Research Catalog

Title

Carnegie-Myrdal Study of the Negro in America research memoranda collection, 1935-1948.

Author

Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Supplementary Content

Finding aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Brenman-Gibson, Margaret.
• Brown, Sterling A., 1901-1989.
• Bunche, Ralph J. (Ralph Johnson), 1904-1971.
• Burks, Barbara Stoddard, 1902-1943.
• Cayton, Horace R.
• Davis, Allison, 1902-
• Dorn, Harold Fred, 1906-
• Drake, St. Clair.
• Fleming, George James, 1904-
• Florant, Lyonel Charles.
• Frazier, E. Franklin, 1894-1962.
• Herskovits, Melville J. (Melville Jean), 1895-1963.
• Hill, Arnold.
• Isbell, Elanor C.
• Johnson, Charles Spurgeon, 1893-1956.
• Johnson, Guion Griffis, 1900-
• Johnson, Guy Benton, 1901-
• Kirk, Dudley.
• Kiser, Louise K.
• Klineberg, Otto, 1899-
• Landes, Ruth, 1908-
• McCormick, T.C. (Thomas Carson), 1892-
• Malzberg, Benjamin, 1893-
• Myrdal, Gunnar, 1898-
• Montagu, Ashley, 1905-
• Norgren, Paul Herbert, 1903.
• Palmer, Edward Nelson.
• Raper, Arthur Franklin, 1899-
• Reid, Ira De Augustine, 1901-1968.
• Shils, Edward Albert, 1911-
• Sterner, Richard, 1901-1978.
• Stouffer, Samuel Andrew, 1900-
• Wilkerson, Doxey A. (Doxey Alphonso), 1905-1993.
• Wirth, Louis, 1897-1952.
• Woofter, T. J., Jr. (Thomas Jackson), 1893-1972.

Description

• 9 linear ft. (88 volumes).
• 13 microfilm reels; 82 microfiches.

Alternative Title

The collection is also known as the Carnegie-Myrdal Research Memoranda Collection.

Subjects

• United States > Race relations
• Wilkerson, Doxey A (Doxey Alphonso), 1905-1993
• Bunche, Ralph J (Ralph Johnson), 1904-1971
• Sociology > United States
• Herskovits, Melville J (Melville Jean), 1895-1963
• Stouffer, Samuel Andrew, 1900-
• Thomas, D
• African Americans > Legal status, laws, etc
• Carnegie Corporation of New York
• Brown, Sterling A., 1901-1989
• Johnson, Guy Benton, 1901-
• Norgren, Paul Herbert, 1903-
• Discrimination > United States
• African Americans > Religion
• Woofter, T. J., Jr (Thomas Jackson), 1893-1972
• United States > Race relations > Research
• United States > Social conditions
• African Americans > Education
• Keppel, Frederick P (Frederick Paul), 1875-1943
• Sterner, Richard, 1901-1978
• Johnson, Charles Spurgeon, 1893-1956
• African Americans > Recreation
• Endowments > New York (State) > New York
• African Americans > Employment
• Cayton, Horace R (Horace Roscoe), 1903-1970
• African Americans > Economic conditions
• African Americans > Study and teaching
• African Americans > Segregation
• Myrdal, Gunnar, 1898-
• African Americans > Civil rights
• African Americans > Illinois > Chicago > Societies, etc
• African Americans > Social conditions > Research

Note

• There are related materials in the Ralph J. Bunche Papers (Sc MG 290), the manuscript of "An American Dilemma" in the Literary and Scholarly Manuscript Collection (Sc MG 44), the Carnegie-Myrdal Study of the Negro in America Research Memoranda Collection: Additions (Sc MG 514), and the Bernhard Stern/Alain Locke Collection (Sc MG 176).

Access (note)

• Researchers are restricted to microforms.

Additional Formats (note)

• Collection available on microfiche and microfilm;

Reproduction (note)

• Microfilm.
• Microfiche.

Source (note)

• Carnegie Corporation of New York (1943)

Biography (note)

• The Carnegie-Myrdal study of the Negro in America was a comprehensive investigation of African American life commissioned by the Carnegie Corporation of New York as a guide for the Corporation's activities as well as for "broader reasons."

Processing Action (note)

• Accessioned
• Surveyed
• Cataloging updated

Call Number

Sc Micro F-13242

OCLC

NYPW89-A50

Author

Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Title

Carnegie-Myrdal Study of the Negro in America research memoranda collection, 1935-1948.

Additional Formats

Collection available on microfiche and microfilm; New York Public Library; call number Sc Micro R-6534 and Sc Micro F-13,242.

Access

Researchers are restricted to microforms.

Reproduction

Microfilm. New York : New York Public Library, 1945.

Microfiche. Carnegie Corporation.

