Einstein on Race and Racism

220 Pages·2005·0.51 MB·English

by  Fred Jerome

Einstein on Race
and Racism

Einstein on Race
and Racism
FRED JEROME AND RODGER TAYLOR
Rutgers University Press
New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London
Disclaimer:
Some images in the original version of this book are not
available for inclusion in the eBook.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jerome, Fred.
Einstein on race and racism / Fred Jerome and Rodger Taylor.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–8135–3617–0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Einstein, Albert, 1879–1955—Views on racism. I. Taylor, Rodger,
1953– II. Title.
QC16.E5J466 2005
530(cid:1).092—dc22 2004023485
A British Cataloging-in-Publication record for this book is available
from the British Library.
Copyright © 2005 by Fred Jerome and Rodger Taylor
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher.
Please contact Rutgers University Press, 100 Joyce Kilmer Avenue,
Piscataway, NJ 08854–8099. The only exception to this prohibition is
“fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright law.
Manufactured in the United States of America
To the people of Witherspoon Street,
yesterday and today

Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
PART I. EINSTEIN AND ROBESON
ON WITHERSPOON STREET
1. Escape from Berlin 3
2. “Paradise” 11
3. The Other Princeton 20
4. Witherspoon Street 34
5. Einstein and Robeson, I 50
6. “Wall of Fame” 66
7. The Home Front 76
8. Civil Rights Activist 85
9. From World War to Cold War 98
10. Einstein and Robeson, II 122
11. “My Friend, Doctor Einstein” 129
PART II. DOCUMENTS
1. Einstein’s Statements on Race and Racism 135
A. “To American Negroes,” The Crisis,
February 1932 135
B. Address at the Inauguration of the “Wall of
Fame” at the World’s Fair in New York, 1940 138
C. “The Negro Question,” Pageant,January 1946 139
D. Speech to Lincoln University [Pennsylvania]
Students and Faculty, May 3, 1946 142
vii
CONTENTS
E. Letter to President Harry S. Truman on
Antilynching Law, September 1946 143
F. Message to the National Urban League
Convention, September 16, 1946 144
G. On Walter White, October 1947 147
H. Interview with the Cheyney Record,
October 1948 148
I. Message to the Southwide Conference on
Discrimination in Higher Education,
Sponsored by the Southern Conference
Educational Fund (SCEF), Atlanta
University, 1950 150
J. Interview with Peter A. Bucky 151
K. Letters from W.E.B. Du Bois, 1951 152
2. From Einstein’s FBI File: On Civil Rights 154
Notes 161
Bibliography 185
Index 197
viii
Preface
More than one hundred biographies and monographs about
Albert Einstein have been published, yet not one of them men-
tions the name Paul Robeson, let alone Einstein’s friendship
with him; or the name W.E.B. Du Bois, let alone Einstein’s sup-
port for him. Nor does one find in any of these works any refer-
ence to the Civil Rights Congress whose campaigns Einstein
actively supported. Finally, nowhere in all the ocean of published
Einsteiniana—anthologies, bibliographies, biographies, sum-
maries, articles, videotapes, calendars, posters and postcards—
will one find even an islet of information about Einstein’s visits
and ties to the people in Princeton’s African American commu-
nity around the street called Witherspoon.1
One explanation for this historical amnesia is that Einstein’s
biographers and others who shape our official memories felt
that some of his “controversial” friends, such as Robeson, and
activities, such as co-chairing the antilynching campaign, might
somehow tarnish Einstein as an American icon. That icon, sanc-
tified by Timemagazine when it dubbed Einstein the “Person of
the Century,” is a myth, albeit a marvelous myth. In fact, as
myths go, Einstein’s is hard to beat. The world’s most brilliant
scientist is also a kindly, lovably bumbling, grandfather figure:
Professor Genius combined with Dr. Feelgood! Opinion-molders,
looking down from their ivory towers, may have concluded that
such an appealing icon will help the great unwashed public feel
good about science, about history, about America. Why spoil
such a beautiful image with stories about racism, or for that mat-
ter with any of Einstein’s political activism? Politics, they argue,
is ugly, making teeth grind and fists clench, so why splash poli-
tics over Einstein’s icon? Why drag a somber rain cloud across a
ix