St. Clair Drake facts for kids

Quick facts for kids St. Clair Drake
Born	John Gibbs St. Clair Drake (1911-01-02)January 2, 1911 Suffolk, Virginia, U.S.
Died	June 15, 1990(1990-06-15) (aged 79) Palo Alto, California, U.S.
Awards	Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, 1946 Bronislaw Malinowski Award, 1990
Academic background
Alma mater	Hampton University University of Chicago
Academic work
Main interests	African-American studies, African studies
Notable works	Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City (1945)
Influenced	Franklin Rosemont

John Gibbs St. Clair Drake (born January 2, 1911 – died June 15, 1990) was an important African-American sociologist and anthropologist. He studied people and societies. He was also an activist, meaning he worked to bring about social change.

Drake helped create some of the first Black Studies programs at American universities. He also played a role in Ghana's journey to become an independent country. He often wrote about the challenges and successes in race relations, which means how different racial groups get along. He did this through his detailed research.

While studying at the University of Chicago, Drake wrote a famous book called Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City in 1945. He wrote it with Horace R. Cayton, Jr.. This book was a major study about race and city life. Drake was one of the first African-American professors at Roosevelt University in Chicago. At that time, it was hard for Black scholars to get teaching jobs outside of historically black colleges and universities. He taught at Roosevelt for 23 years. After that, he started the African and African American Studies program at Stanford University.

A big part of Drake's career was his interest in Africa and the Pan-African movement. This movement aims to unite people of African descent worldwide. His interest grew from his studies of African immigrants in the United Kingdom and his later research in West Africa. He spent years working in Ghana after it became independent. He was a professor there and also advised the government. Later, he returned to the United States and continued his academic work.

Early Life and Education

John Gibbs St. Clair Drake was born in Suffolk, Virginia, on January 2, 1911. As an adult and in his professional life, he used only his last name, St. Clair Drake. His father came to the United States from Barbados. He became a Baptist minister and worked with Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association. This group worked for the rights and unity of Black people. Drake's father was very religious and did not allow activities like dancing or going to movies.

Drake's mother, Bessie Lee, was from Staunton, Virginia. When Drake was two, his family moved to Harrisburg, Virginia. His father thought it would be good for them to join other African Americans moving north. St. Clair grew up in a neighborhood with many different ethnic groups. He remembered that he didn't fully understand race or prejudice at first. But he did get into fights when people insulted him because of his skin color.

Drake went to elementary school in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, until the 7th grade. Then he went back to Virginia for high school. There, he learned about "the facts of Southern life," which meant the rules of racial segregation. He said it was "exciting" but also "frustrating" to learn what it meant to be a Negro. During this time, he started writing poetry and edited the school yearbook. He finished high school in three years.

In 1927, Drake went to Hampton Institute, which is now Hampton University. He chose Hampton because students could work to pay for their college. Drake worked as a waiter and then as a front desk clerk. These jobs were only for Black workers. Drake was not happy with the school's approach, which he felt was old-fashioned. He also complained that there were no African-American full professors.

Drake and other students went on strike on October 9, 1927, soon after he arrived. They had many demands, including more Black teachers, better academic standards, and an end to strict rules. The strike ended, but many changes were made later. Drake did very well at Hampton. He became student body president, led the college's Association for the Study of Negro Life and History chapter, and edited the school newspaper. He graduated in 1931 with a degree in Biology and a minor in English.

Career as an Academic

From 1932 to 1933, Drake taught at the Christiansburg Institute. This was a trade high school for African Americans in Christiansburg, Virginia. He taught many subjects, coached soccer, and started writing professionally. He also continued his interest in social justice at Pendle Hill, a Quaker center.

Drake taught at Dillard University in New Orleans from 1935 to 1937. In 1935, he joined a research team led by Allison Davis. They studied the "caste system" in the American South, which was a way society was divided by race. They wrote a book about it called Deep South: A Social Anthropological Study of Caste and Class. Drake saw how social science could help with racial issues. He then followed Davis to study anthropology at the University of Chicago.

In the late 1930s, Drake worked in Chicago for a state commission. He also researched churches that served Chicago's Black community. He returned to Dillard in 1940 but was fired the next year for supporting a student strike. He then went back to his studies in Chicago.

After World War II

After World War II, Drake co-wrote Black Metropolis with Horace R. Cayton, Jr.. This book studied the lives of African Americans in Bronzeville, a neighborhood in Chicago. The New York Times called the book "a landmark of objective research." Drake became a key writer about the changes and challenges in race relations during the 1960s.

