This article discusses Du Bois's analysis of poverty, charity, and relief in Philadelphia, and places it in the context of his research methods and agenda. It uses this consideration of method and agenda as a framework for an overview of the relations between race and the American welfare state. After describing the structure of the American welfare state, the article limns some of the themes in the historic imbrication of race in social welfare. The article then turns to the implication for African Americans of the post-1980 redefinition of the welfare state by the three great forces of dependence, devolution, and markets. These forces not only redefine benefits; they also recast the idea of citizenship and what it means to be an American.
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