User talk:The Anthropologist who never was

Dr. Louis Eugene King

Louis Eugene King, "The Forgotten Anthropologist", a victim of his times. He would have been the first black anthropologist but circumstances prevented him from claiming his title, leaving him on the sidelines in anthropological history.

Anthropology and Vindication
Anthropology is a broad field that includes many subsets. The main fields are Archeology, Biological Anthropology, Linguistic, and Cultural. However Dr. Louis Eugene King focused on the cultural field. Investigates how variations in the beliefs and behavior of members of different human groups are shaped by culture, culture being define as sets of learned behaviors and ideas that human beings acquire as members of society- Dr. Dawn-Elisa Fischer

Just as Dr. Fischer stated, culture is a set of socially learned behaviors that one chooses to exhibit. Race had been the way to talk about the socially learned behaviors that one exhibits for years, but its flaw was that it linked socially learned behaviors to something biological. How does one connect biological attributes to socially learned behaviors? Answer, one can't no matter how hard one tries. Just to be more specific culture is where one grows up, lives, eats, worships, wears, does ones hair, smiles or not, the way one talks, walks, sags her or his pants etc.

What is Louis Eugene King's connection with Vindication? He was the first anthropologist to study American Black societies. His studies were important because used elements of vindication in his field to disprove to disprove black stereotypes. He focused on black families and how they survive and the effects that slavery had on their culture, first one to find value to study common black societies. Vindication is defending one's culture because if research weren’t done to prove things like drapetomania wrong, then society would never advance. Through study, Vindication disproves the theory that culture is monolithic.

Biography
 Early Life'''

Dr. Louis Eugene King was born in Barbados in 1898, the last of nine children. His parents died when he was a child, so he moved around a lot. He was partly raised by his sister and her husband. He was a good student. He attended Dewitt Clinton High School, and Morgan College Academy.

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Education

Howard University

He taught school for a year before he attended Howard University. He was the editor of the student newspaper at Howard which was later renamed Hilltop. He was the president of the student body at Howard. He was a general studies major and earned a Bachelor of Science degree while he was there. He was admitted into Howard medical school but was forced to drop out due to family responsibility. Columbia University

He attended Columbia to attain a PhD in Anthropology so that he could teach at Howard University. He was a lab assistant for Otto Klineberg and Melville Herskovits. He also studied under famous anthropologists such as Franz Boaz and Ernest E Just. He was a good student and hard worker but was constantly plagued by financial difficulties. He was constantly working to support himself; he managed to gain grudging respect from his peers despite being a negro. To help with his financial troubles, he applied for the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial. He used Franz Boaz as a reference, who gave him positive recommendations "It seems to my mind that the opportunity for applying his knowledge is not unfavorable. I understand there is a good opportunity that he may be appointed at Howard University but I imagine that other Negro Universities will hardly be able to get along very long without some work in this line. I wish to repeat that I consider him well worthy of any support which may be given to him" (folder 993, box 98, LSRMA) He was invited to come back to teach at Howard but once he received his grant he decided to finish his work to receive a PhD.

Dissertation

Louis Eugene King was one of, if not the first anthropologist who covered the African American communities in the United States. During the time that he was studying the black communities, it was more accepted to study Native American culture, as it was looked as a higher form of study. He wrote "The Negro Life in Rural Community". However the Depression was a rough time for anthropologists, especially black ones and he could not receive his PhD due to not able afford print twenty seven copies of his dissertation.

Later Life

During the Depression there were very few jobs available for anthropology graduate students. But he managed to get hired in 1934, as a junior historian at the Gettysburg National Military Park, but since he was the last the hired, he was the first fired. In 1942 got a pick and shovel job at the Naval Supply Depot in Pennsylvania. He tried to resign when the war was over, since he was being passed over for promotion but the commanding officer created a position for him. He became a management analyst.

One of his officers heard his story and contacted Columbia and printed three dissertation copies. He received his diploma in 1965; thirty years later he finally received his PhD. But nobody in the Anthropological field encouraged him, and he could not receive an academia job. He became disgusted and left the anthropological field and stayed at the Naval Supply Depot.

Accomplishments
His main accomplishments can be broken into five parts:

1. He was one of the few recipients of Laura Spelmen Rockefeller Memorial grant, even though he was at the mercy of the white social scientists.

2. His dissertation was his most significant accomplishment because it focused on the community studies and fieldwork on the African American community. Also shed light on migration and intelligence.

3. His points toward political nature of academic study because policy makers needed information on southern black life, but by the time he finished the climate changed and he did not receive credit.

4. King reminds the intellectual community the importance of kinship obligations, since he put aside his career to support his family and educate his children.

5. He received a reward named after him called the Louis E. King Achievement awards at the Gettysburg College.

His Impact on the Black Anthropological Society
Even though Dr. Louis Eugene King may be a little known figure he did have impact on black anthropology. He was probably the first anthropologist who realized that people are shaped by their environment and not by nature. This was particularly important for black intelligence how it depended on what education they received rather than just naturally having it. He focused on culture and not race, which was used to stratify society to keep all people of color oppressed. This situation created an unequal system in society, leading to the peoples' exploitation of resources and labor