On September 24, 1894, Edward Franklin Frazier was born in Baltimore, Maryland. A pioneering sociologist, author and educator, Frazier’s research and spirited critiques earned him a place as one of the most influential Black intellectuals of the 20th century.
Raised in a segregated Baltimore, Frazier excelled academically, graduating from Howard University in 1916 with honors he then moved on to advanced study at Clark University and later the University of Chicago, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1931. His dissertation would eventually become The Negro Family in the United States (1939. For this work, Frazier received the prestigious Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in 1940.
In 1927, he published The Pathology of Race Prejudice, a diagnosis of America’s racial sickness drew backlash and threats, forcing him to leave Atlanta, where he had been teaching at Morehouse College.
Over his career, Frazier authored a dozen books, including the stirring Black Bourgeoisie (1957), which critiqued the aspirations and paradoxes of the Black middle class. His thoughtful assessment, that conspicuous consumption and “make-believe” success diverted from the fight for equality, flared heated dissension within the African American community, yet Frazier never muted his stance.
In 1948, Frazier made history, becoming the first Black president of the American Sociological Association. Two years later, he contributed to drafting UNESCO’s The Race Question, an international statement contesting the pseudoscience of racial superiority.
When Frazier died in 1962 at the age of 67, he left behind more than 80 articles and 18 book chapters. Howard University later honored him with a center for social work research in his name.
