Tentative Report of the Committee of Race Attitudes of Children

A short report by the Committee on Race Attitudes of Children following partial analysis of a questionnaire they circulated that was "designed for the purpose of attempting to discover the actual attitudes of children toward people of other races." The Committee was appointed by the Commission on Christian Education of the National Council of Churches and worked closely with the Committee on Race Attitudes of Children of The Inquiry Concerning the Christian Way of Life. This latter group circulated its own questionnaire to adults in contact with children to assess whether racial prejudice in children was due to the adults in their lives (i.e., socially conditioned). Preliminary analysis of the CRAC questionnaire further supported this theory (".where adult race antagonisms are strong the same appears to be true of children."). The group proposed a "tentative program of education for better race relations," that included: countering the bad emotional conditioning of children while developing "brief scientific texts on the general problems of race; a series of brief texts and discussion outlines on specific aspects of the race problem; [the] utiliz[ation of] stories, folk-lore, drama, pageantry, games and handicrafts of other racial groups; and.carefully arranged contacts between children of different groups in work upon a common task." The report is signed in type by Henry M. Busch who was a member of both of the aforementioned committees. An early attempt by the liberal National Council of Churches to scientifically evaluate racial prejudice in children in order design programs to mitigate such prejudice. Four 8 ½" x 11" sheets printed on rectos from typescript. Small hole at the top left corner of each sheet, else Fine.…