Editing Wickliffe Draper

{{Short description|American political activist (1891–1972)}}

{{more citations needed|date=March 2017}}

{{Infobox person
| name               = Wickliffe Draper
| image              = Wickliffe Draper.jpg
| image_size         = 
| caption            = Wickliffe Draper, in United States military uniform
| birth_name         = 
| birth_date         = August 9, 1891
| birth_place        = [[Hopedale, Massachusetts]], U.S.
| death_date         = March 11, 1972 (aged 80)
| death_place        = [[United States]]
| resting_place      = 
| resting_place_coordinates = 
| nationality        = 
| other_names        = 
| known_for          = {{flatlist|Advocate for [[eugenics]] and [[racial segregation]]
* Founder of [[Pioneer Fund]]
}}
| education          = [[Harvard University]]
| employer           = 
| occupation         = Political activist
| title              = 
| networth           = 
| term               = 
| predecessor        = 
| successor          = 
| party              = 
| boards             = 
| spouse             = 
| children           = 
| parents            = [[George A. Draper]]
| relatives          = [[Eben Sumner Draper]] <small>(uncle)</small><br/>[[Preston Brown (general)|Preston Brown]] <small>(cousin)</small>
}}
'''Wickliffe Preston Draper''' (August 9, 1891 – March 11, 1972) was an American political activist. He was an ardent [[eugenics|eugenicist]] and lifelong advocate of strict [[racial segregation]]. In 1937, he founded the [[Pioneer Fund]] for eugenics and heredity research; he later became its principal benefactor.

==Early life and education==
Draper was born on August 9, 1891, in [[Hopedale, Massachusetts]].<ref>Draper's first name is sometimes spelled "Wycliffe" in publications.</ref> He was the son and heir of Jessie Fremont Preston Draper, daughter of Confederate Brigadier General [[William Preston (Kentucky soldier)|William Preston III]], who had served as the [[United States Ambassador to Spain]], until the [[American Civil War]]<ref>[https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:bk128x634 "Jessie Fremont Preston Draper", Bancroft Memorial Library, Digital Commonwealth Massachusetts. Retrieved October 10, 2020.]</ref> and [[George A. Draper]], owner of [[Draper Corporation|Draper Looms]] textile and textile machinery manufacturers, who descended from generations of prominent Americans. He attended [[St. Mark's School (Massachusetts) |St. Mark's School]] in [[Southborough, Massachusetts]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Scholarships for 1912-13 |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1912/12/10/scholarships-for-1912-13-pthe-following-is/ |website=The Harvard Crimson |publisher=Harvard University |access-date=22 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230222133105/https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1912/12/10/scholarships-for-1912-13-pthe-following-is/ |archive-date=22 February 2023}}</ref>

Draper graduated from [[Harvard University]] in 1913. When the United States was slow to enter [[World War I]], he enlisted in the [[British Army]]. When the U.S. eventually declared war, he transferred to the U.S. Army.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kenny |first1=Michael G. |title=Toward a racial abyss: eugenics, Wickliffe Draper, and the origins of The Pioneer Fund |journal=Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences |date=2002 |volume=38 |issue=3 |page=263 |doi=10.1002/jhbs.10063 |pmid=12115787}}</ref>

==Postwar==
In 1924, Draper established the Draper Armor Leadership Award, as a means to competitively test the leadership of small Cavalry units in the US Army. The test was oriented to the platoon level of Horse Cavalry. The first Cavalry Leadership Test for small units was held at [[Fort Riley, Kansas]], then home of the Cavalry School. In 1928, Lieutenant Commander Draper established a trust fund of $35,000 to perpetuate the award.

In 1927, he participated in the French mission of Captain Marcel Augiéras to the southern Sahara that discovered the remains of "[[Asselar man]]", an extinct human believed to belong to the [[Holocene]], or Recent Epoch. Some scholars consider it the oldest known skeleton of a black African. The French [[Société de Géographie]] subsequently awarded him its 1932 gold medal, the [[Grande Médaille d'Or des Explorations]],<ref>[https://socgeo.com/les-grands-prix-de-la-societe/ "Les Grands Prix de la Société", Société de Géographie. Retrieved October 10, 2020.]</ref> and in Britain, he was elected a Fellow of the [[Royal Geographical Society]]. After the war, he traveled and went on numerous safaris. His large New York City apartment was reportedly filled with mounted trophies.

==Eugenics and Pioneer Fund==
{{Eugenics sidebar|activists}}
During this time, Draper became interested in [[eugenics]], which had been a popular movement in the United States during the first three decades of the 20th century. However, by the early 1930s, interest had begun to fade as the underlying science came under question. Groups like the [[American Eugenics Society]] (AES) faced declining membership and dwindling treasuries. Draper had helped ease the funding shortfall, making a special gift to the AES of several thousand dollars to support the society prior to 1932.

