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The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund
The Pioneer Fund, established in 1937 by Wickliffe Preston Draper, is one of the most controversial nonprofit organizations in the United States. Long suspected of misusing social science to fuel the politics of oppression, the fund has specialized in supporting research that seeks to prove the genetic and intellectual inferiority of blacks while denying its ties to any political agenda. This powerful and provocative volume proves that the Pioneer Fund has indeed been the primary source for scientific racism. Revealing a lengthy history of concerted and clandestine activities and interests, The Funding of Scientific Racism examines for the first time archival correspondence that incriminates the fund's major players, including Draper, recently deceased president Harry F. Weyher, and others.
Divulging evidence of the Pioneer Fund's political motivations, William H. Tucker links Draper to a Klansman's crusade to repatriate blacks in the 1930s. Subsequent directors and grantees are implicated in their support of campaigns organized in the 1960s to reverse the Brown decision, prevent passage of the Civil Rights Act, and implement a system of racially segregated private schools.
Tucker shows that these and other projects have been officially sponsored by the Pioneer Fund or surreptitiously supervised by its directors. This evidence demonstrates that any results of genuine, scientific value produced with the fund's support have been a salutary, if incidental, consequence of its actual to provide ammunition for what has essentially been a lobbying campaign to prevent the full participation of blacks in society and the polity.
Divulging evidence of the Pioneer Fund's political motivations, William H. Tucker links Draper to a Klansman's crusade to repatriate blacks in the 1930s. Subsequent directors and grantees are implicated in their support of campaigns organized in the 1960s to reverse the Brown decision, prevent passage of the Civil Rights Act, and implement a system of racially segregated private schools.
Tucker shows that these and other projects have been officially sponsored by the Pioneer Fund or surreptitiously supervised by its directors. This evidence demonstrates that any results of genuine, scientific value produced with the fund's support have been a salutary, if incidental, consequence of its actual to provide ammunition for what has essentially been a lobbying campaign to prevent the full participation of blacks in society and the polity.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published July 9, 2002
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September 12, 2024
A COMPELLING REPORT ON A PROMINENT SOURCE OF SUCH "RESEARCH"
William Tucker is professor of psychology at Rutgers University; he has also written 'The Science and Politics of Racial Research.' He wrote in the Introduction to this 2002 book, "The analysis in this book is thus concerned with Pioneer's claim that [Wickliffe] Draper's money has been disbursed solely for the support of daring, politically incorrect research that could not be conducted without the fund's assistance. Archival records indicate that a different, much less commendable purpose has informed Pioneer's activities from its inception to the present. During the 1930s, Draper was indeed the principal source of financial support for a Klansman's crusade to have blacks repatriated to Africa. And in the 1960s... [it was] at the core of a number of attempts to preserve Jim Crow laws in the South...
"Although all these activities were conducted in utmost secrecy, they provide an important context for any consideration of Pioneer's claims... that their support for research on racial differences has had no purpose other than the advancement of scientific knowledge... the evidence available now strongly indicates that Pioneer has indeed been the primary resource for scientific racism." (Pg. 8-9)
The book begins by discussing the controversy over 'The Bell Curve,' and noting that "Although The Bell Curve's fifty-seven-page bibliography listed many studies from mainstream scientific journals, [coauthor Charles] Murray frankly acknowledged that 'some of the things we read to do this work, we literally hide when we're on planes and trains.' This allusion to a less reputable scholarly subculture was quickly made more explicit by the book's critics." (Pg. 1)
Draper strongly supported the journal 'Mankind Quarterly,' which "made no attempt to conceal its agenda, a reluctance to resort to euphemisms being an intentional element of the appeal to its target audience... The IAAEE [International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics] was inclined neither toward pretense nor subtlety: This was going to be a publication frankly written BY racists FOR racists." (Pg. 94)
He notes that "the well-known University of Pennsylvania professor of anthropology Carleton Coon, who had recently concluded that blacks had crossed the evolutionary threshold into homo sapiens at a much later date than whites... was reluctant to be publicly associated with the segregationists but sympathetic to their cause, Coon had been secretly providing advice to Carleton Putnam [author of books such as 'Race and Reason']." (Pg. 115)
He observes, "When Draper died in 1972, the clandestine contributions, which had come directly out of his pocket, came to an end. With the insiders' books closed and the fund's image no longer in danger of being marred by neo-Nazis and segregationists, Pioneer's true goal could enjoy an even more plausible deniability... they looked to a new organization 'to win the war.' That organization was the Pioneer Fund." (Pg. 130)
He points out that Arthur Jensen, from 1973 to 1999 received more than $1.2 million from the fund; "Jensen's grants were directed to ... a nonprofit corporation listing Jensen as president and his wife as vice president... the institute appeared to have no purpose other than to funnel Pioneer's money to its intended recipient without the bother of [U.C.] Berkeley's oversight." (Pg. 155)
He points out that "other new grantees were more interested in the social, political, and educational implications of racial differences... [such as] Well-known University of London psychologist Hans J. Eysenck [who] was a long-time opponent of compensatory education for black children..." (Pg. 180)
He concludes, "Whatever projects of scientific interest Pioneer may have supported---and there certainly are a few---it is also indisputable that the fund has continued... to subsidize the creation and distribution of literature that could be used to support racial superiority and racial purity. Pioneer has indeed been scientific racism's keeper of the flame." (Pg. 196)
He adds, "Pioneer represents the last gasp of an ideology whose time has gone... If Pioneer is indeed soon to face dissolution, society will be the better for its demise. Research of genuine value can find sponsorship elsewhere. Whatever scientific progress the fund may have supported has hardly been worth the violence it has done to our social fabric." (Pg. 213)
Well-documented and compellingly written, this book will be "MUST READING" for anyone interested in the "background" of the kind of "research" that supports publications such as 'The Bell Curve.'
