Teaching the Classics in Family Studies: E. Franklin Frazier's The Negro Family in the United States

• Date: 01 January 2006
• Published date: 01 January 2006
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2006.00358.x
• Author: Andrea G. Hunter

Teaching the Classics in Family Studies: E. Franklin

Frazier’s The Negro Family in the United States

Andrea G. Hunter*

Abstract: This paper (a) reintroduces E. Franklin Frazier’s 1939 book, The Negro Family in the United States,to

family scholars and graduate students and highlights its importance as a groundbreaking and classic text, (b) pro-

vides both an introduction to the major thesis of this monograph and a reading of the text, and (c) discusses the

challenges of reading classic works and suggests strategies that can be used to guide graduate students in a critical

reading of classic works.

Key Words: Black families, E. Franklin Frazier, family sociology, graduate education, pedagogy.

As we look ahead to consider innovations in gradu-

ate education, it is also important to look backward

at the intellectual history of the field and at the ways

in which classic works continue not only to shape

contemporary family studies but also to remain rele-

vant for the training of new family scholars.

Although minority family studies, in many ways,

remains on the margins of graduate education, this

position belies both the history of scholarship in

this area and its relevance. The classic work by

E. Franklin Frazier, The Negro Family in the United

States (henceforward, The Negro Family), published

in 1939, is a pivotal text in family sociology and is

situated at the bedrock of Black family studies.

There is no single work that has been more influen-

tial in the field of Black family studies than Frazier’s

The Negro Family. In 2001, The Negro Family went

back into print, making it once again widely accessi-

ble to family scholars and students. In response to

the renewed accessibility of this text, the aim of this

paper is threefold (a) to reintroduce this work to

family scholars and graduate students and to high-

light the importance of The Negro Family as

a groundbreaking and influential classic text in

Black family studies, (b) to provide both an intro-

duction to the major thesis of the monograph and

a reading of the text, and (c) to discuss the chal-

lenges of reading classic works and to suggest strate-

gies that can be used to guide students in a critical

reading of The Negro Family.

In the reading and teaching of classic texts, it is

important (a) to locate the work historically, (b) to

understand both the theoretical influences that

informed the work and the intellectual, political,

and cultural debates in which it is engaged, and (c)

to understand both what makes the work innovative

and groundbreaking and why it continues to be rele-

vant for contemporary students of the family. To

provide guidance for instructors who want to incor-

porate a reading of The Negro Family, I, first, locate

the monograph within the context of early 20th cen-

tury family sociology and highlight the ways that

race relations and the politics of race shaped this

work and Frazier as a scholar. Second, I summarize

the major thesis of The Negro Family, position

the work with respect to the major pillars of the

field of Black family studies, and illustrate the ways

this monograph continues to be at the foundation

of contemporary studies of Black families. I also

highlight the critical paradigmatic debates in which

Frazier engaged during his day and the paradigmatic

shifts after the publication of the monograph that

*Andrea G. Hunter, Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Studies, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, P.O. Box 26170, 228 Stone Building,

Greensboro, NC 27402-6170 (aghunter@uncg.edu).

Family Relations, 55 (January 2006), 80–92. Blackwell Publishing.

Copyright 2006 by the National Council on Family Relations.