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Gunnar Myrdal died in 1987, less than 70 years ago.
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The second stage of the study began when I returned to America on
March 6, 1941. In writing the present book, which has been produced
during this second stage, I have utilized the unpublished manuscripts,
prepared for the study during its first stage, in the same manner as I have
used the printed literature. I have, therefore, had frequent occasion to cite
them. As a glance at the footnotes will reveal, the unpublished manuscripts
on which I have relied most heavily are those by Bunche, Norgren, Raper,
Stouffer and Florant, and, in the next place, those of Dorn, Drake, Kirk
and Lange. I have, of course, depended upon the printed literature to an
even greater extent than upon the specially prepared monographs. Much
of the library work was done during the summer of 1941 in the excellent
Baker Library of Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire. Use
was also made of the Columbia University Library, the New York Public
Library, the Princeton University Library and the Russell Sage
Foundation’s library. I have also drawn upon my personal observations of
conditions and attitudes in various parts of the country and upon the observations
of Sterner and Rose. Most of the book was written in Princeton, New
Jersey.
In September, 1941, I was joined by Richard Sterner and Arnold Rose,
whose names rightly appear on the title page as assistants. Richard Sterner
has been my associate in this work from the first day. Together we explored
the Negro problem in America, which was so new and foreign to us both,
and together we discussed the task to be accomplished. Sterner assisted in
an essential way in outlining the program for the first stage of the work.
Besides the special investigation of the Negro’s standard of living, which
he later undertook as one of the staff members and which resulted in his
now published book. The Negro’s Share: In Income, Consumption,
Housing and Public Assistance, he kept, upon my request, a general interest and
a general responsibility for the wider economic problems of the Negro in
America. For the present book he has prepared manuscripts in draft form
for nine chapters in Part IV on economic problems. Appendix 6, “Pre-War
Conditions of the Negro Wage Earner in Selected Industries and
Occupations,” is written by him. He has carefully gone through the several
succeeding drafts of other parts of the book and has given me criticism
which has not only referred to details but often to fundamental views and
arrangement. For the final shape of Part V on the political problems, for
instance, his criticism has been of greatest importance since it has led me
to stress, much more than I had succeeded in doing in a first draft, the
elements of actual and pending change in the political scene of the South.
His critique of this and other parts has had a specific functional value for
the writing of this book, as he, being a stranger like myself and having
the same cultural background, was inside the points of view which have
been applied throughout the work. I should also mention that when
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