Black Ethnographic Activists: Exploring Robert Park, Scientific Racism, The Chicago School, and FBI Files Through the Black Sociological Experience of Charles S. Johnson and E. Franklin Frazier

Abstract

Charles S. Johnson and E. Franklin Frazier were successful Black sociologists from the 1920s to 1960s, working in an age of scientific racism and eugenics, who battled racial oppression, racist discrimination, and surveillance under the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Both struggled within and against the assimilationist paradigm, yet their ethnographic and critical insights speak out today with continuing relevance in the fight against practical and institutional racial injustice. This study selectively examines Johnson and Frazier's academic careers as forgotten ethnographer activists who have been largely excluded from the dominant narrative of the Chicago School of Sociology. This article argues Robert Park offered opportunities to these Black scholars although the white university system exclusively directed their work towards race studies. Furthermore, the white discipline of sociology failed to recognize Johnson and Frazier's critical ethnographic studies as part of interactionism.

The Chicago School of Sociology and the origins of career studies

“…In addition, the important contributions of female and black researchers, whilst acknowledged at the time, have sometimes been underplayed in later historical accounts. These issues are being addressed by a range of scholars (for example, Blackman, 2023;Hart, 2010;Kurent, 1982). In addition, greater acknowledgement of issues such as power and culture is now reflected in a movement towards cultural and critical interactionism (Becker & McCall, 1990;Jacobsen, 2019).…”

Robert Park and Norbert Elias's contributions to ethnic and racial studies: A relational approach

“…This mixed legacy also extends to his influence over some Black scholars of the time, including E. Franklin Frazier, Allison Davis, and Charles Johnson. While it is true Park offered his mentorship to academics of colour within a predominantly white university environment, their studies ‐ including Johnson and Frazier's ethnographies of Black communities—as well as being developed premised on symbolic interactionist principles had assimilationist undertones based on Parks' ideas of the race relations cycle (Blackman, 2023). This notwithstanding, all three academics went on to have careers impacted by intellectual debates with Park in the Chicago School, which would change the landscape for Black sociologists.…”

Black Interactionist Thought and the Lived‐Experience Approach to Symbolic Interactionism

“…This paper adds yet another dimension to why the humanist Du Bosian approach was popular among marginalized persons. Specifically, as Blackman illustrates, scholars of color were never really given a choice between perspectives as their very existence was seen as a threat to the establishment (Blackman 2018(Blackman , 2023. The work of sociology does not happen within a political vacuum, much as some might try to insinuate, but rather is both influenced by society and subject to larger historical forces (Mills 1959).…”