Guy Benton Johnson Papers, 1830-1882, 1901-1987

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Summary

Creator:
Johnson, Guy Benton, 1901-
Abstract:

The papers of white social science researcher and member of the University of North Carolina faculty, Guy Benton Johnson (1901-1991), contains correspondence, research project files, subject files, writings, speeches, pedagogical materials, organizational files, printed items, photographs of family and colleagues, and images and sound recordings related to his field research. Johnson corresponded professionally with sociologists, historians, intellectuals, civil rights advocates, civic leaders, labor leaders, and writers, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Charles S. Johnson, H.L. Menken, H.L. Mitchell, Gunnar Myrdal, Howard Washington Odum, Arthur Franklin Raper, C.C. Spaulding, Carl Van Vechten, and Marion A. Wright. Project files document Johnson's sociological research on the Ku Klux Klan, Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, musical abilities of African Americans, African American folk songs and folklore, legend of John Henry, desegregation in higher education, and Gullah Geechee people, culture, and language on Saint Helena Island in South Carolina. Also included are research files related to Johnson's work on Gunnar Myrdal's 1944 study of race relations in the United States, An American Dilemma. Subject files cover various topics including West Africa, Chapel Hill (N.C.) Riot in 1937; racism (segregation, anti-integration, eugenics), and Black Power. Organizational files document Johnson's affiliations with the Southern Regional Council, North Carolina Council on Human Relations, Phelps-Stokes Fund, Howard University Board of Trustees, Institute for Research in Social Sciences, Southern Sociological Society, and other professional associations. Sound recordings on disc, tape, wax cylinder, and wire are chiefly of music and folk tales related to field work he conducted on Saint Helena Island, S.C.

Extent:
20400 items (61.0 linear feet)
Language:
Materials in English
Library Catalog Link:
View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

Guy Benton Johnson was one of the original research assistants at the University of North Carolina's Institute for Research in Social Science, and joined the University's faculty in 1927. He became Kenan professor of anthropology and sociology in 1963 and retired six years later.

A native of Caddo Mills, Tex., Johnson earned a bachelor's degree from Baylor University in 1921, a master's degree from the University of Chicago in 1922, and a doctoral degree from the University of North Carolina in 1927.

He began studying African American culture, including folk music and dialect, in the 1920s. During that decade, he focused on Saint Helena Island, S.C., near Beaufort, where he became familiar with the music, folklore, and Gullah language of the inhabitants. His publications included The Negro and His Songs (with Howard Odum, 1925); Negro Workaday Songs (with Odum, 1926), John Henry, A Negro Legend (1929); and The Folk Culture of Saint Helena Island (1930).

During the 1930s and early 1940s Johnson conducted more purely sociological studies of the effects of the Depression on African Americans and the social structure of the Lumbee Indians of Robeson County, N.C. In 1939-1940, he, along with his wife Guion, participated in the well known Myrdal study of African American life, administered by Gunnar Myrdal, a Swedish sociologist. Their work for this study included investigations of crime in African American communities, African American churches, and racial ideologies among whites.

From 1944 to 1947, Johnson was executive director of the Southern Regional Council. He later, in the 1950s, directed studies in African American education for the Fund for the Advancement of Education. He also travelled extensively in Africa in the 1960s and early 1970s and studied race relations on the continent. Johnson was a fellow of the Social Science Research Council, the American Anthropological Association, and the American Sociological Association.

For 37 years, Johnson served as a trustee of Howard University.

Johnson was married to Guion Griffis Johnson, who was also active in social science research. They had two sons: Guy Benton Johnson, Jr., and Edward J. Johnson, psychology professor at the University of North Carolina.

