U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1945|05|02|1866|08|15}} | death_place = [Tuskegee, Alabama](/source/Tuskegee%2C_Alabama), U.S. | other_names = | alma_mater = [University of Chicago](/source/University_of_Chicago)
([B.A.](/source/Bachelor_of_Arts) and [M.A.](/source/Master_of_Arts)) | occupation = [Sociologist](/source/sociology) | years_active = | known_for = Department of Records and Research at the [Tuskegee Institute](/source/Tuskegee_Institute) | notable_works = ''Negro Year Book''
''A Bibliography of the Negro in Africa and America'' | awards = [Harmon Award](/source/William_E._Harmon_Foundation_Award_for_Distinguished_Achievement_Among_Negroes) in Education (1928) | spouse = Florence E. Hendrickson }} '''Monroe Nathan Work''' (August 15, 1866 – May 2, 1945)Kreiger, Caroline (June 30, 2008), [http://www.blackpast.org/aah/work-monroe-nathan-1866-1945 "Work, Monroe Nathan (1866–1945)"], Blackpast.org. was an [African-American](/source/African-American) [sociologist](/source/sociologist) who founded the Department of Records and Research at the [Tuskegee Institute](/source/Tuskegee_Institute) in 1908. His published works include the ''[Negro Year Book](/source/Negro_Year_Book)'' and ''[A Bibliography of the Negro in Africa and America](/source/A_Bibliography_of_the_Negro_in_Africa_and_America)'', a bibliography of approximately seventeen thousand references to African Americans. He helped expand Tuskegee Institute's national reputation. worked to advance [anti-lynching campaigns](/source/Anti-lynching_movement), and promoted the [National Negro Health Week](/source/National_Negro_Health_Week) movement.{{Cite book|title=The African American experience in cyberspace : a resource guide to the best Websites on black culture and history|last=Alkalimat|first=Abdul|date=2004|publisher=Pluto|isbn=0745322220|location=London|pages=37–38|oclc=244352535}} His ''Negro Year Books'' and ''A Bibliography of the Negro in Africa and America''—a bibliography of 17,000 references on African Americans, were the largest of their kind in an era when scholarship by and about black Americans was highly inaccessible, and overlooked or ignored by most academics in the US.McMurry, Linda O. (2004). ''Recorder of the Black Experience: A Biography of Monroe Nathan Work''. [Jim Crow laws](/source/Jim_Crow_laws) were increasing and there was periodic violence against African Americans at the time. ==Life== Work was born to [formerly enslaved](/source/Slavery_in_the_United_States) parents in [Iredell County, North Carolina](/source/Iredell_County%2C_North_Carolina), and moved in 1867 to [Cairo, Illinois](/source/Cairo%2C_Illinois), where his father pursued farming. At the age of 23, Work entered [Arkansas City High School (Kansas)](/source/Arkansas_City_High_School_(Kansas)), an [integrated](/source/Racial_integration) high school in [Arkansas City, Kansas](/source/Arkansas_City%2C_Kansas). He graduated 3rd in his class, and after undergoing training at the [Chicago Theological Seminary](/source/Chicago_Theological_Seminary), he enrolled in the [University of Chicago](/source/University_of_Chicago) to become a [sociologist](/source/sociologist). He did research on the [correlation](/source/correlation) between the highest crime rates among blacks and the large proportion living in [slum](/source/slum)s. His paper on the subject would become the first article published in the ''[American Journal of Sociology](/source/American_Journal_of_Sociology)'' by an African American. He finished school in Chicago with a [Bachelor of Arts](/source/Bachelor_of_Arts) degree in [Philosophy](/source/Philosophy) and a [Master of Arts](/source/Master_of_Arts) degree in [Sociology](/source/Sociology). After graduating in 1903, Work moved to [Savannah, Georgia](/source/Savannah%2C_Georgia), to become a professor at [Georgia State Industrial College](/source/Georgia_College_and_State_University). He married Florence E. Hendrickson of Savannah on December 27, 1904.{{cite book|author=Joyce Blackwell-Johnson|editor=Faustine Childress Jones-Wilson|title=Encyclopedia of African-American Education|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ni2qhq1n1d4C&pg=PA525|year=1996|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-28931-6|pages=525–6|chapter=Work, Monroe Nathan}} In July 1905, Work attended the conference of the [Niagara Movement](/source/Niagara_Movement) at the invitation of [W. E. B. Du Bois](/source/W._E._B._Du_Bois). In 1908, he accepted a proposal by [Booker T. Washington](/source/Booker_T._Washington) to found the Department of Records and Research at the [Tuskegee Institute](/source/Tuskegee_University). While there, he would begin the ''Negro Year Book'', a publication that incorporated his periodic summation of [lynching](/source/Lynching_in_the_United_States) reports, which resulted in the Tuskegee Institute becoming one of the most quoted and undisputed sources on this form of racial violence. According to Work's biographer, these resources were the largest of their kind in an era when scholarship by and about black Americans was highly inaccessible, and overlooked or ignored by most academics in the US.