In August 1935, Draper traveled to Berlin to attend the International Congress for the Scientific Investigation of Population Problems. Presiding over the conference was [[Wilhelm Frick]], the German Minister of the Interior. At the conference, Draper's travel companion, Dr. Clarence Campbell delivered an oration that concluded: "The difference between the Jew and the Aryan is as unsurmountable [sic] as that between black and white.... Germany has set a pattern which other nations must follow.... To that great leader, [[Adolf Hitler]]!"<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=1935-09-09 |title=GERMANY: Praise for Nazis |url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,748954-1,00.html |access-date=2025-03-16 |magazine=Time |language=en-US |issn=0040-781X}}</ref>

Three years later, when Draper paid to print and disseminate the book ''White America'' by [[Earnest Sevier Cox]], an advocate of white supremacy and racial segregation, a personal copy was delivered to Frick.

In 1937, Draper established the [[Pioneer Fund]], a foundation intended to give scholarships to descendants of [[White American]] colonial-era families and to support research into "race betterment" through eugenics. The scholarships were never given, but the first project of the fund was to distribute two [[documentary films]] from [[Nazi Germany]] depicting its claimed success with eugenics. [[The Pioneer Fund]] was headed by the sociologist and eugenicist [[Harry H. Laughlin]], an advocate for restrictive immigration laws and national programs of [[compulsory sterilization]] of the [[mentally ill]] and [[intellectual disability|intellectually disabled]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=The Bell Curve and the Pioneer Fund |url=http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45/049.html |access-date=August 28, 2019 |work=ABC World News Tonight |via=Hartford-HWP.com}}</ref>

At age 50, Draper again volunteered for military service and was assigned a post with British military intelligence in [[India]] during [[World War II]]. After the war, he returned to eugenicist and segregationist activism, and [[The Pioneer Fund]] supported the work of a number of noted and controversial researchers of [[race and intelligence]], such as the Nobel Laureate [[William Shockley]], the American differential psychologist [[Arthur Jensen]], the Canadian evolutionary psychologist [[J. Philippe Rushton]], and the British anthropologist [[Roger Pearson (anthropologist)|Roger Pearson]]. Though he never served as the Pioneer Fund's president, Draper remained on its board until his death and left his estate to the Fund. He also donated considerable funds to [[right-wing politics|right-wing]] political organizations and candidates, including the [[World Anti-Communist League]] (WACL), which was later headed by Pearson, who had received extensive funding from The Pioneer Fund and Draper during his career at [[University of Southern Mississippi]].

In addition to the Pioneer Fund, Draper financed the [[Back-to-Africa movement|Back to Africa repatriation movement]], particularly the work of [[Earnest Sevier Cox]], whose book "White America" he also funded. During the [[Civil Rights Movement]] of the 1960s, he secretly sent $255,000 to the [[Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission]] in 1963 and 1964 to support [[racial segregation]]. He also promoted opposition to the desegregation of public schools mandated by the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]]'s 1954 decision, [[Brown v. Board of Education]].<ref name="Jackson2005p148">{{Cite book |title=Science for Segregation: Race, Law, and the Case against Brown v. Board of Education |last=Jackson |first= John P. |publisher=[[NYU Press]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-8147-4271-6}}
*{{lay source |template=cite web |title=Book Review: Science for Segregation: Race, Law, and the Case Against Brown v. Board of Education |url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/lhr/25.2/br_19.html |website=History Cooperative}}</ref> Those financial contributions came to light in the 1990s, when the Sovereignty Commission's records were made public. Doug A. Blackmon of ''The Wall Street Journal'' and Prof. William H. Tucker of [[Rutgers University]] discovered the incriminating documents.

==Funding of Mississippi Sovereignty Commission==
Draper was one of the primary out-of-state benefactors of the [[Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission]] (MSC), during 1963 and 1964. MSC attorney John Satterfield identified Draper's contributions, totaling over $250,000 as originating from "The Wall Street Gang" from the North. Doug Blackmon of ''The Wall Street Journal'' uncovered evidence of these contributions via Draper's [[J. P. Morgan]] trust account and published his results on June 11, 1999, in ''The Wall Street Journal''.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.ferris.edu/ISAR/Institut/pioneer/silent.htm | title=ISAR - Silent Partner | access-date=2006-07-17 | archive-date=2006-06-24 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060624051446/http://www.ferris.edu/ISAR/Institut/pioneer/silent.htm | url-status=dead }}</ref>

The Reverend [[Gerald L. K. Smith]] also received $1,000,000 in the Spring of 1964 to build his "Christ of the Ozarks" shrine and tourist attraction in [[Eureka Springs, Arkansas]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jeansonne |first=Glen |title=Gerald L.K. Smith, Minister of Hate |date=1997 |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |isbn=0-8071-2168-1 |location=Baton Rouge |oclc=37696447}}</ref> Smith's ''Cross and the Flag'' periodical advanced and promulgated Draper's positions and attitudes for three decades, from 1942 to 1972 when Smith died.

