E. Franklin Frazier

Lore & Background

Frazier was born in Baltimore in 1894, one of five children of James H. Frazier, a bank messenger, and Mary Clark Frazier, a homemaker. He attended segregated Baltimore public schools and graduated in 1912 from the Colored High and Training School (later Frederick Douglass High School), earning a scholarship to Howard University. At Howard, he graduated with honors in 1916, studying Latin, Greek, German, and mathematics, and was active in drama, political science, the NAACP, and the Intercollegiate Socialist Society, serving as class president in 1915 and 1916. He earned a master's degree from Clark University in 1920, writing a thesis titled *New Currents of Thought Among the Colored People of America*, and then spent 1920–1921 as a Russell Sage Foundation fellow at the New York School of Social Work.

Frazier taught sociology at Morehouse College, where he established what became the Atlanta University School of Social Work. In 1927, he published 'The Pathology of Race Prejudice' in *Forum*, arguing that prejudice was abnormal behavior akin to insanity. The article provoked an editorial in an Atlanta paper and severe threats, forcing Frazier and his family to leave Atlanta early for Chicago, where he held a fellowship at the University of Chicago's sociology department. He earned his Ph.D. in 1931. Frazier taught at Fisk University from 1929 to 1934, then returned to Howard University, where he taught until his death in 1962. In 1944, he received a Rosenwald Fellowship to analyze post-1939 family data and study interracial marriages in New York. He founded and led the D.C. chapter of the American Sociological Association before being elected its first black president in 1948. Frazier was a prominent member of the Howard School of International Relations and helped draft *The Effects of Segregation and the Consequences of Desegregation: A Social Science Statement* (1953), entered as evidence in the *Brown vs Board of Education* Supreme Court case.

Reader's Guide

E. Franklin Frazier's significance lies in his pioneering sociological work on the African-American family and race relations, conducted at a time when few Black scholars held such prominence. His 1939 book *The Negro Family in the United States* was among the first sociological works on Black people researched and written by a Black person, and it won the 1940 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. Frazier's election in 1948 as the first Black president of the American Sociological Association marked a milestone in the profession. His 1957 book *Black Bourgeoisie* critically examined the black middle class, arguing it was marked by conspicuous consumption and a world of make-believe, drawing mixed reviews and harsh criticism from that class. Frazier's *Race and Culture Contacts in the Modern World* (1957) explored European-non-European relations, arguing that Europe's economic expansion was the most important factor underlying race relations and that the Cold War gave non-white peoples an increasingly important role in international affairs. His legacy includes the E. Franklin Frazier Center for Social Work Research at Howard University and the E. Franklin Frazier Chair and Professor of English at Clark University. Frazier has been ranked among the most important African Americans for his influence on institutions and practices to accept demands for economic, political, and social equality.

Did You Know?

• Frazier's 1927 article 'The Pathology of Race Prejudice' argued that prejudice was abnormal behavior characteristic of insanity, including dissociation and paranoia.
• He helped draft the 1953 social science statement entered as evidence in the *Brown vs Board of Education* Supreme Court case.
• Frazier was elected as the first black president of the American Sociological Association in 1948.
• His book *Black Bourgeoisie* was first published in French in 1955 before being translated into English in 1957.