{{cite book |last=McMurry |first=Linda O. |title=Recorder of the Black Experience: A Biography of Monroe Nathan Work |publisher=[Louisiana State University](/source/Louisiana_State_University) |date=1985 |isbn=978-0807111710}} Work received the [Harmon Award](/source/William_E._Harmon_Foundation_award_for_distinguished_achievement_among_Negroes) in Education in 1928 for his research and involvement in the ''Negro Year Book'' and his work on ''A Bibliography of the Negro in Africa and America''. In 1918, he was elected to the [American Negro Academy](/source/American_Negro_Academy), which was the earliest major African-American learned society. It brought together scholars, activists, and editors to refute racist scholarship, promote black claims to individual, social, and political equality, and publish the history and sociology of African American life.Alfred A. Moss. The American Negro Academy: Voice of the Talented Tenth. Louisiana State University Press, 1981. Work and his wife had no children. He died of natural causes in [Tuskegee](/source/Tuskegee) in 1945. ==Negro Yearbook== The '''''Negro Yearbook''''' is an annual encyclopedia of African American history published at the [Tuskegee Institute](/source/Tuskegee_Institute). Work served as its editor for many years. [Lewis Wade Jones](/source/Lewis_Wade_Jones) was an associate editor. publication that compiled facts, sociological data, and directories of distinguished people surrounding the current state of black progress in the US since emancipation. The ''Negro Year Book'' also for a time incorporated his periodic summation of lynching reports, which were so thoroughly compiled that the [Tuskegee Institute](/source/Tuskegee_University) became one of the most quoted and undisputed sources on this form of racial violence. ==Selected works== *{{cite journal |last=Work |first=Monroe Nathan |date=September 1900 |title=Crime Among the Negroes in Chicago|journal=[American Journal of Sociology](/source/American_Journal_of_Sociology) |volume=VI |pages=204–223 |doi=10.1086/210962|doi-access=free }} *{{cite journal|title=Negro Year Book; An Annual Encyclopedia of the Negro |journal=Negro Year Book |year=1912 |pages=2 v |editor-last=Work|editor-first=Monroe Nathan |publisher=Sunday School Union|location=Nashville, TN |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/012238867 }}''[http://www.indiana.edu/~librcsd/libguide/blackbio/101-200.html Black Biographical dictionaries, 1790–1950]'', [Indiana University](/source/Indiana_University) Library{{cite book |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006784904 |title=Negro year book |date=1914 |editor=Work, Monroe Nathan|publisher=Tuskegee Institute, Ala.: Negro Year Book Pub. Co.}} ** Annual editions: Second: ''1913''; Third: ''1914–1915'';{{cite book |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924112515345;view=1up;seq=11 |title=Negro year book : an annual encyclopedia of the Negro 1914–1915 |publisher=Tuskegee Institute}} Fourth: ''1916–1917''; Fifth: ''1918–1919'';{{cite book |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hntbds;view=1up;seq=9 |title=Negro year book : an annual encyclopedia of the Negro 1918–1919 |publisher=Tuskegee Institute}} Sixth: ''1921–1922'';[http://www.yale.edu/glc/archive/1108.htm The MacMillan Center at Yale University]{{cite book |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89073092546;view=1up;seq=7 |title=Negro year book : an annual encyclopedia of the Negro 1921–1922 |publisher=Tuskegee Institute}} Seventh: ''1925–1926''; Eighth: ''1931–1932'';{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/negroyearbookana00workrich |title=Negro year book : an annual encyclopedia of the Negro 1931–1932 |publisher=Tuskegee Institute}} Ninth: ''1937–1938''{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/negroyearbookana37workrich |title=Negro year book : an annual encyclopedia of the Negro 1937–1938 |date=1937 |publisher=Tuskegee Institute}} *[[c:File:Fifty_Years_Progress.pdf|Work, Monroe Nathan. Fifty Years Progress: Negro Business, 1867–1917. [Tuskegee, Ala.] : Tuskegee Institute, [1918?]]] *{{cite book |editor-last=Work|editor-first=Monroe Nathan|title=A Bibliography of the Negro in Africa and America|location=New York |publisher=Martino |date=1998 |orig-year=1928 |isbn=978-1578980314}} ==See also== *[Negro Universities Press](/source/Negro_Universities_Press) ==References== {{Reflist}} ==External links== {{Commons category}} *[http://www.nathanielturner.com/monroenwork.htm Monroe N. Work & the Negro Encyclopedia] * {{Librivox author |id=9446}} *''[http://www.monroeworktoday.org Monroe Work Today]'' {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Work, Monroe}} Category:African-American sociologists Category:American sociologists Category:1866 births Category:1945 deaths Category:American bibliographers Category:20th-century African-American people Category:American encyclopedists --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Monroe Work](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Work) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe_Work?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.