Draper opposed FDR's efforts to implement the [[Social Security Act]], expanded child labor laws, and early attempts to pass the equivalent of [[Occupational Safety and Health Administration|OSHA]]-styled regulations.{{Citation needed|date=May 2009}} He disliked JFK for currying favor with labor unions, promoting civil rights advances, and failing to pass tariff barriers to prevent the import of foreign textiles and cotton.{{Citation needed|date=May 2009}} Draper blamed the actions of both presidents for the demise of the domestic textile industry that eventually caused the Draper Company to be dissolved by [[Rockwell International]] as an insolvent entity.{{Citation needed|date=May 2009}} Draper converted his equity in The Draper Company into a $100,000,000 windfall investment in Rockwell International preferred stock, when Rockwell expanded because of the [[Vietnam War]].<ref>''The New York Times'' March 22, 1967 p.&nbsp;61 Column 1. ''Rockwell acquires North American Phillips and Draper Company Rockwell International''</ref>

==Later life==

Considered reclusive,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=9SqGDAAAQBAJ ''Racial Science and British Society'', 1930-62 by G. Schaffer, Springer, 2008, pages 142–3. Retrieved October 8, 2020.] {{isbn|9780230582446}}</ref> Draper maintained a low profile throughout his life, as did the Pioneer Fund. When Draper died in 1972 from [[prostate cancer]], he bequeathed $1.4 million to the Pioneer Fund.

Draper's work has become more controversial since the publication of ''[[The Bell Curve]]'' (1994), because the Pioneer Fund financially sponsored much of the research reported in the book. The publication of ''The Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism'' (1994) by Stefan Kühl<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism |last=Kühl |first=Stefan |year=2002 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-514978-4}}
</ref> resulted in further publicity for Draper and the Fund.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
2. {{note|causes}}

==References==
*{{Citation|last=Tucker|first= William H.|author-link=William H. Tucker (psychologist)|title=The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund| publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]]|year=2002|isbn= 978-0-252-02762-8}}
*{{Citation|last=Kenny|first= Michael G.|url=http://www.iupui.edu/~histwhs/h699.dir/KennyPioneer.pdf|title=Toward a Racial Abyss: Eugenics, Wickliffe Draper, and the Origins of The Pioneer Fund|journal=Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences|volume=38|issue= 3|pages= 259–283|year= 2002|doi=10.1002/jhbs.10063|pmid=12115787|citeseerx= 10.1.1.626.4377}}

== Further reading ==

*{{Cite book |title=Defending the Master Race: Conservation, Eugenics, and the Legacy of Madison Grant |last=Spiro |first=Jonathan P. |publisher=Univ. of Vermont Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-58465-715-6}}

==External links==
*[http://www.ferris.edu/isar/Institut/pioneer/homepage.htm Institute for the Study of Academic Racism: Pioneer Fund] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050204195109/http://www.ferris.edu/isar/Institut/pioneer/homepage.htm |date=2005-02-04 }}
*[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/article-preview?article_id=2056 "The Tainted Sources of 'The Bell Curve'"]
*Metcalf, Stephen. [http://www.slate.com/id/2128199/ "Moral Courage: Is defending The Bell Curve an example of intellectual honesty?"] ''Slate'', October 17, 2005
*Blackmon, Douglas A. [http://www.ferris.edu/ISAR/Institut/pioneer/silent.htm "Silent Partner: How the South's Fight To Uphold Segregation Was Funded Up North,"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060624051446/http://www.ferris.edu/ISAR/Institut/pioneer/silent.htm |date=2006-06-24 }} Institute for the Study of Academic Racism.
*Lichtenstein, Grace. [http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45/022.html 'Fund Backs Controversial Study of "Racial Betterment"'], reprinted from ''The New York Times'', December 11, 1977.
*Reckert, Clare M. [https://query.nytimes.com/search/query?frow=0&n=10&srcht=s&daterange=period&query=rockwell+standard+draper&srchst=p&hdlquery=&bylquery=&mon1=09&day1=18&year1=1851&mon2=12&day2=31&year2=1980&submit.x=19&submit.y=9 ''DRAPER APPROVES BID BY ROCKWELL; In Surprise Move, Board Backs Improved Offer - Indian Head Talks Off Acquisitions and Combinations Are Planned by Corporations''], ''The New York Times'', March 28, 1967.{{subscription required}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Draper, Wickliffe}}
[[Category:1891 births]]
[[Category:1972 deaths]]
[[Category:Activists from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:American Eugenics Society members]]
[[Category:American founders]]
[[Category:American segregationists]]
[[Category:American Nazis]]
[[Category:American political activists]]
[[Category:American white nationalists]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:British Army soldiers]]
[[Category:Deaths from prostate cancer in the United States]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:United States Army officers]]
[[Category:United States Army personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:United States Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:Neo-Confederates]]
[[Category:People from Hopedale, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Pioneer Fund members]]