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Henry Edward Garrett (January 27, 1894 – June 26, 1973) was an American psychologist and
segregationist Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crime against humanity under the Statute of the Interna ...
. Garrett was President of the
American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...
in 1946 and Chair of Psychology at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
from 1941 to 1955. After he left Columbia, he was visiting professor at the
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...
. A.S. Winston chronicles, was involved in the
International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics The International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics (IAAEE) was an organisation that promoted eugenics and segregation, and the first publisher of ''Mankind Quarterly''. History IAAEE was founded in 1959 and has headquarte ...
(IAAEE), the journal ''
Mankind Quarterly ''Mankind Quarterly'' is a peer-reviewed journal that has been described as a "cornerstone of the scientific racism establishment", a "white supremacist journal", and "a pseudo-scholarly outlet for promoting racial inequality". It covers phy ...
'', the neofascist Northern League, and the ultra-right wing political group, the
Liberty Lobby Liberty Lobby was a far-right think tank and lobby group founded in 1958 by Willis Carto. Carto was known for his promotion of antisemitic conspiracy theories, white nationalism, and Holocaust denial. The organization produced a daily five-mi ...
.


Early life and education

Henry Edward Garrett was born on January 27, 1894, in
Clover, Virginia Clover is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in rural Halifax County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2010 census was 438. Clover was an incorporated town from 1895 until 1998, when it reverted to uni ...
. He was educated in public schools in Richmond, Virginia. He graduated from the
University of Richmond The University of Richmond (UR or U of R) is a private liberal arts college in Richmond, Virginia. It is a primarily undergraduate, residential institution with approximately 4,350 undergraduate and graduate students in five schools: the School ...
in 1915, and received a master's degree and a PhD from
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
.


Career

Garrett began his academic career at Columbia University, where he became a full Professor of Psychology at Columbia in 1943. Meanwhile, he served as the chair of its Psychology Department from 1941 to 1955. In the 1950s Garrett helped organize an international group of scholars dedicated to preventing "race-mixing", preserving segregation, and promoting the principles of early 20th century
eugenics Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior o ...
and "race hygiene". Garrett was a strong opponent of the 1954
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
's desegregation decision in ''
Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segrega ...
'', which he predicted would lead to "total demoralization and then disorganization in that order." He had given testimony favoring secondary school segregation in the Virginia case that was combined into Brown. In 1955, Garrett became a visiting professor in the Department of Education at the
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...
. However, he was denied full professorship in the Department of Psychology due to his views on race. Garrett wrote a 1961 article in the journal ''
Perspectives in Biology and Medicine ''Perspectives in Biology and Medicine'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1957. It publishes essays that explore biology and medicine in relation to their place in society. Authors write informally, presenting their "perspectives" ...
'' entitled "The Equalitarian Dogma" in which he argued that cumulative evidence supported the view that there was a biologically innate intellectual inferiority of Blacks to Whites. Because of its ambiguous conclusion, one contemporary was concerned that the purpose of the article, and of the publisher's decision to print it, was to hand a political weapon to the
white supremacists White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...
then violently opposing desegregation. At the September 1961 meeting of the
American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...
, the
Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Founded in 1936, the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) is a group of 3,000 scientists from psychology and related fields who share a common interest in research on the psychological aspects of important social and policy i ...
passed a resolution taking exception to this paper, declaring that the evidence supported the view that intellectual differences between Whites and Blacks were not biologically innate, and that there was evidence for Black-White equality in intelligence under comparable conditions. Garrett disputed this resolution in an article in ''
The American Psychologist ''American Psychologist'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Psychological Association. The journal publishes articles of broad interest to psychologists, including empirical reports and scholarly reviews covering scien ...
'' the following year. Garrett wrote the introduction to
Carleton Putnam Carleton Putnam (December 19, 1901 – March 5, 1998) was an American businessman and writer who was an advocate for racial segregation. He graduated from Princeton University in 1924 and received a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from Columbia Law Sch ...
's ''Race and Reason'', published in 1961. According to A.S. Winston, he "praised
Byram Campbell Byram may refer to: Places England * Byram, North Yorkshire United States * Byram, Connecticut * Byram, Mississippi * Byram, New Jersey in Hunterdon County * Byram Center, New Jersey in Sussex County * Byram Township, New Jersey in Sussex Count ...
's analysis of the Nordic as the ideal race." He is credited with coining the term ''equalitarian dogma'' in 1961 to describe the by then mainstream view that there were no race differences in intelligence, or if there were, they were purely the result of environmental factors. He accused the Jews of spreading the dogma, and wrote that most Jewish organizations "belligerently support the equalitarian dogma which they accept as having been 'scientifically' proven". He wrote in the
White Citizens' Council The Citizens' Councils (commonly referred to as the White Citizens' Councils) were an associated network of white supremacist, segregationist organizations in the United States, concentrated in the South and created as part of a white backlash a ...
monthly journal ''The Citizen'', "Despite glamorized accounts to the contrary, the history of Black Africa over the past 5,000 years is largely a blank," and, "The crime record of the Negro in the United States is little short of scandalous" (Garrett 1968). Garrett served as a Director of the
Pioneer Fund Pioneer Fund is an American non-profit foundation established in 1937 "to advance the scientific study of heredity and human differences". The organization has been described as racist and white supremacist in nature. One of its first project ...
from 1972 to 1973.


Death

Garrett died on June 26, 1973, in Charlottesville, Virginia.


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * *Garrett, H.E. (1968) "Scientist Explains Race Differences," ''The Citizen'', January, pp. 14–19. * *Garrett, H.E. (1980). ''I.Q. and Racial Differences''. Newport Beach, CA: Noontide Press, 1980.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garrett, Henry 1894 births 1973 deaths Neo-Confederates Citizens' Councils Columbia University alumni Columbia University faculty People from Clover, Virginia Presidents of the American Psychological Association Race and intelligence controversy Proponents of scientific racism University of Richmond alumni University of Virginia faculty 20th-century American psychologists American eugenicists