A Closer Look at the Pioneer Fund: Response to Rushton
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A CLOSER LOOK AT THE PIONEER FUND: RESPONSE TO RUSHTON William H. Tucker* INTRODUCTION Recently in the Albany Law Review, Professor Paul Lombardo described the origins of the Pioneer Fund, noting the Nazi sympathies of Wickliffe Preston Draper, its founder, and Harry H. Laughlin, its first president.' My own recent book-The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund-came to similar conclusions about Pioneer's early history and went on to document the role played by its key directors in opposing the civil rights movement on the basis of putatively scientific evidence of black intellectual inferiority.2 In response, Professor J. Philippe Rushton, the new president of the fund, denied all these charges as based solely on the distortion of "misleading pieces of evidence very selectively picked" and the use of "invective and name-calling."3 Rushton accused me in particular of taking the "low road" and characterized my work as "propagandistic. 4 Before offering my own reply to Rushton, let me first observe that I am pleased he has decided to air this issue in an academic journal. Even before reading my book-indeed, even before its publication- Rushton wrote to the executive editor at the University of Illinois Press and to the university president, with a copy to Pioneer's attorney, claiming, on the basis of the description on the Press web page, that I had defamed Pioneer, and suggesting that the Press "withdraw or amend" its advertisement.' This apparent attempt to *William H. Tucker is a Professor of Psychology at Rutgers University, Camden. Paul A. Lombardo, "The American Breed" Nazi Eugenics and the Origins of the Pioneer Fund, 65 ALB. L. REV. 743 (2002) [hereinafter Lombardo]. 2 WILLIAM H. TUCKER, THE FUNDING OF SCIENTIFIC RACISM: WICKLIFFE DRAPER AND THE PIONEER FUND 67-69 (2002) (detailing the activities of individuals associated with the Pioneer Fund, including their opposition to desegregation) [hereinafter TUCKER]. 3 J. Philippe Rushton, The Pioneer Fund and the Scientific Study of Human Differences, 66 ALB. L. REV. 207, 222-23 (2002). Id. at 254. Letter from J. Philippe Rushton, President, The Pioneer Fund, to Judy McCulloh, 1145 1146 Albany Law Review [Vol. 66 exert legal pressure on my publisher was both disappointing and ironic since Rushton has justifiably complained about attempts to suppress his own academic freedom.6 The fact that he has now chosen to engage in, rather than attempt to stifle, debate is to be commended. Although my book is filled with evidence-much of it from previously unexamined archives-amply demonstrating the truth of Pioneer's origin and agenda, I cannot, of course, reproduce the entire case in the limited space here. As a consequence, I shall confine myself to the major points raised in Rushton's article. I. THE VIEWS OF PIONEER DIRECTORS A. Wickliffe Preston Draper Rushton describes Pioneer's founders as "[d]istinguished Americans,"7 who created a fund to support "resolute, path-breaking scientists intrepidly working at the frontiers of knowledge in the study of human heredity."8 Actually, Draper's attorney and fellow board member recounted in 1947 that Draper was "not... concerned with research in human genetics since he felt that enough was known on the subject" 9 and was more interested in doing "something practical" with the knowledge, such as "moving the colored race to Liberia."' Consistent with this view Draper provided, during the 1930s, the finances for a campaign by Klansman Earnest Sevier Cox to repatriate blacks to Africa, an effort that Draper planned to resume after the war." Executive Editor, University of Illinois Press and James J. Stukel, President, University of Illinois 5 (Aug. 1, 2002) (on file with author). 6 See Rushton, supra note 3, at 259 (extolling the Pioneer Fund for persisting in its research in the face of "ignorance, fear of knowledge, and suppression of academic freedom"). Id. at 212. 6 Id. at 218. 9 Letter from Malcolm Donald to Frederick H. Osborn (Oct. 21, 1947) (on file with Frederick H. Osborn Papers, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) [hereinafter Osborn Papers]. 0 Letter from Malcolm Donald, to Frederick Osborn (July 22, 1947) (on file with Osborn Papers, supra note 9). " See TUCKER, supra note 2, at 33-42 (detailing the relationship between Draper and Cox and their collaboration in the movement to repatriate blacks); see also Letter from Sheldon C. Reed, Director, Dight Institute, to Dr. M. Demerec, Department of Genetics, Carnegie Institution 4 (Oct. 4, 1948) (noting in the Biennial Report of the Dight Institute that Draper had offered as much as $100,000 to fund a study of human genetics focused on "shipping the Negro inhabitants back to Africa"); Letter from Earnest Sevier Coxx [sic] to Colonel W. P. Draper 2 (Sept. 15, 1938) (discussing plans to repatriate large numbers of American Negroes 2003] A Closer Look at the Pioneer Fund 1147 However, when a movement arose in the 1950s, not to repatriate blacks but to grant them long-deferred rights, Draper changed his priorities and poured millions of dollars into the segregationist cause 2-most of this money going to scientifically-based attempts to keep blacks separate and unequal. 