William Tucker is professor of psychology at Rutgers University; he has also written 'The Science and Politics of Racial Research.' He wrote in the Introduction to this 2002 book, "The analysis in this book is thus concerned with Pioneer's claim that [Wickliffe] Draper's money has been disbursed solely for the support of daring, politically incorrect research that could not be conducted without the fund's assistance. Archival records indicate that a different, much less commendable purpose has informed Pioneer's activities from its inception to the present. During the 1930s, Draper was indeed the principal source of financial support for a Klansman's crusade to have blacks repatriated to Africa. And in the 1960s... [it was] at the core of a number of attempts to preserve Jim Crow laws in the South...
"Although all these activities were conducted in utmost secrecy, they provide an important context for any consideration of Pioneer's claims... that their support for research on racial differences has had no purpose other than the advancement of scientific knowledge... the evidence available now strongly indicates that Pioneer has indeed been the primary resource for scientific racism." (Pg. 8-9)
The book begins by discussing the controversy over 'The Bell Curve,' and noting that "Although The Bell Curve's fifty-seven-page bibliography listed many studies from mainstream scientific journals, [coauthor Charles] Murray frankly acknowledged that 'some of the things we read to do this work, we literally hide when we're on planes and trains.' This allusion to a less reputable scholarly subculture was quickly made more explicit by the book's critics." (Pg. 1)
Draper strongly supported the journal 'Mankind Quarterly,' which "made no attempt to conceal its agenda, a reluctance to resort to euphemisms being an intentional element of the appeal to its target audience... The IAAEE [International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics] was inclined neither toward pretense nor subtlety: This was going to be a publication frankly written BY racists FOR racists." (Pg. 94)
He notes that "the well-known University of Pennsylvania professor of anthropology Carleton Coon, who had recently concluded that blacks had crossed the evolutionary threshold into homo sapiens at a much later date than whites... was reluctant to be publicly associated with the segregationists but sympathetic to their cause, Coon had been secretly providing advice to Carleton Putnam [author of books such as 'Race and Reason']." (Pg. 115)
He observes, "When Draper died in 1972, the clandestine contributions, which had come directly out of his pocket, came to an end. With the insiders' books closed and the fund's image no longer in danger of being marred by neo-Nazis and segregationists, Pioneer's true goal could enjoy an even more plausible deniability... they looked to a new organization 'to win the war.' That organization was the Pioneer Fund." (Pg. 130)
He points out that Arthur Jensen, from 1973 to 1999 received more than $1.2 million from the fund; "Jensen's grants were directed to ... a nonprofit corporation listing Jensen as president and his wife as vice president... the institute appeared to have no purpose other than to funnel Pioneer's money to its intended recipient without the bother of [U.C.] Berkeley's oversight." (Pg. 155)
He points out that "other new grantees were more interested in the social, political, and educational implications of racial differences... [such as] Well-known University of London psychologist Hans J. Eysenck [who] was a long-time opponent of compensatory education for black children..." (Pg. 180)
He concludes, "Whatever projects of scientific interest Pioneer may have supported---and there certainly are a few---it is also indisputable that the fund has continued... to subsidize the creation and distribution of literature that could be used to support racial superiority and racial purity. Pioneer has indeed been scientific racism's keeper of the flame." (Pg. 196)
He adds, "Pioneer represents the last gasp of an ideology whose time has gone... If Pioneer is indeed soon to face dissolution, society will be the better for its demise. Research of genuine value can find sponsorship elsewhere. Whatever scientific progress the fund may have supported has hardly been worth the violence it has done to our social fabric." (Pg. 213)
Well-documented and compellingly written, this book will be "MUST READING" for anyone interested in the "background" of the kind of "research" that supports publications such as 'The Bell Curve.'
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April 1, 2026R.I.P. William H. Tucker (1940–2022). Your work will remain invaluable.
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