E. Franklin Frazier

E. Franklin Frazier is the author of 8 books of nonfiction, including The Negro Family in the United States (1939), which won the 1940 Ainsfield-Wolf Award, and Black Bourgeoisie (1957), winner of the MacIver Award from the American Sociological Society. His article, “The Pathology of Race Prejudice” (1927) remains controversial for its comparison of prejudice to insanity; its reception forced him to leave a teaching position at Morehouse College. His On Race Relations: Selected Writings, was published posthumously in 1968.

Frazier taught at Tuskegee Institute, Morehouse College, The Atlanta School of Social Work, and Fisk University before joining the faculty of the Department of Sociology at Howard University, where he taught from 1934 until his death in 1962. He advocated for civil rights and was a member of the Council on African Affairs. His writings are widely credited with influencing a range of American institutions to adopt practices of greater economic, political, and social equality for people of African descent. He is remembered locally with the E. Franklin Frazier Center for Social Work Research at Howard University.