William Starr Myers

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William Starr Myers (June 17, 1877 – January 27, 1956) was a Princeton University professor, historian, white supremacist, and anti-immigrant activist who chronicled New Jersey and the GOP[1][2] and argued publicly for the inferiority of African Americans.

Myers was the son of J. Norris Myers and Laura Virginia Starr of Baltimore, the family later moving to North Carolina. Myers married Margaret Barr on 8 June 1910. [3]

Myers graduated from the University of North Carolina, class of 1897. Myers, the class of '97 poet, evidently felt great pride in his alma mater and was a prolific song writer who wrote several school-related songs which remain famous. "Hark the Sound" and "Tar Heel Born" are two of his most famous. At UNC Myers joined the fraternity Beta Theta Pi and was its president in his senior year. He was active in the Dialectic Society. After graduating from UNC cum laude, Myers went to graduate school at Johns Hopkins University where he studied political science, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and received his PhD in 1900.[4]

Myers was an Editor of "Prominent Families of New Jersey - Volume 1" by Clearfield Publishing. While digitized volumes of this book do not contain a copyright or publishing date, some reviewers cite it was initially published in the 1940s.[5]

In addition to Political Science, Myers studied journalism and while at UNC was editor of the yearbook, the Hellenian and editor of the school paper, the Tar Heel.[6]

After Johns Hopkins, Myers became a "master" at a boys' school, the Gilman School in Baltimore.[7]

Myers became assistant professor at Princeton University, 1906-1918, then professor from 1918 until his death.[8]

Myers, who was hired by Princeton president Woodrow Wilson, was a white supremacist who was open and outspoken about his racist, misogynous, and anti-immigrant views. In 1913, Myers wrote that the “negro must be recognized as one of an inferior, not merely backward, race.”[9] On February 27, 1915, Myers gave a talk at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, during which he said that 98 per cent of African Americans were sexually immoral, that even educated Blacks were only "grown up children," and that neither African Americans nor women should vote.[10][11] White supremacists welcomed and felt affirmed by Professor Myers's ideas. In a letter to The Crisis, the NAACP magazine edited by W. E. B. Du Bois, Latham Woodberry or Princeton, New Jersey wrote: "Myers is right. Even educated yellow Negroes, like Du Bois, are simply children and simple ones at that. He and the rest of the crew ought to be South with masters to look out for them as nature intended."[12] In 1922, Myers and a cohort of Princeton affiliates established a local chapter of the Immigration Restriction League on campus. On September 21, 1923, Myers alleged that “since 1900 we have admitted 200,000 immigrants with less intelligence than the American negro.”[13]

References

  1. ^ "William Starr Myers Papers, 1877-1974". Princeton University. Retrieved 2011-10-23.
  2. ^ "William S. Myers, Educator, 78, Dies. Politics Professor Emeritus at Princeton Served as Historian of G.O.P." New York Times. January 28, 1956. Retrieved 2015-03-22. Dr. William Starr Myers, Professor Emeritus of Politics at Princeton University, died yesterday at the age of 78.
  3. ^ "Myers, William Starr, 1877-1956". SNAC. Social Networks and Archival Context.
  4. ^ Toler, Laura J. "UNC-CH alma mater 'Hark the Sound' to celebrate centennial May 11". Carolina. University of North Carolina.
  5. ^ Myers, William Starr (2000). Prominent Families of New Jersey. Clearfield Publishing. ISBN 9780806350363.
  6. ^ "Myers, William Starr, 1877-1956". SNAC. Social Networks and Archival Context.
  7. ^ "Myers, William Starr, 1877-1956". SNAC. Social Networks and Archival Context.
  8. ^ "Collection Number: P0094 Collection Title: William Starr Myers Images, 1839-1915". The North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives. University of North Carolina.
  9. ^ "The Princeton Immigration Restriction League (1922-1924)". The Princeton and Slavery Project.
  10. ^ "The Crisis (April 1915), 272". Modernist Journals Project.
  11. ^ "Logical Reply of Rector of Episcopal Church". Philadelphia Tribune. April 3, 1915.
  12. ^ "The Crisis (December 1916), 74". Modernist Journals Project.
  13. ^ "The Princeton Immigration Restriction League (1922-1924)". The Princeton and Slavery Project.

External links

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