"Few large cities have such a disreputable record of mis-government as Philadelphia."

Four decades before film noir was born, the sociologist W.E.B. DuBois wrote about the horrors of politics in one of America’s greatest cities. His account reads like a chapter in a noir novel or a scene in a film noir.

In 1896, the University of Pennsylvania employed DuBois to study the Black community in what was then the Seventh Ward of Philadelphia—the neighborhood around Sixth and Lombard Streets. DuBois and his staff went door-to-door, cataloging all facets of Black life—housing, religion, occupations, marital status, education, beneficial and secret societies, crime and politics. During one December, DuBois dispatched observers to the taverns (mostly integrated) on Saturday nights between 8 and 10 p.m. to count the patrons—by race and gender, whether they left the taverns carrying liquor, and how they behaved and dressed.

In 1899 DuBois published his study as The Philadelphia Negro. Digital copies may be found at www.webdubois.org. I am quoting from the 1967 Schocken edition found at http://archive.org/stream/philadelphianegr001901mbp/philadelphianegr001901mbp_djvu.txt.

[Page 372] Few large cities have such a disreputable record for mis-government as Philadelphia. In the period before the [Civil] war the city was ruled by the Democratic party, which retained its power by the manipulation of a mass of ignorant and turbulent foreign voters, chiefly Irish. Riots, disorder, and crime were the rule in the city proper and especially in the surrounding districts. About the time of the breaking out of the war, the city was consolidated and made coterminous with the county.

The social upheaval after the Civil War gave the political power to the Republicans and a new era of misrule commenced. Open disorder and crime were repressed, but in its place came the rule of the boss, with its quiet manipulation and calculated embezzlement of public funds. To-day the government of both city and State is unparalleled in the history of republican government for brazen dishonesty and bare-faced defiance of public opinion.

[Page 373] Manifestly such a political atmosphere was the worst possible for the new untutored voter. Starting himself without political ideals, he was put under the tutelage of unscrupulous and dishonest men whose ideal of government was to prostitute it to their own private ends. As the Irishman had been the tool of the Democrats, so the Negro became the tool of the Republicans. It was natural that the freedman should vote for the party that emancipated him, and perhaps, too, it was natural that a party with so sure a following, should use it unscrupulously.

[Page 376] It is estimated that the Republican City Committee realized nearly if not all of $100,000 from the 1/4 per cent assessment levied upon municipal officeholders for this campaign. Of this sum $40,000 has been paid for the eighty thousand tax receipts [probably referring to a poll tax] to qualify Republican voters. This leaves $60,000 at the disposal of David Martin, the Combine leader. How is this corruption fund used? Without doubt a large part of it is spent in the purchase of votes. It is of course difficult to estimate the directly purchasable vote among the whites or among the Negroes.

Once in a while when “thieves fall out" some idea of the bribery may be obtained; for instance in a hearing relative to a Third Ward election: William Reed, of Catharine street, below Thirteenth, was first on the stand [to testify at a public hearing on election fraud]. He was watcher in the Fifteenth Division on election day.

[Question] Did you make up any election papers for voters?

[Answer] I marked up about seventy or eighty ballots; I got $20 off of Roberts’ brother, and used $100 altogether, paying the rest out of my own pocket.

[Question] How did you spend the money?

[Answer] Oh, well, there were some few objectionable characters there to make trouble. We’d give ‘em a few dollars to go away and attend to their business… . You know how it works. I’d give ‘em a dollar to buy a cigar. And if they didn’t want to pay $1 for a cigar, why, they could put it in the contribution box at church.

[Question] Was this election conducted in the usual way?

[Answer] Oh, yes, the way they’re conducted in the Third Ward with vote buying, and all the rest of it.

[Question] Did the other side have any money to spend?

[Answer] Saunders had $16 to the division.

[Question] What did your side have?

[Answer] Oh, we had about $60; there was money to burn. But our money went to three people. The other fellows saved theirs. I spent mine like a sucker.


DuBois was one of the leading intellectuals of the 20th century as an educator, editor, cutting-edge civil rights leader, and fearless political dissident. He capped his career at age 93 by joining the Communist Party and moving to Ghana.

Notwithstanding all of his sociological insight and passion for activism, I wish DuBois had gone to Hollywood.