Summary

The Research Memoranda series consists of the twenty-nine memoranda prepared by the team of social scientists. The General Correspondence and Memoranda series includes letters from Frederick Keppel, president of the Carnegie Corporation, establishing the project; correspondence between Keppel and Gunnar Myrdal, memoranda of interviews with Myrdal and the social scientists who wrote the reports, and files for the Committee on Selection.

There is correspondence with the social scientists and experts with whom Myrdal conferred. The correspondents include: Sterling Brown, Ralph J. Bunche, Horace R. Cayton, Melville Herskovits, Guy B. Johnson, Paul Norgren, Richard Sterner, Samuel A. Stouffer (director of the project during Myrdal's absence in Europe during World War II), Dorothy S. Thomas, Doxey A. Wilkerson, and Thomas J. Woofter, Jr. (Correspondence can be found in Sc Micro F-13,242).

The reports range in size from 17 pages to well over 400 pages and cover a variety of topics, from religion, leisure activities, labor, family, health, leadership, organizations, migration, education, and political status, to mental disease, miscegenation, segregation, stereotypes and physical characteristics. According to Myrdal in his preface to "An American Dilemma," he relied most heavily on the memoranda by Ralph Bunche "Conceptions and Ideologies of the Negro Problem," "The Programs, Ideologies, Tactics, and Achievements of Negro Betterment and Interracial Organizations," "A Brief and Tentative Analysis of Negro Leadership," "The Political Status of the Negro;" Harold F. Dorn "The Health of the Negro;" St. Clair Drake "Negro Churches and Associations in Chicago;" Dudley Kirk "The Fertility of the Negro," Gunnar Lange "Trends in Southern Agriculture;" Paul H. Norgren "Negro Labor and its Problems;" Arthur Raper "Race and Class Pressures;" and Samuel A. Stouffer and Lyonel C. Florant "Negro Population and Negro Population Movements, 1860-1940."

Other reports include E. Franklin Frazier's "Recreation and Amusement Among American Negroes" and "Memorandum to Guy B. Johnson," T. Arnold Hill's "Digest and Analysis of Questionnaires Submitted by Urban League Secretaries," Charles S. Johnson's "Source Material for Patterns of Negro Segregation," Ashley Montagu's "Two Memoranda on the Origin, Composition and Physical Characteristics of the American Negro," Ira De A. Reid's "The Negro in the American Economic System," and T.J. Woofter's "The Negro and Agricultural Policy."

Biography

The Carnegie-Myrdal study of the Negro in America was a comprehensive investigation of African American life commissioned by the Carnegie Corporation of New York as a guide for the Corporation's activities as well as for "broader reasons."

The Corporation hired Gunnar Myrdal, a Swedish social scientist to organize and direct the project. He put together a team of African American and white social scientists working in the field of race relations who prepared reports, also known as memoranda, on all aspects of life in the African American community. These memoranda served as working documents to assist Myrdal in the preparation of his report, published as "An American Dilemma" (New York: Harper & Brother Publisher, 1944).

Connect to:

Finding aid

Added Author

Brenman-Gibson, Margaret.

Brown, Sterling A., 1901-1989.

Bunche, Ralph J. (Ralph Johnson), 1904-1971.

Burks, Barbara Stoddard, 1902-1943.

Cayton, Horace R.

Davis, Allison, 1902-

Dorn, Harold Fred, 1906-

Drake, St. Clair.

Fleming, George James, 1904-

Florant, Lyonel Charles.

Frazier, E. Franklin, 1894-1962.

Herskovits, Melville J. (Melville Jean), 1895-1963.

Hill, Arnold.

Isbell, Elanor C.

Johnson, Charles Spurgeon, 1893-1956.

Johnson, Guion Griffis, 1900-

Johnson, Guy Benton, 1901-

Kirk, Dudley.

Kiser, Louise K.

Klineberg, Otto, 1899-

Landes, Ruth, 1908-

McCormick, T.C. (Thomas Carson), 1892-

Malzberg, Benjamin, 1893-

Myrdal, Gunnar, 1898-

Myrdal, Gunnar, 1898- An American Dilemma.

Montagu, Ashley, 1905-

Norgren, Paul Herbert, 1903.

Palmer, Edward Nelson.

Raper, Arthur Franklin, 1899-

Reid, Ira De Augustine, 1901-1968.

Shils, Edward Albert, 1911-

Sterner, Richard, 1901-1978.

Stouffer, Samuel Andrew, 1900-

Wilkerson, Doxey A. (Doxey Alphonso), 1905-1993.

Wirth, Louis, 1897-1952.

Woofter, T. J., Jr. (Thomas Jackson), 1893-1972.

Added Title

The collection is also known as the Carnegie-Myrdal Research Memoranda Collection.

Research Call Number

Sc Micro F-13242

Sc Micro R-6534