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ABSTRACT
From 1945 and the following 25 years UNESCO – the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – was, as a hub for cultural internationalism, at the heart of a dispute in international scientific circles over the correct definition of the concept of race. In the wake of World War II and the Holocaust this was the core of UNESCO’s many post-war mental engineering initiatives and essentially a dispute about whether the natural sciences or the social sciences should take precedence in determining the origins of human difference, of social division, and of the attribution of value. The article provides an overview of the work on race carried out by UNESCO, examines the measures it took to combat racism and pays attention to their political and social impact. It demonstrates how UNESCO played a major part in imposing a new post-war view of man, but also that the impact differed from country to country and had a focus on problems in the U.S. and South Africa. Not before 1960 did it gradually begin to have a more global approach and impact.
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Notes
1 “Strategies and Tactics in the Struggle for Civil and Human Rights with Reverend Jesse Jackson” (interview, November 18, 2002), John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum, Boston, MA.
2 See for example Fredrickson.
3 Barkan, “The Politics of the Science of Race”; Pogliano, “‘Statements on Race’ dell’UNESCO”; Prins et al., “Vers un monde sans mal”; Brattain, “Race, Racism, and Antiracism”; Hazard, Jr., Postwar Anti-Racism, and Krebs: “Popularizing Anthropology, Combating Racism”.
4 Iriye, Cultural Internationalism and World Order.
5 United Nations. Charter of the UN: June 26, 1945, preamble.
6 UNESCO. Constitution of UNESCO, preamble.
7 Huxley, UNESCO: Its Purpose and its Philosophy, 8; Huxley et al., We Europeans.
8 UNESCO, “UNESCO and the Social Sciences,” 9–10: Wisselgren, “From Utopian One-worldism to Geopolitical Intergovernmentalism”.
9 UNESCO. The Basic Programme, 7.
10 Glendon, A World Made New, 12–13; NAACP Papers, Box A640, Group II, UN-UNESCO 1950–1954, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress, Washington DC.
11 UNESCO. Constitution of UNESCO.
12 UNESCO. Records of the General Conference of UNESCO, 22.
13 ‘Activities of UNESCO’ [29.10.1949], in box 323.1, Statement on Race, UNESCO Archives, Paris; Committee of Experts for the Study of Racial Prejudice, SG 76/5/05, Branch Registries 1948–1959, S-0441-0401, UN Archives, New York.
14 Pogliano, “Statements on Race,” 351.
15 Letter from Robert C. Angell to Ashley Montagu, November 28, 1949, in box 323.1, Statement on Race, UNESCO Archives, Paris.
16 Letter from Julian Huxley to Robert C. Angell, January 26, 1950, in box 323.12 A 102, Statement on Race, UNESCO Archives, Paris.
17 Letter from Julian Huxley to John Skeaping, May 10, 1949, in Julian Huxley Papers: Box 18, Rice University Manuscript Collection, Houston; Letter from Ashley Montagu to Robert C. Angell, February 13, 1950, in box 323.12 A 102, Statement on Race, UNESCO Archives, Paris; Letter from Robert C. Angell to Richard Heindel, February 9, 1950, in box 45, RG 84: Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State, France, Paris Embassy, at U.S. National Archives (MA).
18 UNESCO. “Statement on Race. Paris, July 1950,” 30–35.
19 “UNESCO on Race,” 139.
20 ‘No biological justification for race discrimination’, July 18, 1950, and ‘UNESCO Launches Major World Campaign against Racial Discrimination’, July 19, 1950, in box 323.12 A 102, Statement on Race, UNESCO Archives, Paris; ‘Scientific basis for human unity’.
21 Banton, “Social aspects of the race question,” 18.
22 ‘Myth of Race’; ‘All Human Beings’, 34; Letter from Douglas H. Schneider to Alva Myrdal, October 16, 1950, and letter from Douglas H. Schneider to Max McCullough, January 4, 1951, in box 323.12 A 102, Statement on Race, UNESCO Archives, Paris.
23 According to a letter from Don J. Hager to R.S. Fenton, January 29, 1951, in box 323.12 A 102, Statement on Race, UNESCO Archives, Paris.
24 ‘UNESCO on Race’, 138–9.
25 Letters from Margaret Mead to Alfred Métraux, November 6 and November 9, 1950, in box 323.12 A 187, Manifestations of Racial & Religious Prejudices – Report for UN, UNESCO Archives, Paris; Montagu, Statement on race.
26 Koselleck, Futures past.
27 Hannaford, Race.
28 Brattain, “Race, Racism, and Antiracism,” 1398; Letters from Alfred Métraux to Ashley Montagu, March 2 and March 22, 1951, in box 323.12 A 187, Manifestations of Racial & Religious Prejudices – Report for UN, UNESCO Archives, Paris.
29 “UNESCO and Race,” 64.
30 UNESCO. “Statement on the Nature of Race and Race Differences,” 36–43.
31 Shapiro, “Revised Version of UNESCO Statement on Race,” 363.
32 Letter from Alfred Métraux to Ernest Beaglehole, February 1, 1952, in box 323.12 A 102, Statement on Race, UNESCO Archives, Paris.
