University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Sociology Department, Faculty Publications Sociology, Department of 2007 American Sociological Association Michael R. Hill University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sociologyfacpub Part of the Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, and the Social Psychology and Interaction Commons Hill, Michael R., "American Sociological Association" (2007). Sociology Department, Faculty Publications. 341. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/sociologyfacpub/341 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Sociology, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Sociology Department, Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Hill, Michael R. 2007. “American Sociological Association.” Pp. 130-134 in the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, Vol. 1, edited by George Ritzer. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. 130 American Sociological Association Lyman, S. M. (1998) Gunnar Myrdal's An Amer­ architects of what became the American ican Dilemma After a Half Century: Critics and sociological tradition and included (with Anticritics. International Journal oj Politics, Cul­ institutional affiliations and dates of ASS ture, and Society 12(2): 327-89. presidency): Lester Frank Ward (Brown Uni­ Myrdal, G. (1944) An American Dilemma: The versity, 1906-7), William Graham Sumner Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. Harper & Brothers, New York. (Yale University, 1908-9), Franklin Henry Smith, C. V. & Killian, L. M. (1990) Sociological Giddings (Columbia University, 1910--11), Foundations of the Civil Rights Movement. In: Albion Woodbury Small (University of Chicago, Gans, H. (Ed.), Sociology in America. Sage, New­ 1912-13), Edward Alsworth Ross (University of bury Park, CA, pp. 105-16. Wisconsin, 1914--15), George Edgar Vincent Southern, D. W. (1987) Gunnar Myrdal and Black­ (University of Minnesota, 1916), George Elliott White Relations: The Use and Abuse oj An Amer­ Howard (University of Nebraska, 1917), ican Dilemma, 1944-1969. Louisiana State Uni­ and Charles Horton Cooley (University of versity Press, Baton Rouge. Michigan, 1918). The pioneering work of the Wacker, R. F. (1983) Ethnicity, Pluralism, and Race: ASS and its ever-growing membership is Race Relations Theory in America Before Myrdal. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT. chronicled in the 23 volumes of the Papers and Proceedings of the American Sociological Associa­ tion (1906-28) and in the pages of the American Journal of Sociology (AJS). The AJS, founded in 1895 by Albion W. Small and published by the University of Chicago Press, predated American Sociological the ASS. The AJS, under Small's editorship, became the voice of the ASS and reprinted Association many of the articles and official reports appear­ ing in the Papers and Proceedings (Meroney Michael R. Hill 1930a). From the beginning, ASS membership The American Sociological Association (ASA) grew steadily from 115 in 1906 to 1,812 in is currently the largest and most influential 1930, with the largest proportion of members membership organization of professional (41. 7 percent and 41.5 percent, respectively) sociologists in the US. The ASA began its coming from the Middle West and the East. organizational life in 1905 when a small group In the early years, to 1922, annual meetings of self-selected scholars representing several focused single-mindedly on a topic chosen and existing scholarly organizations (including the organized by the Society's president for that American Economic Association, the American year, with an average of only 43 members Historical Association, and the American participating on the program of any given Political Science Association) proposed a sepa­ meeting. These relatively small gatherings rate and independent American Sociological provided maximum opportunities for detailed Society (ASS) ("Organization of the American discussions and face-to-face interaction Sociological Society" 1906). The first ASS between presenters, discussants, and the atten­ annual meeting convened December 27-29, dees as a whole. When Columbia's Franklin 1906, in Providence, Rhode Island, with 115 H. Giddings presided at the 1911 meeting in members and a full program of scholarly Washington, DC, for example, the program papers. In 1959 the organization's name was roster included 14 participants, an all-time formally changed from the American Socio­ low. The introduction of separate sectional logical Society to the American Sociological meetings (organized around special topics) Association. As of 2004, the ASA reported within the ASS began in 1922, resulting in 13,715 paid