Selected Bibliography of Non-Fiction and Fiction Works by Johnson

  • A Sociological Interpretation of the New Ku Klux Movement (1923)
  • The Negro and His Songs : A Study of Typical Negro Songs in the South (1925)
  • Negro Workaday Songs (1926)
  • John Henry : Tracking Down a Negro Legend (1929)
  • Folk Culture on St. Helena Island, South Carolina (1930)
  • Education, Segregation, and Race Relations (1935)
  • Negro Racial Movements and Leadership in the United States (1937)
  • Personality in a White-Indian-Negro Community (1939)
  • Research in Service to Society : The First Fifty Years of the Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina (1980)
Scope and content:

The collection consists of papers, mostly correspondence and research project files, relating chiefly to Johnson's work at the University of Chicago and at UNC on the Ku Klux Klan; musical abilities of African Americans and white Americans; African American folksongs; the John Henry legend; the folklore and language (Gullah) of Saint Helena Island, S.C.; Lumbee Indians of Robeson County, N.C.; and the desegregation of higher education. Many items relate to his and Guion's participation in the Gunnar Myrdal Study of the American Negro, 1939-1940. Subject files cover various topics including West Africa, Chapel Hill (N.C.) Riot in 1937; racism (segregation, anti-integration, eugenics), and Black Power. There are also materials documenting Johnson's work with the Southern Regional Council, of which he was director in 1944-1947; the North Carolina Council on Human Relations; the Phelps-Stokes Fund; and the Howard University Board of Trustees; and his service to professional sociological organizations. Also included are writings by Johnson, pedagogical materials, photographs and other materials relating to his family in North Carolina and Texas and career. Johnson's correspondents included Langston Hughes, Charles S. Johnson, C.C. Spaulding, H.L. Mencken, Carl van Vechten, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marion Wright, and many other intellectuals, scholars, writers, and activists, both black and white. Audiovisual materials include recordings of speeches, music, and folk tales on audio tapes, audio discs, wax cylinders, and wire recordings, primarily from Johnson's field research on Saint Helena Island, S.C.

Acquisition information:

Received from Guy B. Johnson of Chapel Hill, N.C., in February 1990 (Acc. 90025).

Processing information:

Processed by: Jill Snider, July 1995, and Virginia Ferris, 2013

Encoded by: Joseph Nicholson, June 2006

Edited by: Tierra Thomas and Laura Hart, July 2019; Dawne Howard Lucas, January 2021; Nancy Kaiser, March 2022

In 2017, we began using "white" as an ethnic and racial identity for individual and families, in addition to "Black," "African American," "Jewish," and other familiar identity terms that we have used for decades in collection descriptions. We use this identity term so that whiteness is no longer the presumed default of the people represented in our collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

Sensitive materials statement:

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Indexed terms

Subjects:
Journal of social forces.
African Americans -- Folklore
African Americans--Languages.
African Americans--Songs and music.
African Americans--Southern States--Social life and customs.
Anthropologists--Southern States--History--20th century.
Eugenics.
Families--North Carolina.
Families--Texas.
Folklore--United States.
John Henry (Legendary character)
Lumbee Indians.
Sea Islands Creole dialect.
Segregation in higher education--History--20th century.
Sociologists--Southern States--History--20th century.
Names:
Howard University.--Board of Trustees.
Ku Klux Klan (1915- )
North Carolina Council on Human Relations.
Penn School (Saint Helena Island, S.C.)
Phelps-Stokes Fund.
Southern Regional Council.
University of North Carolina (1793-1962).--Faculty--History--20th century.
University of North Carolina (1793-1962).--Institute for Research in Social Science.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963.
Hughes, Langston, 1902-1967.
Johnson, Charles Spurgeon, 1893-1956.
Johnson, Guion Griffis, 1900-
Johnson, Guy Benton, 1901-
Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956.
Myrdal, Gunnar, 1898-1987.
Odum, Howard Washington, 1884-1954.
Raper, Arthur Franklin, 1899-1979.
Spaulding, C. C. (Charles Clinton), 1874-1952.
Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964.
Wright, Marion A. (Marion Allan), 1894-
Places:
Chapel Hill (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
North Carolina--Race relations.
North Carolina--Social life and customs.
Robeson County (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
Saint Helena Island (S.C.)--Social life and customs.
South Carolina--Race relations.
Texas--Social life and customs.

Access and use

Restrictions to access:

Student materials in folders 561-569 CLOSED. Use of audio material may require production of listening copies.

Restrictions to use:

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

No usage restrictions.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], in the Guy Benton Johnson Papers #3826, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:
Louis Round Wilson Library
200 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Contact:
(919) 962-3765
wilsonlibrary@unc.edu