33 Alfred Métraux to J.B.S. Haldane, April 15, 1952, in box 323.12 A 102, Statement on Race, UNESCO Archives, Paris.
34 Lévi-Strauss, Race and History.
35 Letter from Alfred Métraux to Harry L. Shapiro, February 19,1952, in box 323.12 A 102, Statement on Race, UNESCO Archives, Paris; Saenger, “The Effect of Intergroup Attitudes of the UNESCO Pamphlets on Race”; Reddick, “What Now Do We Learn of Race and Minority Peoples?,” 368; Freedman, “Some Recent Work on Race Relations.”
36 Proctor, “Human Recency and Race,” 253.
37 Lévi-Strauss, The Scope of Anthropology, 7.
38 ‘Activities of Member States [UNESCO]’, in box 45, RG 84: Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State, France, Paris Embassy, at U.S. National Archives (MA).
39 Jackson, Jr., Science for Segregation, 89.
40 Putnam, Race and Reality, chapter 2.
41 Anderson, Eyes off the Prize, 5–6.
42 Hazard, Jr., Postwar Anti-Racism, 72–73; “The UNESCO School Decision”; “Additional Discussion on Goals of UNESCO.”
43 Jackson, Jr., Science for Segregation, 110 and 155–6.
44 Klineberg, “32 social scientists testify against segregation.”
45 ‘Psychologists Map Unit to Aid UNESCO’.
46 Jackson, Jr., Science for Segregation, 155–64.
47 NAACP Papers, Box 3, The Campaign for Educational Equality. Series C: Legal Department and Central Office records, 1951–55: 12–13. Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress, Washington DC.
48 Marshall, “The Great Test of ‘Civil Rights’.”
49 Rowan, Go South to Sorrow, 85.
50 Klineberg, “On Race and Intelligence,” 421.
51 Biesheuvel, African Intelligence.
52 Letter from Union Education Department of South Africa to W.H.C. Laves, July 8, 1948, in box X07.21(68.01), Relations with Union of South Africa – Official, UNESCO Archives, Paris.
53 Letter from the Embassy of the Union of South Africa in Paris to UNESCO, April 5, 1955, in box X07.21(68.01), Relations with Union of South Africa – Official, UNESCO Archives, Paris; UNESCO. ‘UNESCO, the United Nations and South Africa’, 17.
54 Prins et al., ‘Vers un monde sans mal’, 123.
55 ‘Brief Summary of Interpretations Concerning the Recent Anti-Semitic Incidents’, in box 323.12 A 187, Manifestations of Racial & Religious Prejudices – Report for UN, UNESCO Archives, Paris.
56 Memorandum by René Maheu, July 29, 1960, in box 323.12 A 187, Manifestations of Racial & Religious Prejudices – Report for UN, UNESCO Archives, Paris.
57 Convention against Discrimination in Education, article 1; Race and Science: The Race Question in Modern Science; The correspondence in box 323.12:342.7 SS 5701/1, Race Discrimination & Human Rights, UNESCO Archives, Paris.
58 UN resolution, no. 1779–1781, 7.12.1962, UN Archives, New York.
59 Letter from Francisco Benet to Ernst Mayr, May 5, 1964, in Ernst Mayr Papers, Box 10, Harvard University Archives; Letter from André Bertrand to Malcolm S. Adiseshiah, May 27, 1963, in box 323.1:574 A 064 (470) ‘64’, Expert Meeting on the Biological Aspects of Race, 1964, part 1, UNESCO Archives, Paris.
60 Jackson, Jr., Science for Segregation, 99.
61 Coon, Adventures and Discoveries, 360; Letter from F. Benet to Carleton S. Coon, March 2, 1963, in box 323.1:574 A 064 (470) ‘64’, Expert Meeting on the Biological Aspects of Race, 1964, part 1, UNESCO Archives, Paris.
62 Letter from René Maheu to U Thant, June 24, 1964, in box 323.1:574 A 064 (470) ‘64’, Expert Meeting on the Biological Aspects of Race, 1964, part 1, UNESCO Archives, Paris.
63 Draft, ‘Propositions sur les aspects biologiques de la question raciale’ and ‘Rapport sur la réunion d’experts sur les aspects biologiques de la question raciale’, in box 323.1:574 A 064 (470) ‘64’, Expert Meeting on the Biological Aspects of Race, 1964, part 1, UNESCO Archives, Paris.
64 Coon, Adventures and Discoveries, 361–2.
65 UNESCO, Four Statements on the Race Question, 46.
66 ‘International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination’.
67 US Supreme Court Records and Briefs, Loving v. Virginia: Brief of Amici Curiae, 388 US 1 (1967): 28. Library of Congress, Washington DC.
68 Box SHF/CS/122/1, Meeting of Experts on Race and Racial Prejudice [1967], UNESCO Archives, Paris.
69 Jackson, Jr. et al., Race, Racism and Science, 201.
70 Duedahl, “Introduction,” 3–26.