St. Clair Drake Book Report

John Gibbs St. Clair Drake was an African American sociologist born 2 January 1911, in Suffolk Virginia. St. Clair Drake was raised by his father, a Southern Baptist preacher in a multi-racial neighborhood. The St. Clair Drakes moved northward to Pittsburg in 1914, as a large population of African Americans from the south did the same. While in Pittsburg, St. Clair Drake lived in a middle-class setting, with access to more than enough reading material to form a long-lasting habit of reading and thrusting him into the world of academia. Throughout his childhood, he was mesmerized by commentary on the relation between race and religion. In 1924, his parents divorced, leaving St. Clair Drake to travel with his mother. He enrolled in the Hampton …show more content…
Clair Drake wrote on of his most notable and influential works: Black Metropolis. St. Clair Drake collaborated with Horace R. Clayton to perform a mass survey utilizing data collected by the Works Progress Administration. In this book, St. Clair Drake and Clayton study the emigration of African Americans across the country, the social structure of the African American communities, and most importantly, the inequality caused by segregation. Black Metropolis was well ahead of its time in the way it exposes the true inequality in the system that was in place. It would be one of the only books of its time with the power to take an objective stand against the system in place and expose the system for what it truly …show more content…
Clair Drake became the assistant professor of sociology at Roosevelt University, becoming one of the first African American faculty members in the school’s history. St. Clair Drake viewed the school as a research facility for society at large, and used his research to fuel his activism. Throughout his time at the university, St. Clair Drake became actively engaged in the support of Ghana, an African country that achieved its independence in the 1950’s. His academic advice went to great lengths in the formation if the nation and its government. St. Clair Drake became very close to the prime minister of Ghana, and the informal advisor to many other leaders of nations on the African continent. His expertise gained him a great deal of influence and knowledge of many African leaders. He began abandoning his role as an advisor in the early 1960’s after a series of military upheavals and regime changes threatened to usurp all ideals of freedom in the region. St. Clair Drake refuse to work with any leader that took power by force. To compensate his diminished role in Africa, St. Clair Drake began instructing members of the Peace Corps, in attempts to bring humanitarian aid and understanding to the people of Africa. Following his service to the governments of newly formed African nations, St. Clair Drake once again stepped into the realm of academia. In 1969, he founded the African American studies department at Stanford University, where he