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Gunnar Myrdal died in 1987, less than 70 years ago.
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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - Foreword, by Frederick P. Keppel
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of this report in 1937, no one (except possibly Adolf Hitler) could have
foreseen that it would be made public at a day when the place of the
Negro in our American life would be the subject of greatly heightened
interest in the United States, because of the social questions which the
war has brought in its train both in our military and in our industrial life.
It is a day, furthermore, when the eyes of men of all races the world over
are turned upon us to see how the people of the most powerful of the
United Nations are dealing at home with a major problem of race relations.
It would have been better in some ways if the book could have appeared
somewhat earlier, for the process of digestion would then have taken place
under more favorable conditions, but, be that as it may, it is fortunate that
its appearance is no longer delayed.
I venture to close these introductory paragraphs with a personal word
dealing with a matter upon which Dr. Myrdal himself has touched in his
preface, but which I feel moved to state in my own words. It is inevitable
that many a reader will find in these volumes statements and conclusions
to which he strongly objects, be he white or colored. Northerner or
Southerner. May I urge upon each such reader that he make every effort to react
to these statements intellectually and not emotionally. This advice, I
realize, is much more easy to give than to follow, but it is given with a
seriotis purpose. The author is under no delusions of omniscience; as a
scholar, he is inured to taking hard knocks as well as giving them, and he
will be the first to welcome challenges as to the accuracy of any data he has
presented, the soundness of any general conclusions he has reached, and
the relative weight assigned by him to any factor or factors in the
complicated picture he draws. Criticism and correction on these lines will add
greatly to the value of the whole undertaking.
F. P. Keppel
December 15, 1942.
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