Wickliffe Draper 1274012 219524182 2008-06-15T17:16:28Z Lightbot 7178666 Units/dates/other <!-- Commented out because image was deleted: [[Image:Wickliffe_Draper.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Wickliffe Draper, seen here in military uniform, dedicated his life to advocacy of eugenics and racial separatism.]] --> '''Wickliffe Preston Draper''' (sometimes spelled "Wycliffe" in publications) ([[August 9]], [[1891]]-1972) was a big game hunter, an ardent eugenicist and a lifelong advocate of strict racial segregation. He was the principal benefactor of the [[Pioneer Fund]], which aims to advance the scientific study of heredity and human differences (notably those related to [[race and intelligence]]).{{ref|causes}} Born in [[Hopedale, Massachusetts]], he was the son of [[George A. Draper]], a wealthy textile machinery manufacturer (Draper looms) and the descendant of a long line of prominent Americans. Wickliffe Draper graduated from [[Harvard]] in 1913. When the United States was slow to enter [[World War I]], he enlisted in the [[British Army]] (when the U.S. eventually declared war, he transferred to the U.S. Army). In 1927, he joined the French Mission led by Captain Augiéras to the southern Sahara and helped discover the remains of “[[Asselar Man]]” some 400 kilometers north of Timbuktu. Asselar Man is an extinct human believed to belong to the [[Holocene]] or Recent Epoch. Some scholars consider it the oldest known skeleton of a black African. For this, the French [[Société de Géographie]] awarded him their 1928 Gold Medal, and in Britain he was elected a Fellow of the [[Royal Geographical Society]], although Draper's real contribution to the find was mostly just the funding he provided for it. After the war, he travelled and went on numerous safaris (his large New York City apartment was reportedly filled with mounted trophies). During this time, Draper became interested in the field of [[eugenics]]. Eugenics had been a popular, [[Progressivism|progressive]] movement in the United States during the first three decades of the 20th century, but by the early 1930s popular interest had begun to fade, as the underlying science came under question and the use of coercive methods became less palatable. Groups like the [[American Eugenics Society]] (AES) faced declining membership and dwindling treasuries. Draper helped ease the funding shortfall, making a special gift to the AES of several thousand dollars to support the society prior to 1932. In August 1935, Draper traveled to Berlin to attend the International Congress for the Scientific Investigation of Population Problems. Presiding over the conference was [[Wilhelm Frick]], the Reichminister of the Interior. (Frick was hanged in 1946 for his crimes against humanity.) At the conference, Draper's travel companion Dr. Clarence Campbell delivered an oration that concluded with the words: "The difference between the Jew and the Aryan is as unsurmountable [sic] as that between black and white. … Germany has set a pattern which other nations must follow. … To that great leader, [[Adolf Hitler]]!" Three years later, when Draper paid to print and disseminate a book titled White America, a personal copy was delivered to Reichminister Frick. In 1937, Draper founded the [[Pioneer Fund]], a foundation intended to give scholarships to descendants of [[whites|White]] colonial-era families, and to support research into "race betterment" through eugenics. The scholarships were never given, but the first project of the Fund was to distribute two [[documentary film]]s from [[Nazi Germany]] depicting their claimed success with eugenics (though years before the [[Holocaust]] and its eventual public disclosure, Germany's eugenic policies were still very controversial for their far-reaching scope and often coercive public policies). The Pioneer Fund was headed by the controversial eugenicist [[Harry H. Laughlin]], known especially for his role in the establishment of restrictive immigration laws and paving the way for national programs of [[compulsory sterilization]] of the [[mentally ill]] and [[mentally retarded]]. Draper volunteered for service again in [[World War II]], and the fifty-year old man was assigned a post with British military intelligence in [[India]]. Draper returned to eugenicist and segregationist activism after the war, and the Pioneer Fund supported the work of a number of notable (and controversial) researchers of [[race and intelligence]], including [[William Shockley]], [[Arthur Jensen]], [[J. Philippe Rushton]], and [[Roger Pearson]]. Though he never served as its president, Draper stayed on its board until his death and left his estate to the Fund, having never married. (Subsequent Fund boards have continued Draper's support for researchers studying race and intelligence). He also donated considerable funds to [[right-wing]] political organizations and candidates. In addition to the Pioneer Fund, Draper also gave money directly to support causes that he favored. He funded advocates of repatriation of blacks to Africa and during the [[Civil Rights]] movement of the 1960s Draper secretly sent $215,000 to the [[Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission]] in 1963 in order to support [[racial segregation]] as he also did for his opposition of the desegregation of Brown v. Board of Education. The gifts came to light in the 1990s, when the commission records were made public. Throughout his life, Draper maintained a very low profile, as did the Pioneer Fund. When he died in 1972 from [[prostate cancer]], he left $1.4 million to the Pioneer Fund. Since his death, Draper and the Fund have been heavily criticized for funding [[race and intelligence]] research, which some critics view as [[scientific racism]]. His work has become more controversial since the publication of ''[[The Bell Curve]]'', because the Pioneer Fund supported much of the research used in the book. ==Notes== #{{note|causes}}[http://www.pioneerfund.org/Founders.html "Founders and Former Directors"], the Pioneer Fund. ==External links== *[http://www.pioneerfund.org/Founders.html The Founders] -- Information on the founders and former directors of the [[Pioneer Fund]] from the Fund's website *Tucker, William H., ''The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund.'' (University of Illinois Press) [http://www.press.uillinois.edu/epub/books/tucker/toc.html (Electronic copy)] *[http://www.iupui.edu/~histwhs/h699.dir/KennyPioneer.pdf Michael G. Kenny, ''Toward a Racial Abyss: Eugenics, Wickliffe Draper, and the Origins of The Pioneer Fund''], Journal of History of the Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 38(3), 259–283, Summer 2002 *[http://home.comcast.net/~neoeugenics/pioneer.htm Various writings by Harry Weyher, former Pioneer Fund president] *[http://www.eugenicsarchive.org Eugenics Images Archive at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory] *[http://www.ferris.edu/isar/Institut/pioneer/homepage.htm Institute for the Study of Academic Racism: Pioneer Fund] *[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=2056 "The Tainted Sources of 'The Bell Curve'"] *[http://theoccidentalquarterly.com/vol2no1/lra-lynn.html "Science for Tomorrow"] *[http://www.slate.com/id/2128199/ Slate magazine article on ''The Bell Curve'' and the Pioneer Fund] *Blackmon, Douglas A. (June 11, 1999). [http://www.ferris.edu/ISAR/Institut/pioneer/silent.htm Silent Partner: How the South's Fight To Uphold Segregation Was Funded Up North.] ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Draper, Wickliffe}} [[Category:1891 births]] [[Category:1972 deaths]] [[Category:American eugenicists]] [[Category:American philanthropists]] [[Category:American military personnel of World War I]] [[Category:People from Worcester County, Massachusetts]] [[Category:Prostate cancer deaths]] [[Category:Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society]]