Arthur Franklin Raper Papers, 1910-1981

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Summary

Creator:
Raper, Arthur Franklin, 1899-1979.
Abstract:

Arthur Franklin Raper (1899-1979) was a rural sociologist, civil rights activist, and social science analyst both in the United States and in other countries.

Papers document Raper's work for the Commission on Interracial Cooperation (1926-1939); the Southern Commission on the Study of Lynching (1930-1931); the Carnegie-Myrdal Study of the American Negro (1939-1940); the United States Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Agricultural Economics (1940-1952); the United States Foreign Operations Administration and the United States International Cooperation Administration (1952-1962); and the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development (1962-1964). Of special interest are data sets on counties and towns throughout the South that were compiled for the Carnegie-Myrdal Study of the American Negro and photographs by Jack Delano, Dorothea Lange, and others depicting the rural South during the Depression. Postwar materials document Raper's international work and the implementation of rural development programs in North Africa, the Middle East, and Asian countries including Japan and Taiwan. The papers include Raper's correspondence and private reflections; correspondence concerning the ten books and dozens of articles he published; extensive genealogical and biographical information and family letters and other materials; clippings; photographs; slide sets; audiotapes; and videotapes. The collection also contains correspondence, writings, photographs, and other papers of Arthur's wife Martha Jarrell Raper (1905-1979).

Extent:
48,000 items (67.5 linear feet)
Language:
Materials in English
Library Catalog Link:
View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

Arthur Franklin Raper (1899-1979) attended both the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and Vanderbilt University. The early years of Raper's career were devoted to an analysis of rural problems and racial discrimination in Depression-era South. He was an activist who delivered speeches and gathered data as he worked to alleviate rural poverty and for the social and legal equality of African Americans. In 1940, Raper began his 22-year career as a social scientist and research analyst for several federal government agencies. His concern for southern agricultural reform continued, but after World War II, he became involved with problems of rural development on a global scale. He studied conditions in Japan, Taiwan, and several other countries in Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. During these years, Raper continued the activism that had characterized his earlier career. In 1962, he became senior advisor to the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development. He returned to America two years later, and was a visiting professor at Michigan State University until he retired in 1967. Between the time of his retirement and his death in 1979, Raper maintained an active interest in the worldwide struggle against social and political injustice.

Personal:

Date Event
1899
Born on 8 November in Davidson County, N.C., the third son of William Franklin and Julia Selina Crouse Raper.
1929
Married Martha E. Jarrell of Atlanta, Ga., on 12 June.
1930
Birth of first son, Charles F., on 5 May.
1932
Birth of second son, Harrison C. (Roper), on 10 May.
1934
Birth of third son, A. Jarrell, on 24 March.
1937
Birth of daughter, J. Margaret (Hummon), on 21 November.
1979
Died in Oakton, Va., on 10 August.

Education:

Date Event
1924
Received A.B., University of North Carolina.
1925
Received M.A. in sociology and political science, Vanderbilt University.
1931
Received Ph.D. in sociology and rural economics, University of North Carolina.

Positions Held:

