Bio: (1896-1962) American sociologist. Edward Franklin Frazier is one of the most influential African-American sociologists of the first half of the twentieth century. He received his doctorate from the University of Chicago, and throughout his career, he taught at Howard University, where in 1934 he became head of the Department of Sociology. Fraser studied the families of African Americans, and he also contributed to the theory of racial relations.

Frazier, based on case studies and statistics, performed a macro analysis of the family and social life of African Americans. His approach combined a diachronic (historical) and a structural perspective. One of his basic theoretical assumptions is that African Americans, having been brought to the American continent as slaves, did not retain the culture they had in Africa. The loss of culture is the result of a series of critical shocks: enslavement in Africa; boat trips to America; experiences of slavery; and, in the end, the social disorganization that followed the liberation. This means that the culture of African Americans is largely a product of the reaction to the conditions of slavery and the dominant culture. The culture that African Americans developed in the United States is mostly fatalistic because it represents "surrender" to white Americans, that is, acceptance of a subordinate position. The socio-cultural position of African Americans, as well as the peculiarity of their culture, led them to become a subordinate caste within the American social structure.

By the time Frazier began his research, the migration of a large number of African Americans from the rural south to the industrialized urban centers of the north had been going on for half a century. The difficulties that African Americans have experienced in adapting to living conditions in new environments are the cause of crime, vice, and delinquency among African Americans. In his opinion, the most important thing for the progress of African Americans is to build racial consciousness, which would not be aimed at glorifying "black" culture but would be directed toward pragmatic goals of achieving socio-economic progress. Frazier believed that African Americans should not imitate the cultural patterns of whites, but that the process of socio-cultural assimilation should include a critical attitude towards the dominant culture.

Main works

The Negro Family in Chicago (1932);

The Negro Family in the United States (1939);

Negro Youth at the Crossways: Their Personality Development in the Middle States (1940);

„Sociological Theory and Race Relations”, in American Sociological Review (1947);

Black Bourgeoisie (1957);

Race and Culture Contacts in the Modern World (1957).