What is Race Relations in America?

Race Relations in America is a collection of primary source material focusing on race relations across three pivotal decades in the struggle for civil rights in the United States. Based at Fisk University from 1943-1970, the Race Relations Department was a forum enabling leading figures within the Civil Rights Movement to engage in a national discussion with community leaders, on the challenges of overcoming prejudice and segregation. Its aim was to identify problem areas in race relations and develop courses of constructive action, under the leadership of the eminent sociologist Charles S. Johnson.

Correspondence and administrative material accompany photographs, sound recordings and transcripts of speeches delivered at the Annual Race Relations Institutes. Excellent survey material, featuring interviews, field worker reports, statistics and analyses, allows topics such as housing, employment in industry, the labor movement, school desegregation and church integration to be explored.

Essays and video interviews featuring members of the Editorial Board, along with an interactive chronology, offer contextual information. An interactive map and a data association tool allow different perspectives on the survey material and attendance at the Annual Race Relations Institute respectively.

Learn more about these areas of the resource on the following Take a Tour pages.

 

 

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