members and an investment port­ larger total numbers of program participants folio valued at $7.1 million. during annual meetings and, simultaneously, a Corporately, the first ASS presidents trend away from extended discussions of the comprised the major white, male, intellectual presentations toward the reading of large American Sociological Association 131 numbers of formal papers per se (Meroney Chicago. Park favored perspectives advocated 1930b), a pattern that continues today. By by Booker T. Washington and this made room 2004 there were 43 separately organized sec­ for limited African American participation tions, representing such diverse fields as within organized sociology. Partly in conse­ teaching and learning; medical sociology; quence, E. Franklin Frazier, with a doctorate Marxist sociology; sociology of emotions; from the University of Chicago, became - in mathematical sociology; history of sociology; 1948 - the first African American ASA pre­ animals and society, etc. sident. Nonetheless, Frazier later recounted Despite the existence of numerous female instances of racial discrimination at ASS meet­ sociologists during the first years of the twen­ ings. Little changed during subsequent years. tieth century, the ASS was overwhelmingly a In 1968 the Black Caucus, led by Tillman male club. When women were invited to par­ Cothran, was organized to confront the con­ ticipate on the annual programs it was typi­ tinuing marginalization of African Americans cally as discussants rather than as major within the ASA. As of 2001, African Amer­ presenters (albeit the programs organized by icans comprised approximately 6 percent of Edward A. Ross (1914 and 1915) and William the ASA membership. Two additional African I. Thomas (1927) were more inclusive of Americans have been elected to the ASA pre­ women). Men dominated governance of the sidency: William Julius Wilson (1990) and ASS during its first 25 years. Women rarely Troy Duster (2005). Compounding sexism reached the inner sanctum of the ASS Execu­ with racism, no African American woman tive Committee. The few who did were Emily has ever been elected to the ASA presidency Green Balch (1913-14), Julia Lathrop (1917- (Deegan 2005). 18), Grace Abbott (1920-23), Susan M. When the ASS was first proposed in 1905, Kingsbury (1922-25), Lucile Eaves (1924- Edward A. Ross, then a professor at the Uni­ 26), and Ethel Stugess Dummer (1927-30). versity of Nebraska, endorsed the idea but also Foreshadowing the end of what Deegan wrote: "As the American Journal of Sociology (1991) called the "dark era of patriarchal will no doubt publish the best part of the ascendancy" in American sociology, extending proceedings, I see no reason for our group from 1920 to 1965, Dorothy Swaine Thomas doing any publishing." By 1935, however, a became in 1952 the first woman elected to the disgruntled faction within the ASS chafed at ASS presidency. Since 1969, members of the editorial control exercised over the AJS by Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) the University of Chicago, as well as the Chi­ have lobbied for wider participation by women cago department's unbroken administrative in governing the ASA. Subsequent female lock on the ASS office of secretary-treasurer. ASA presidents include Mirra Komarovsky By a two-to-one vote at the annual business (1973), Alice S. Rossi (1983), Matilda White meeting in December 1935, the ASS member­ Riley (1986), Joan Huber (1989), Maureen T. ship established a new journal, the American Hallinan (1996), Jill Quadagno (1998), and Sociological Review (ASR) - and it remains an Barbara F. Reskin (2002). As of 2001, women official ASA journal today. Of those support­ comprised approximately 52 percent of the ing this change, Frank H. Hankins (of Smith ASA membership. College) was made the first editor of ASR, African American sociologists also experi­ Henry P. Fairchild (of New York University) enced variable inclusion within the ASA was elected ASS president, and Harold Phelps membership and governance structures. For (a non-Chicagoan from Pittsburgh) was elected example, W. E. B. Du Bois, America's most secretary of the Society. It was a clean sweep noted and prolific African American sociolo­ for the rebels (Lengermann 1979). Nonethe­ gist, neither attended ASA meetings nor held less, the strong Chicago influence within the any ASA office. Indeed, Du Bois was profes­ ASA continued. For example, of the 25 ASA sionally ostracized due to the ideological oppo­ presidents elected from 1946 to 1969, fully 12 sition of Robert E. Park, an ASA president (48 percent) had earned their doctorates (1925) and an influential faculty member of at Chicago. Harvard University, the only sig­ the sociology department in