Colleagues in the history of economics community can imagine my delight in coming across a work by Harry W. Greene that claims to have identified African Americans who had earned Ph.D.’s from 1876 through 1943. As I worked through his sub-list of economics Ph.D.’s, looking for further information about the lives and careers of those named by Greene, I found (thus far) a most peculiar error, namely a Boston University economics Ph.D. recipient, Waight Gibbs Henry, whose race I found clearly identified in U.S. Census returns and his WWI selective service registration as “White”. I have included several sentences from the preface to his doctoral dissertation that make it obviously clear that his ancestors, including his father, even owned slaves themselves.
What to do about a bum observation in a sample? I figure that a post like this might make help someone working with Greene’s list, at least should they perform the minimal diligence of conducting a Google search on the name “Waight Gibbs Henry” to land here.
_______________________
From Harry W. Greene’s list of “Holders of Doctorates among American Negroes” (1946)
HENRY, W.G.
A.B., Southern University
Ph.D., ’18, Boston University
MAJOR FIELD: Economics
TITLE OF DISSERTATION: “The Negro as an Economic Factor in Alabama.”
Source: Harry Washington Greene. Holders of Doctorates among American Negroes: An Educational and Social Study of Negroes who have Earned Doctoral Degrees in Course, 1876-1943. Boston: Meador Publishing Company, 1946. Page 62.
_______________________
From the Preface
to Henry’s “The Negro as an Economic Factor in Alabama.”
p. 9: “My ancestors were all slave owners. From them I inherited the customary attitude which the slave owner assumes toward the slave. I was reared in direct contact in personal association with many of the old slaves—ex-slaves. Though freed, the majority of them voluntarily remained on my father’s farm. So great was his kindness to them and so immeasurable was their affection for “Old Master” that they refused to leave when dowered with freedom…The negro’s superstitions, folklore, religious proclivities, and social customs are well known to me.”
_______________________
HENRY, WAIGHTS GIBBS, 1879-1960
Methodist clergyman, professor. Born– January 13, 1879, at Palm in Pickens Co. Parents– Robert Fillmore and Rebecca Catherine (Morris) Henry. Married– Mary Elizabeth Davis, June 18, 1903. Children– Five. Education– Southern University, A.B., 1900; Vanderbilt University, B.D., 1902; University of Alabama, A.M., 1912 [sic]; Boston University, Ph.D., 1915 [sic]; further graduate work at University of Chicago, Millsaps College, and Harvard University. Ordained to Methodist ministry, 1903; pastorates in Trinity, Pratt City, Tuscaloosa, Brookhaven, Huntsville, and Birmingham; professor of religious education, Emory University, 1924-1929; professor of Bible, Athens College, after 1951. Member of many councils and conferences of the Methodist Church; District Superintendent, Anniston district. Died August 25, 1960.
Source: Dictionary of Alabama Biography, Vol. 3; Marquis who’s who online
Publication(s):
Needful Knowledge for Worthful Living. Birmingham, Ala.; W.G. Henry, 1930.
The Negro as an Economic Factor in Alabama. Nashville: M.E. Church South Publishing House, 1918.
The Organization of Personality. Birmingham, Ala.; Birmingham Printing Co., 1922.
Source: Website Alabama Authors.