September 20, 2002 Jonathan Scott Holloway to Discuss His Book "Confronting The Veil" at the Library of Congress on Oct. 18

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Jonathan Scott Holloway will discuss his book, “Confronting the Veil: Abram Harris Jr., E. Franklin Frazier, and Ralph Bunche, 1919-1941,” at a lecture to be held at noon on Friday, Oct. 18, in the West Dining Room on the sixth floor of the Library’s James Madison Building located at 101 Independence Ave. S.E. in Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the Library’s Humanities and Social Sciences Division, the program is free and open to the public.

In “The Souls of Black Folk,” W. E. B. Dubois refers to “the Veil” as a metaphor for racial segregation. In “Confronting the Veil,” Holloway examines how the lives and careers of economist Abram Harris, Jr., sociologist E. Franklin Frazier, and political scientist Ralph Bunche demonstrated a desire to think beyond race. According to Holloway, these three black scholars who taught at Howard University during the Depression and New Deal “devoted their careers and social science scholarship to the idea that attending to class problems and seeking interracial working class unity would provide a speedier resolution to that era’s racial dilemmas.” By attempting to show the ways in which race was constructed by other social phenomena, the trio forged the principles of American social science radicalism.

Jonathan Scott Holloway is assistant professor of African American studies, history and American studies at Yale University.

Published by the University of North Carolina Press, “Confronting the Veil”—a 290- page softcover book—is available for $18.95 in bookstores nationwide.

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PR 02-128
2002-09-20
ISSN 0731-3527