Date Event
1925-1926
Research Assistant for the Institute for Research in Social Science, University of North Carolina.
1926-1939
Research Secretary for the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, Atlanta, Ga.
1930-1931
Member of the Southern Commission on the Study of Lynching.
1932-1939
Part-time professor of sociology at Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Ga.
1938-1940
Executive Secretary of the Council on a Christian Social Order.
1939-1940
Research Associate for the Carnegie-Myrdal Study of the American Negro.
1940-1942
Social Science Analyst for the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
1942-1952
Social Science Analyst and Principal Social Scientist for the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
1943-1952
Taught graduate courses at the United States Department of Agriculture, at American University, and at the University of Maryland.
1946-1952
Trustee of the Delta Cooperative Farms, Inc., Bolivar County, Miss.
1947-1950
Made three trips to Japan as a consultant on agrarian reforms for the Allied Occupation Command.
1951
Made a trip to Southeast Asia as a consultant on increasing aid to villagers for the Mutual Security Administration (MSA).
1951
Made a trip to the Middle East as a consultant on increasing agricultural production for the American Friends of the Middle East.
1952
Consultant to the Far East Division of MSA.
1952-1954
Project Evaluation Advisor for the Foreign Operations Administration's Mutual Security Mission to China (Taiwan).
1954-1955
Consultant to the Community Development Division of the International Cooperation Administration (ICA).
1955-1958
Regional Community Development Advisor to the Middle East and North Africa for ICA.
1958
Member of the Training Development Staff for ICA.
1958-1961
Assistant Chief for the Orientation and Counseling Branch of the Career Development Division of ICA.
1959-1962
Taught courses on community development at Catholic University.
1961-1962
Acting Chief for the Orientation and Counseling Branch, ICA.
1964
Senior Advisor to the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development, Comilla, East Pakistan.
1964
Worked with the Pakistan Project in the College of Education at Michigan State University.
1965-1967
Visiting professor with the Asian Studies Center and an affiliate in the Department of Sociology, Michigan State University.
1967
Retired in July to his home in Oakton, Va.

Books:

Date Event
1933
The Tragedy of Lynching (reprinted in 1969).
1936
Preface to Peasantry (reprinted in 1968).
1941
Sharecroppers All, with Ira DeA. Reid (reprinted in 1971).
1943
Tenants of the Almighty (reprinted in 1971).
1949
Rural Life in the United States, with Carl C. Taylor, et al.
1950
The Japanese Village in Transition, with Herbert Passin, et al.
1951
Guide to Agriculture, U.S.A., with Martha J. Raper (revised and reprinted in 1955).
1953
Rural Taiwan: Problem and Promise, with the Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction.
1954
Urban and Industrial Taiwan: Crowded and Resourceful, with Han-sheng Chuan and Shao-shing Chen.
1970
Rural Development in Action: The Comprehensive Experiment at Comilla, East Pakistan, with Harry L. Case, et al.
Scope and content:

The Arthur Franklin Raper papers offer detailed documentation of Raper's activities, interests, and reflections. The earliest papers are drawings by Raper, which are followed by essays written while he was attending the University of North Carolina and Vanderbilt University. While Raper was working both with the Commission on Interracial Cooperation and with the Southern Commission on the Study of Lynching, he gathered information, such as statistical analyses, clippings, and case studies, from cities and towns throughout the South on the problem of lynching and other, more subtle, forms of racial intimidation. These materials are included among the 1920s-1930s papers.

In addition to the correspondence and materials on lynching, the papers from 1925 to 1942 also include a number of clippings on rural poverty; audiotapes; speeches and essays by Raper; Race and Class Pressures, Raper's monograph for the Carnegie-Myrdal Study of the American Negro; and reviews and correspondence about his first four books: The Tragedy of Lynching (1933); Preface to Peasantry (1936); Sharecroppers All (1941); and Tenants of the Almighty (1943). Of special interest is data on counties and towns throughout the South, which was compiled by Raper and Ralph Bunche for the Carnegie-Myrdal Study of the American Negro, 1939-1940. In addition, photographs made by the Farm Security Administration (some of which appeared in Raper's books) highlight the rural poverty of the depression-ridden South.

Raper moved from Greene County, Ga., to Washington, D.C., in 1942, and his papers subsequently broadened in scope. Working for the United States Department of Agriculture, he collected a variety of field notes on various locales across the country. The fruits of some of this labor can be found in Rural Life in the United States (1949) and Guide to Agriculture, U.S.A. (1951), both of which are documented in the papers, although not as extensively as his first four books. As his interests shifted to the problem of worldwide rural development, Raper continued to make speeches and write essays, copies of which are included in his papers.

