Dodson discusses efforts to end segregation in New York's public schools following the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Dodson claims that a segregated school cannot provide an adequate education to its pupils so long as American culture continues to view "Jim Crow" schools as inherently inferior. He discusses some of the various means by which schools have integrated or might consider integrating, and he also considers the demographic shifts that have led to desegregation efforts in and around New York City. Dodson discusses the need for African Americans to be integrated into the economy, and he also discusses political and educational leaders' roles in improving New York's public schools. In particular, he describes Rev. Milton Galamison's and Kenneth Clark's positions concerning desegregation. Dodson also discusses Congressman Adam Clayton Powell. Dodson considers the alleged "psychological disengagement of Negroes from interracial participation." Dodson closes by making several predictions concerning future developments in New York's public school system.
Photo courtesy of New York University Archives.
Dodson is consistently quite audible in these recordings, but Warren is faint, often difficult and occasionally impossible to hear. Fortunately, Dodson does the majority of the talking by far.
Transcripts 1 and 2 are missing.
Audio courtesy of Yale University.
Dan W. Dodson
Dan W. Dodson (1907-1995) was a sociology professor and long-time critic of segregation in education. A native of Panther's Chapel, Texas, and the son of a sharecropper, Dodson completed his undergraduate studies at McMurray College in Abilene, Texas. He later received a graduate degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. In 1936 Dodson joined the Educational Sociology Program at New York University and, but for a short period of leave, remained affiliated with the university until his retirement in 1972. He also served as director of New York University's Center for Human Relations Studies. In 1944 Dodson began a four-year stint as the executive director of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia's Committee on Unity, which La Guardia formed to deal with intergroup conflicts. A report that Dodson produced while serving on the Committee on Unity was credited with ending the practice of using quota systems to admit Jewish, Catholic, and black students to universities in New York. Dodson also helped author integration plans for public schools in Washington and elsewhere. In addition, he worked with Branch Rickey, president of the Brooklyn Dodgers, on plans to break the color barrier in baseball, encouraging the Yankees and Giants to follow the Dodgers' lead after Jackie Robinson took the field in 1946. Dodson returned to Texas and settled in Austin upon his retirement.