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St. Clair Drake, Anthropologist born

St. Clair Drake

On this date in 1911, St. Clair Drake, a Black anthropologist and educator, was born.

He was from Suffolk, Virginia. After graduating from Hampton Institute, he worked for the Society of Friends at several schools in the South. St. Clair Drake then got involved in an anthropological study and later published his findings as "Deep South."

St. Clair Drake was moved by the potential and power of social science research to effect racial change. He enrolled at the University of Chicago and, until 1945, worked with eminent sociologist W. Lloyd Warner and others, focusing on Black Chicago. The result was the publication of the classic "Black Metropolis."

Drake was one of the first Black faculty members at Roosevelt University, where he taught for 23 years, leaving in 1973 to chair Stanford's African American studies program. His book "Black Diaspora" was published in 1972. St. Clair Drake died in 1990.

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