3 Harry Weyher, president of the Pioneer board, orchestrated these efforts, and John Bond Trevor Jr., another board member, participated in their planning and implementation. The two men together with Draper comprised the core of the organization.' 4 In addition, Draper sent annual and very substantial personal gifts to numerous segregationist scientists as "token[s] of... appreciation of [their] scientific efforts during the past year."'15 Anatomy professor Wesley Critz George, for example, received a series of checks from Wickliffe Draper' 6 -totaling tens of thousands of dollars adjusted for inflation'"-after writing pamphlets encouraging defiance of the Brown decision because blacks were genetically inferior and would "further[] the deterioration of our race and our civilization."'' 8 Another recipient of to Liberia with the support of Sen. Bilbo and other members of Congress); Letter from Sen. Theo. G. Bilbo to Hon. Ernest [sic] Sevier Cox (Feb. 8, 1938) (praising a manuscript written by Cox on the history of repatriation and pronouncing that he had "almost made up [his] mind to specialize on [sic] the repatriation of the negro [sic]"). 12 See Douglas A. Blackmon, Silent Partner:How the South's Fight to Uphold Segregation Was Funded Up North, WALL ST. J., June 11, 1999, at Al (exposing Draper's connection to the Sovereignty Commission, an entity created by the State of Mississippi in 1957 to infiltrate civil rights organizations, whose budget to oppose the Civil Rights Act was largely funded by Draper), available at 1999 WL-WSJ 5456164; see also TUCKER, supra note 2, at 65-130 (describing generally the anti-civil rights campaign). 13 See Ronald W. May, Genetics and Subversion, THE NATION, May 14, 1960, at 420-22 (revealing Draper's Congressional connections, which he used to find recipients for grants to scientists willing to engage in genetic research to prove racial inferiority); Ron May, Rich New Yorker Trying to Prove Negroes Inferior, THE CAPITAL TIMES (Madison, Wis.), Mar. 5, 1960, at 1 (reporting on Draper's furtive efforts to find researchers willing to support his ideals and the generally negative reaction from the scientific community). "4 See John Sedgwick, Inside the Pioneer Fund, in THE BELL CURVE DEBATE HISTORY, DOCUMENTS, OPINIONS 153-54 (Russell Jacoby & Naomi Glauberman eds., 1995) (describing the partnering of Harry Weyher and Wickliffe Draper); TUCKER, supra note 2, at 68-69. 15 Letter from Harry Weyher, to Dr. W. C. George (Dec. 7, 1962) (on file with Wesley Critz George Papers, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) [hereinafter George Papers]. 6 Id.; Letter from Harry Weyher, to Dr. W. C. George (Dec. 17, 1963) (on file with George Papers, supra note 14); Letter from Harry Weyher, to Dr. W. C. George (Dec. 2, 1964) (on file with George Papers, supra note 14); Letter from Harry Weyher, to Dr. W. C. George (Dec. 8, 1965) (on file with George Papers, supra note 14); Letter from Harry Weyher, to Dr. W. C. George (Dec. 9, 1966) (on file with George Papers, supra note 14); Letter from Harry Weyher, to Dr. W. C. George (Dec. 8, 1967) (on file with George Papers, supra note 14). 17 Blackmon, supra note 15, at Al (calculating that adjusted for inflation, the contributions would add up to over $1.1 million). "8 W. C. GEORGE, THE RACE PROBLEM FROM THE STANDPOINT OF ONE WHO IS CONCERNED ABOUT THE EVILS OF MISCEGENATION 5 (1955); see also PROFESSOR W. GEORGE, RACE 1148 Albany Law Review [Vol. 66 Draper's generosity was psychologist and eventual Pioneer board member Henry E. Garrett, who led the scientific assault on integration. Garrett wrote that "the normal African Negro resemble[d] the European after a frontal leucotomy"' 9 but that no matter how intelligent "a Negro may be, his ancestors were (and his kinsmen still are) savages. .."' In private correspondence Garrett suggested that "our best bet" to prevent implementation of the Brown decision would be to "[m]ake the white schools so unpleasant for them that the Negroes withdraw.... 2 In addition to annual gifts in appreciation for these efforts, Garrett received a bequest of $50,000 in Draper's will-now over $200,000 adjusted for inflation.22 The will also left millions of dollars to Pioneer and one other foundation directed by Weyher and Trevor to support a system of private, segregated schools in Mississippi, developed as a method to avoid the Brown decision." There is also little doubt about Draper's Nazi sympathies.