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The Howard School of International Affairs is a school of academic thought originating from Howard University in the decades between the 1920s and 1950s. Composed of scholars such as Merze Tate, Ralph Bunche, Alain Locke, E. Franklin Frazier, Rayford Logan, and Eric Williams, the Howard School emphasized race and empire in the study of international relations. These scholars posed a sustained critique of dominant international relations theories such as racial hierarchy, which mirrored/vindicated the Jim Crow era in the U.S as well as the practice of colonialism in the world through the1960s.

Notable Scholars and Key Contributions
Below is a list of notable scholars of the Howard School of International Affairs and their key contributions to the school of academic thought (in order from their start date at Howard University)

Alain Locke, an American writer, philosopher and patron of the arts, began teaching at Howard in 1912 as an assistant professorship in the English Department. After receiving his PhD in Philosophy from Harvard University, Locke returned to Howard as a chair of the Department of Philosophy in Howard, where he taught about race relations. Dismissed from Howard in 1925 for advocating equal pay for African American and white staff in the school, he was reappointed in 1935 by Mordecai Johnson, who became the first African American president of Howard in June 1926. Locke taught until his retirement in 1953. Locke’s writing elevated Black life and aesthetics in the U.S. and around the world.

E. Franklin Frazier, an American sociologist and author, was an expert on the African American family. His research covered the Black family in the U.S, race, and culture in the modern world. Frazier taught at Howard from 1934 until his death in 1962. His scholarship addressed the role of race in social, economic, and political conditions of the world.

Ralph Bunche, an American Political Scientist and diplomat, received his MA In political science in 1928 and PhD in 1934 from Harvard University. He was appointed an Instructor in Political Science at Howard University, and rose to become Professor and Chair of the department. From 1936 to 1938, Bunche studied Anthropology and conducted postdoctoral research at Northwestern University and the London School of Economics (LSE). During this time, Bunche developed an expertise on the impact of colonialism on colonial subjects. His book, A Worldview of Race, argues that race plays a role in modern economic, political, and social conditions. When the US entered World War II, Bunche took a leave of absence from Howard University in 1941 and never returned to teaching. He worked as Senior Social Science Analyst for Africa in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), then at the U.S. State Department, and finally, at the United Nations. In this way, Ralph Bunche was both a practitioner of international relations and a scholar. He augmented the Howard School of International Relations academic thought by attempting to displace racial hierarchy in domestic and international institutions.

Rayford Logan was an American Historian who helped advocate for African Americans to be included in the U.S. military during World War II. He was notable for helping to bring the plight of African-Americans to United States, particularly helping black people with voter registration. With a P.h.D from Harvard, Rayford published his dissertation as his first book, The Diplomatic Relations of the United States with Haiti-1776-1891. He continued to publish other articles where he criticized American racism. With the support of W.E DuBois and Carter G. Woodson, he was involved in the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History and became decades of his scholarly career. He was a professor at Howard and also published many scholarly articles and books and researched into African, Caribbean and African American history.

Eric Williams was noted to be a Caribbean historian and first prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago. His work focused on the study of slavery and the impact of his study is known to have had a lasting significance. Some of Williams' publications included the decline of the sugar factory in the 1820s and also the Slave Abolition Act in 1833. After his academic life, Williams focused more on Caribbean people and published two important books: British Historians and the West Indies and From Columbus to Castro. Eric’s research was focused on seeking to challenge British historiography in the West Indies. He was also particularly scathing in his criticism of the work of Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle.

Merze Tate was a professor, world traveller and expert in United States diplomacy. She was a Fulbright Scholar and lecturer at the US information agency while traveling around Asian countries. Before going to Howard, Tate taught at some historically black colleges such as Bennett College and Morehouse College. At Howard, she became the first black woman historian in the history department  of Howard and was the professor in diplomatic history, teaching at Howard school for 35 years. She was a prolific writer. Most of her written works showed a broad interest in human development notable was her study on Kamehameha IV. One of such publications was Hawaii: Reciprocity or Annexation. Other writings included The Disarmament Illusion: The Movement for a Limitation of Armaments to 1907 (1942), The United States and Armaments (1948), The United States and the Hawaiian Kingdom: A Political History (1965), and Mineral Railways in Africa (1989). She also researched imperialism in Asia which was connected with imperialism in America at the time.