In the late 1940s, Raper started making trips abroad as a consultant for various government agencies, and the papers contain a great deal of information on aiding and implementing post-war development programs in foreign countries. Between 1947 and 1964, Raper's papers include correspondence; extensive field notes he made on Japan and Taiwan; reports and statistical analyses of a number of countries in Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East; orientation materials, including pamphlets, tapes, and slides for employees working abroad for the United States government; and a great number of photographs and slides depicting scenes and patterns of life in foreign countries. There is also extensive documentation of the Comilla Project, a rural development project on which Raper devoted two years working with the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development.

Raper returned to the United States in 1964 to close out his career at Michigan State University, but his papers continue, uninterrupted, until his death in 1979. These later papers include correspondence; further materials on the Comilla Project, including the publication of Rural Development in Action: The Comprehensive Experiment at Comilla, East Pakistan (1970); accounts of public appearances by Raper; oral history interviews; correspondence, minutes, and printed materials relating to Raper's involvement in the National Sharecroppers' Fund and the Southern Regional Council; Raper's reflections on a variety of issues; and more photographs and tapes. Among the papers from Raper's last years are newspaper and magazine clippings (many with his annotations) which pertain to civil rights, American political developments, difficulties of Third World nations, and problems of modern technology.

Processing Note: From the time Arthur Raper began his public career, he carefully collected and arranged his own papers, and the ordering scheme which Raper established has been retained. Raper's organizing system divides the entire collection of papers into four parts: one set of chronological files, which comprises the core of the collection and includes writings, correspondence, photographs, audiovisual materials, and other items; and three sets of support files, which include clippings, correspondence, photographs, and other materials that supplement the chronological files for the corresponding years. Each of the four sets of files is divided into a number of "volumes," Raper having originally housed his papers in three-ring binders. For preservation purposes, the papers have been moved from Raper's binders to archival folders. Therefore, Raper's volume numbers have been keyed to folder numbers in this finding aid. Raper also created a 557-page index to the collection, which essentially functions as a chronological, item-level contents list of the papers. A bound paper copy of this index is available for use in the Southern Historical Collection research room. There is also a microfilm copy.

Acquisition information:

Received from Harrison Raper of Houlton, Me., son of Arthur F. Raper, in accordance with his father's will, in January 1980. Additions received from Harrison Raper in April and May 1983 (Acc. 83025 and Acc. 83026); Margaret Hummon of Athens, Ohio, in June 1983 (Acc. 83042) and in 2017 (Acc. 103148, 20240103.2); Charles Raper in May 1990 (Acc. #90053); and Blanche R. Zimmerman in August 1992 (Acc. #92122).

Processing information:

Processed by: SHC staff, 1980

Reprocessed by: Jessica Sedgwick, May 2009

Description added by: Laura Clark Brown, Danielle Fasig, Sara Mannheimer, and Julie Seifert 2013-2014 and Amelia Holmes, Laura Hart, and Erin Dickey 2015-2016. The project to enhance description of the files is ongoing.

Updated by: Laura Hart, February 2019; Laura Smith, June 2023; Davia Webb and Laura Smith, March 2024

Encoded by: Jessica Sedgwick, May 2009

Container list updated by: Dawne Howard Lucas, July 2020, January 2022

Processing staff retained Arthur Raper's original order and arrangment in four parts, "Chronological File" (Part I) and "Support File" (Part II, III, and IV). Researchers may consult Raper's own index to "Chronological File." Index is found in boxes 1a and 1b.

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.

Access and use

Restrictions to access:

Use of audio or moving image materials may require production of listening or viewing copies.

Access to streaming audio or moving image materials may be restricted to researchers who can authenticate with an ONYEN or who are physically present on campus. For further information about access to streaming audiovisual materials, contact Research and Instructional Services staff at Wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

Restrictions to use:

No usage restrictions.

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

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], in the Arthur Franklin Raper Papers #3966, 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