In 1946, Drake became a professor of sociology at Roosevelt University. He was surprised by the offer because he expected to only be considered by "Negro" colleges. He found a good home at Roosevelt, which he called an "experimental institution." There, he became an "activist anthropologist." He was one of the first Black professors at Roosevelt and helped create one of the first African American Studies programs in the United States.

Drake taught at Roosevelt for 23 years. In 1969, he left to start the African and African American Studies program at Stanford University. He stayed at Stanford until he retired in 1976.

Two Years in the United Kingdom

Drake spent almost two years in the United Kingdom from 1947 to 1948. He did research in Cardiff, Wales. He studied a community of African sailors and their Welsh families. He looked at how people reacted to British racial and colonial rule. He was one of the first scholars to study race relations in the British Isles.

Another scholar, Kenneth Little, published a book about the Black communities in Cardiff. Drake worked with the local Black community to write a response. They said they didn't trust people who just "survey us and study us" without truly understanding them.

After Retirement

Even after retiring from Stanford, Drake continued to be an active scholar and writer. One of his later works, Black Folk Here and There: An Essay in History and Anthropology, was published in two parts in 1987 and 1990. This showed his ongoing interest in race relations.

Contributions to the Pan-African Movement

Drake's interest in Africa started early in his career. He met important leaders like Kwame Nkrumah and George Padmore while doing his research in Cardiff, Wales. Because of these early connections, Drake did research projects in Liberia and Ghana in the 1950s.

From 1958 to 1961, Drake was the head of the sociology department at the University of Ghana. His connections allowed him to be part of important discussions about Ghana, which had just become independent. He helped plan meetings for the All-African Peoples' Conference in Accra in December 1958. Drake became a trusted advisor to leaders of several newly independent African nations, especially Nkrumah, who was Ghana's prime minister. However, Drake decided to leave Africa and this political work after military leaders took over in many of these nations. He said he would not "work under generals."

Drake was very committed to Ghana's success. He also wanted to protect the privacy of the people he observed. Because of this, he chose not to publish books or articles directly based on his political work in Africa or with African immigrants in Britain. However, he did conduct research studies in Africa with his wife, Elizabeth Dewey Johns, who was also an anthropologist.

Drake also helped promote interest in African countries through his work with the Peace Corps. He trained American students who were going to work in Ghana, teaching them about the local culture.

Personal Life

St. Clair Drake was married to Elizabeth Dewey Johns. She was a sociology student at the University of Chicago when Drake started there. She helped him learn about new ideas in cultural studies. After they married, they worked together doing research in West Africa. They had two children, Sandra and Karl. During World War II, Drake was a conscientious objector. This meant he refused to fight in the war because he disagreed with the U.S. military's segregation policies. Instead, he served in a civilian role in the U.S. Maritime Service.

Legacy and Awards

• Roosevelt University named a research center after Drake: The St. Clair Drake Center for African and African American Studies. It continues his work of studying the contributions and challenges of Africans and African Americans.
• Stanford University created the St. Clair Drake Lectures in his memory.
• He received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 1946.
• He received the Dubois-Johnson-Frazier award in 1973.
• He received the Bronislaw Malinowski Award in 1990.

Selected Works

Thesis

• "Value Systems, Social Structure and Race Relations in the British Isles," University of Chicago (Ph. D., Anthropology), 1954

Books

• Churches and Voluntary Associations Among Negroes in Chicago, 1940
• Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City, with Horace R. Cayton, 1945, revised 1962, revised 1970
• Social Work in West Africa, with Dr. Peter Omari, 1963
• Race Relations in a Time of Rapid Social Change, 1966
• Black Religion and the Redemption of Africa, 1971
• Black Folks Here and There: An Essay in History and Anthropology (2 vols), 1987 and 1990

Pamphlets

• The American Dream and the Negro: 100 Years of Freedom?, The Emancipation Centennial Lectures Given at Roosevelt University, 1963
• Our Urban Poor: Promises to Keep and Miles to Go, with an introduction by Bayard Rustin, 1967
• Black Religion and the Redemption of Africa, 1971

