Advent of Social Sciences
From the National Urban League to the Social Science Research Council, the foundation of community development was formed with the rise of social sciences and the advent of a scientific approach to studying urban communities.
1910
The National Urban League’s Community Research
Image: AFRO American Newspaper Archives
George Edmund Haynes, the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Columbia University and Ruth Standish Baldwin, a white philanthropist from New York City, formed the National Urban League to assist migrants coming from the South.
They employed social science strategies to investigate and document the social conditions in Harlem. Through their research, they saw that many families were struggling to find employment, housing, and education, and were facing discrimination and segregation in many areas of their lives. As new leaders rose through the ranks, the organization expanded and so did its objectives. It went on to fight for employment rights of African Americans in the Great Depression, and for the participation of African Americans in the defense industry during World War II. Its operation became most prolific under the leadership of Whitney M. Young during the Civil Rights Movement.1
“Let us work together, not as colored people, nor as white people, for the narrow benefit of any group alone, but together, as American citizens for the common good of our common city, our common country.”
Ruth Standish Baldwin
“Obituary of Ruth Standish Baldwin,” Pittsburgh Courier, Dec. 22, 1934.
1911
Calbraith Perry Rodgers takes 49 days to make the first transcontinental flight across the United States
1913
The Founding of the Rockefeller Foundation
Image: U.S. Congress via the Rockefeller Archive Center
The National Urban League is a prime example of the organizations funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. Established by John D. Rockefeller in 1913, the foundation focused on pressing societal issues and was one of the largest philanthropic organizations of its time. During the Progressive Era, it directed its resources toward advancing public health, education, and scientific research. This aligned with the broader Progressive Era goals of improving living conditions for those in need, enhancing education, and combating societal problems like poverty and disease. From funding organizations in the burgeoning social sciences to supporting urban practitioners trying to combat society’s ills, the Rockefeller Foundation played an immense role in shaping the history of community development and organizing.2
1914
The Country Life Movement & The Smith-Lever Act
Image: Adams County Community Archive via Washington Rural Heritage
Under President Theodore Roosevelt, the Country Life Commission was among the major forces encouraging the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the nation’s land-grant universities to play a more active role in the advancement and improvement of rural landscapes and lives. As reform and populist movements flowed through urban regions across the country, the Country Life Movement sought to bring them to rural communities.
The passage of the Smith-Lever Act of 1914 established and funded the Cooperative Extension Service to bridge the gap between the USDA and the land-grant colleges. The law was emblematic of pragmatic trends in academia because it emphasized the education of communities outside of urban areas.3
“The theory of the bill is to extend this system to the entire country by providing for at least one trained demonstrator or itinerant teacher for each agricultural county, who in the very nature of things must give leadership and direction along all lines of rural activity—social, economic, and financial… He is to assume leadership in every movement, whatever it may be, the aim of which is better farming, better living, more happiness, more education, and better citizenship.”
Committee on Agriculture, United States House of Representatives
“Cooperative Agricultural Extension Work: Report to Accompany H.R. 7951” (63rd Congress, 2nd Session, 1915).
1918
Passage of the Nineteenth Amendment
Image: Benjamin M. Dale & the League of Women Voters via Library of Congress
One critical thread throughout America’s abolition and temperance movements was women’s suffrage. As women grew more powerful in social and religious spaces, they demanded the right to vote. Educated women began to represent the concerns of women and families in the public sphere.
During World War I, American women joined the labor force in greater numbers to meet the gap left by men who were drafted to fight. The war brought the issue off national enfranchisement to the White House, and President Woodrow Wilson declared his support for the Nineteenth Amendment before Congress in September 1918, ensuring the amendment’s passage. Wilson also formed a Women’s Bureau inside the Department of Labor.
Image: Bain News Service via the Library of Congress
The passage of women’s suffrage led to a unified new social power in public policy. The League of Women Voters, the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, the National Women’s Trade Union League, and others joined to form the Women’s Joint Congressional Committee (WJCC). In its first decade, the WJCC made major legislative gains, including the Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Act, which addressed national rates of infant mortality through the allocation of funds to maternal and child health clinics. Suffrage also led to improvements in education with more women beginning to enroll in universities.
Despite these advancements, the Nineteenth Amendment wasn’t color-blind. African American women were impacted by Jim Crow practices that deprived them of their right to vote. This would continue for decades until the Civil Rights movement.4
1919
The Prohibition Act takes effect on July 1st, also known as the “Thirsty First”
The Social Science Research Council’s Advancement of Sociology
The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) played a pivotal role in fostering the rise of intellectualism and the emergence of sociology as a distinct field during the Progressive Era. Charles Edward Merriam, a prominent figure in the Progressive Movement and chair of the political science department at the University of Chicago, led the initiative to create an independent, international organization promoting the social sciences when he served on the American Political Science Association’s committee of research. Established in 1923, the SSRC served as a catalyst for intellectual exchange and collaborative research among scholars, providing a platform for the application of scientific methods to social issues.
Receiving funding from institutions such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, and the Russell Sage Foundation, the SSRC supported scholars in conducting empirical research, which contributed to establishing the legitimacy of sociology as an academic discipline. By promoting rigorous investigation into the social dynamics and challenges of the time, the SSRC helped lay the foundation for the systematic study of society and culture. These efforts helped shape the intellectual landscape of the era and influence the direction of social thought and community organizing.5
Footnotes
- Vernon Jordan, From a Contemporary Perspective: The National Urban League – A Ninety Year Retrospective (2000) ↩︎
- David L. Seim, Rockefeller and Modern Social Science (2013) ↩︎
- Dan Allosso, American Environmental History: Wilderness & Country Life (2015) ↩︎
- National Archives, Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment (2021) ↩︎
- John Louis Recchiuti, The Origins of American Progressivism: New York’s Social Science Community, 1880-1917 (1992) ↩︎