Abram Lincoln Harris Jr. (January 17, 1899 – November 6, 1963) was an American economist, academic, anthropologist and a social critic of the condition of black people in the United States.

There, Harris collaborated with fellow black colleagues Ralph Bunche and E. Franklin Frazier, and attacked older values and outlooks on race.

[2] Continuing with previous writings, Harris wrote his PhD thesis on the rift between African-American and white labor in the United States.

He expressed dislike for other strategies like rebellion, secession, or the various Back to Africa movements—which Harris described as "Negro Zionism"—led by such figures as Marcus Garvey and Haile Selassie I.

[1] In The Black Worker, Spero and Harris asserted that African Americans could put an end to the racial antagonism in the working class.

They stated that the anti-union beliefs held by organizations such as the National Urban League also provided for the racial division seen in the working class between blacks and whites.

As Harris wrote in the 1957 introduction to his personal collection of essays, he was "emerging from a state of social rebellion [while] still adher[ing] somewhat to socialistic ideas by the late 1920s.

[8]Despite the heavy criticism against fellow black businesspeople, Harris's book achieved notability and recognition in the field of economics during the Great Depression.

In 1937, Harris founded the liberal Social Science Division of Howard University, and served as the group's leader through the late 1930s and early 1940s.

[2] Harris left Howard in 1945 and moved to the University of Chicago, and became one of the first African-American academics with a high position at a historically white institution.

His writings took more of the tone of orthodox economics, and his previous defense of Karl Marx and other radical economists had turned into critical examinations of the works of these men.

[1] Harris expressed deep concerns about the Soviet Union's totalitarian direction led by Joseph Stalin in works such as Black Communist in Dixie, published in the National Urban League magazine, Opportunity.