Chapters in books

• "Representative Government and the Traditional Cultures and Institutions of West African Societies," in Herbert Passin and Q. A. B. Jones-Quartey (eds.), Africa; the dynamics of change, 1963
• "Social Problems and Social Change in Contemporary Africa," in Walter Goldschmidt (ed.), The United States and Africa, 1963
• "'Hide My Face?' On Pan Africanism and Negritude," in Herbert Hill (ed.), Soon One Morning, 1963
• "Representative Government and the Traditional Cultures and Institutions of West African Societies," in H. Passin and K. A. B. Jones-Quartey (eds), Africa: The Dynamics of Change, 1963
• "The Social and Economic Status of the Negro in the United States," in T. Parsons and K. B. Clark (eds), The Negro American, 1966
• "Negro Americans and the 'Africa Interest'," in John P. Davids (ed.), American Negro Reference Book, 1966
• "Introduction to the 1967 Edition", in Edward Franklin Frazier, Negro Youth at the Crossways: There Personality Development in the Middle States, 1967
• "Violence and Social Movements in the United States," in Robert H. Connery (ed.), Urban Riots: Violence and Social Change, 1968
• "Research on Intergroup Relations at the Neighborhood Level," Race and Research, 1968
• "'Hide My Face?' On Pan-Africanism and Negritude," in August Meier and Elliot Rudwick (eds), The Making of Black America, 1969
• "In the Mirror of Black Scholarship: W. Allison Davis and Deep South," in Institute of the Black World (ed.), Education and Black Struggle: Notes from the Colonized World, 1974
• "Diaspora Studies and Pan-Africanism," in Joseph E. Harris (ed.), Global Dimensions of the African Diaspora, 1982
• "African Diaspora and Jewish Diaspora," in Joseph R. Washington (ed.), Jews in Black Perspectives: A Dialogue, 1984

Journal articles

• "On Being A Negro," Afri-American Youth, 1.5, 1937
• "Chicago: A Profile," Journal of Educational Sociology, 18.5, 1945
• "Freedom Fighters (to Charles Houston, Carter Woodson and Charles Drew)," Phylon, 11.3, 1950
• "The International Implications of Race and Race Relations," The Journal of Negro Education, 20.3, 1951
• "The 'Colour Problem' in Britain: A Study in Social Definitions," Sociological Review, 3, 1955
• "Prospects for Democracy in the Gold Coast," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 306, 1956
• "Some Observations on Interethnic Conflict as One Type of Intergroup Conflict," Conflict Resolution, 1.2, 1957
• "Independence and Crisis," Africa Today, 4.2, 1957
• "Pan-Africanism: What Is It?," Africa Today, 6.1, 1959
• "Détruire le mythe chamitique, devoir des hommes cultivés" (Destroy the Hamitic Myth), Présence Africaine, 24-25, 1959
• "Traditional Authority and Social Action in Former British West Africa," Human Organization, 19.3, 1960
• "Democracy on Trial in Africa", Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 354, 1964
• "The Social and Economic Status of the Negro in the United States," Daedalus, 94.4, 1965
• "The American Negro's Relation to Africa," Africa Today, 14.6, 1967
• "The Black University in the American School Order," Daedelus, 100.3, 1971
• "The Black Diaspora in Pan-African Perspective," Black Scholar, 7.1, 1975
• "Reflections of Anthropology and the Black Experience," Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 9.2, 1978
• "What Happened to Black Studies?," New York University Education Quarterly, 10.3, 1979
• "Anthropology and the black experience," Black Scholar, 11.7, 1980
• "Black Studies and Global Perspectives: An Essay," The Journal of Negro Education, 53.3, 1984
• "Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois: A Life Lived Experimentally and Self-Documented," Contributions in Black Studies, 8, 1986
• "Further Reflections on Anthropology and the Black Experience" (with Willie L. Baber), Transforming Anthropology, 1.2, 1990

Review articles

• "Appreciation of the Phenomenon: The Negro and the Communist Party, by Wilson Record," Phylon, 12.3, 1951
• "The Falasha Way of Life: Falasha Anthology, by Wolf Leslau," Phylon, 13.1, 1952
• "Mau Mau and the Kikuyu, by L. S. B. Leakey," American Anthropologist, 56.3, 1954
• "Race Relations in World Perspective, by Andrew W. Lind (ed.)," American Anthropologist, 59.2, 1957
• "Townsmen in the Making, by A. W. Southall and P. C. W. Gutwind," American Anthropologist, 59.5, 1957
• "The African Nations and World Solidarity, by Mamadou Dia," Journal of Modern African Studies, 1.1, 1963
• "Africa in World Politics, by Vernon McKay," American Sociological Review, 28.4, 1963
• "Negro Thought in America, 1880-1915: Racial Ideologies in the Age of Booker T. Washington, by August Meier," American Sociological Review, 30.2, 1965
• "Out in the Mid-day Sun, by Boris Gussman," American Sociological Review, 30.2, 1965
• "The Autobiography of W. E. B. Du Bois: A Soliloquy on Viewing my Life from the Last Decade of Its First Century," Political Science Quarterly, 86.2, 1971