John Gibbs St. Clair Drake (January 2, 1911 – June 15, 1990)[2] was an African-American sociologist and anthropologist whose scholarship and activism led him to document much of the social turmoil of the 1960s, establish some of the first Black Studies programs in American universities, and contribute to the independence movement in Ghana.
His father immigrated to the United States from Barbados in the British West Indies, becoming a Baptist minister and an international organizer for Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association.
[4] His father's devout religious faith did not allow for activities like dancing, going to the movies, or using playing cards, all of which were forbidden to Drake in his childhood.
[6] While the list of student demands exceeded sixty specific points, many of them dealt with the need for more black teachers, higher academic standards, the dismissal of racist and unqualified faculty, an end to various strict disciplinary policies, and amnesty for those involved in the strike.
At the Christiansburg Institute, he taught a variety of subjects, coached soccer, led chapel prayer, and began to write professionally.
[5] During this time Drake continued pursuing his interests in academic and social justice pursuits at Pendle Hill, a Quaker retreat and graduate center.
Drake was moved by the potential that social science could have in racial causes, and ultimately followed Davis to study anthropology as a doctoral student at the University of Chicago.
The book was characterized in Drake's obituary in the New York Times as "a landmark of objective research and one of the best urban studies produced by American scholarship".
[12] In 1946, Drake became an assistant professor of sociology at Roosevelt University along with chemist Edward Marion Augustus Chandler, modern dancer Sybil Shearer, and sociologist Rose Hum Lee.
Another of Drake's works, which demonstrates his continued interest in race relations throughout his career, was Black Folk Here and There: An Essay in History and Anthropology, published in two volumes in 1987 and 1990 as part of a series entitled Afro-American Culture and Society.
He met Kwame Nkrumah, George Padmore, and Mbiyu Koinange when he was completing his fieldwork in Cardiff, Wales as a part of his dissertation at Chicago.
[18] As a result of this early contact with pan-African advocates, Drake pursued research projects in Liberia and Ghana in the 1950s, funded in part by a grant he received from the Ford Foundation.
At the request of George Padmore, Nkrumah's advisor, Drake presented and participated in the planning meetings for the All-African Peoples' Conference held at Accra in December 1958.
"[20] Drake served as an informal adviser to leaders of several newly independent African nations in the early 1960s, particularly Nkrumah, who by this time had become Ghana's prime minister, but later chose to leave Africa and this political work after coups installed military leaders in many of these nations: Drake later remarked that he would not "work under generals.
"[8] Drake's personal commitment to see Ghana succeed and his concerns about the privacy of the people and conversations he observed led him to elect not to publish books or articles based directly on his work in Africa or with African immigrants in Britain.
[20] However, he did conduct several research studies during his time in Africa with his wife sociologist Elizabeth Dewey Johns, though these were not directly associated with his political or personal connections in the countries he visited.
During World War II, Drake was a conscientious objector in response to the U.S. military's segregation policies, and he served in a civilian capacity in the U.S. Maritime Service.