Show Notes
Wickliffe Draper's Pioneer Fund started out in 1937 by funding screenings of Nazi propaganda films in high schools. But like most American racists, the 1954 Supreme Court decision in the Brown v Board of Education case changed how he approached the fight for white supremacy.
Sources & Further Reading:
Tucker, William (2002). The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and The Pioneer Fund. University of Illinois Press.
Jackson, John P. Jr (2005). Science for Segregation: Race, Law, and the Case Against Brown v. Board of Education. New York University Press.
Sussman, Robert Wald (2014). The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea. Harvard University Press.
McMillen, Neil (1971). The Citizens’ Council: Organized Resistance to the Second Reconstruction, 1954-1964. University of Illinois Press
Kevin M. Kruse, The Paradox of Massive Resistance: Political Conformity and Chaos in the Aftermath of Brown v. Board of Education, 48 St. Louis U. L.J. (2004). Available at: https://scholarship.law.slu.edu/lj/vol48/iss3/13
Thompson, Susan C. "Racial Injustice: A History of the Segregated School System in Jackson, Mississippi." Georgia State University, 2018. https://doi.org/10.57709/12100172
Sadler, Cynthia Jones, "Standing in the Shadows: African American Informants and Allies of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission" (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 268. https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/etd/268
https://www.nytimes.com/1964/05/06/archives/antiintegrationad-seeks-teachers-aid.html
https://ldfrecollection.org/content/archives/ba006941-a08b-4c85-b0d7-2f2e5ff00e85
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB929056013324992946
https://da.mdah.ms.gov/sovcom/document/images/png/cd12/113717
https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/nativist-lobby-three-faces-intolerance/
https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/eugenics-voter-id-laws-thomas-farrs-connections-pioneer-fund/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
More from Weird Little Guys
A final look at the Pioneer Fund's attempt to use racist pseudoscience to overturn the Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court decision.
We're revisiting two classic Weird Little Guys episodes from last year about a white nationalist political party's attempt to get their candidate on the ballot. Third Position Original air date: 8/21/25 In 2012, a newly formed white nationalist political party tried to get their candidate on the ballot. The American Third Position Party wanted Americans to vote for Merlin Miller, but how did the party end up picking him? Sources: https://www.fec.gov/resources/cms-content/documents/federalelections2012.pdf#page=11 https://irehr.org/2018/06/14/what-is-the-american-freedom-party/ https://www.ocregister.com/2009/09/04/two-time-felon-runs-pro-white-political-group/ https://rosecityantifa.org/articles/meet-the-oregon-chapter-of-the-american-freedom-party-part-one/ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/will-la-elect-a-ron-paul_b_104053 https://independentpoliticalreport.com/2013/08/two-american-freedom-party-leaders-speak-out-about-their-party/ https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1964-68v19/d284 https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/middle-east/six-day-war-liberty.html A Secret Third Thing Original air date: 8/28/25 After the 2012 election, the American Third Position Party rebranded. Not because their candidate lost, they expected that. But probably because their candidate didn't know what the party's name meant. Sources: https://www.fec.gov/resources/cms-content/documents/federalelections2012.pdf https://politicalresearch.org/2016/12/19/what-third-position https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/neofascism-european-style/ https://www.alternet.org/2008/07/surviving_a_weekend_with_americas_premiere_pro-white_activist_group# https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2016/10/18/former-mpd-chief-drue-lackey-dead-90/92349168/ Winkler, Martin M. Arminius the Liberator: Myth and Ideology. Oxford University Press, 2016. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In the first level of Knowledge Fight Country, Dan and his guest adventurer Molly Conger set out to understand the context around Tucker Carlson's interview with a welder who is mad about algebra. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
A closer look at one of the men on the Pioneer Fund's team of scientists for segregation reveals that he wasn't a scientist at all.
Last week, the DOJ's Civil Rights division announced they were moving to dismiss more than 50 desegregation cases against school districts all over the country. Like the weird little guys trying to overturn the Brown v Board of Education decision in the 1960s, the Trump administration is trying to take us all back to a version of America they think was great.