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Key local figure

Howard W. Odum

Howard W. Odum (1884–1954), a sociologist of the American South, arrived in Chapel Hill in 1920 to direct the university's School of Public Welfare and Department of Sociology. He went on to establish the Institute for Research in Social Science and found the journal Social Forces.

Source: UNC Libraries: Howard Washington Odum Papers, 1908-1990s (#03167), finding aid

Also found in catalogs as Howard Washington Odum.

1884–1954 · Dates from the Library of Congress · On the Friends’ Local Authors roster → · Library of Congress authority record ↗

19 works about Howard W. Odum are indexed here.

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Howard W. Odum, 1953
Howard W. Odum, 1953

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

StorylineChapel Hill’s first town manager and its improvements, 1922–19311922–1931 · 31 events · Chapel Hill hired E. M. Knox as its first town manager in 1922, and the Weekly later credited him with paved streets, sewer extensions, a disposal plant, a health department and better fire protection, all without a higher tax rate. In June 1928 the aldermen adopted the town's first zoning ordinance, and Knox resigned to become city manager of High Point; his engineering assistant, John Foushee, succeeded him. In 1931 the aldermen sought a charter amendment letting them choose the mayor as town manager, amid talk of saving the manager's salary, but said they had no plan to drop the manager system. StorylineExtending Chapel Hill's town limits and a new charter, 1924–19271924–1927 · 3 events · In 1924 Chapel Hill's aldermen named a committee to study extending the town limits, which new homes had spread past, and to consider a modern charter. A charter amendment of 1925 enlarged the board to six aldermen with staggered terms. The extension was dropped in 1927, when Town Manager E. M. Knox's survey showed that the services a larger town would need would cost far more than its new taxes. StorylineThe University's Human Relations Institutes, 1927–19451927–1945 · 3 events · A weeklong institute in March 1927, arranged by Harry F. Comer of the YMCA, brought James Weldon Johnson, executive secretary of the NAACP, and other speakers on race, labor and world affairs to the University. History chair J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton walked out when Howard Odum introduced Johnson as 'Mister Johnson' and protested to Chase, while a Tar Heel editorial welcomed the visit. The third quadrennial Human Relations Institute, in 1935, brought a week of lectures on government, industry, race and religion, and the Weekly called it a great success. Comer's 1945 institute took the theme 'The Prices of Peace,' with Senator J. William Fulbright giving the Weil lectures on America and world organization.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 39 dated events in the chronology →

During their lifetime

  1. A Red Cross-funded summer institute trains social workers at the University Before he left Emory, Howard Odum persuaded the American Red Cross to pay the summer faculty of a training institute on campus for social workers, teachers, nurses, ministers, probation officers and Red Cross, YMCA and YWCA staff. Chase let a woman instructor assist but not lead a course. People: Howard W. Odum, Harry Woodburn Chase Place: UNC, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: YMCASearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 217
  2. Howard W. Odum comes to Chapel Hill to lead UNC's School of Public Welfare and sociology department Odum, a Georgia-born sociologist who had been dean of liberal arts at Emory, arrived in Chapel Hill in 1920 to direct the School of Public Welfare and the Department of Sociology. He taught at UNC for the rest of his life. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Howard Washington Odum Papers, 1908-1990s (#03167), finding aid
  3. Howard W. Odum founds the Journal of Social Forces at UNC Two years after coming to UNC, Odum founded and edited the Journal of Social Forces, the journal now titled Social Forces. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Swarthmore College (archived): Robert C. Bannister, Howard Odum, Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 5
  4. The Chapel Hill Red Cross chapter reports on its public health nurse and elects Howard W. Odum chairman At its annual meeting in the Presbyterian church, the Chapel Hill chapter of the American Red Cross heard that it had helped provide a public health nurse for the schools and homes with the town, the school board and the Community Club, and that its 1921 roll call raised $966.83. It elected Howard W. Odum chairman, referred a memorial to Miss Roper, the nurse who served the students and town in the influenza epidemic, to a committee, and asked its executive committee to work out closer cooperation with the King's Daughters and the tuberculosis seal organization. People: Dudley Dewitt Carroll, Alice Noble, Henry A. Whitfield Place: Presbyterian church, Chapel HillSearch the index · The News (Chapel Hill), March 2, 1922, p. 1
  5. The Men's Town Club's planning committee calls for a Chapel Hill town plan The town planning committee of Chapel Hill's Men's Town Club, in a preliminary report by Howard W. Odum, urged the club to back a full town plan drawn by the University's School of Engineering, to seek state help in keeping up the town government, to work toward a charter revision on the city manager plan, and to finish naming the streets, post the street corners and number the houses. People: Howard W. Odum Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The News (Chapel Hill), November 30, 1922, p. 1
  6. Odum's new institute makes county government its first study The Institute for Research in Social Science chose county government as its first project, with E. C. Branson leading researchers who examined forty-three counties. Odum shared the findings in 1925 with Governor McLean's study commission, and McLean put county finance reforms to the 1927 legislature. People: Eugene Cunningham Branson, Paul W. Wager, Angus W. McLean Place: Institute for Research in Social Science, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Angus McLeanSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 78
  7. Odum's Institute for Research in Social Science is organized at UNC The Institute for Research in Social Science was organized at Chapel Hill on June 30, 1924, for the cooperative study of social problems arising from state and regional conditions. Odum founded it with help from the Rockefeller Fund, and it is now the Odum Institute. Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Institute for Research in Social ScienceSearch the index · The Odum Institute, UNC-Chapel Hill: Odum History · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, April 21, 1981, p. 2
  8. Isaac W. Pritchard and six others give land for a Chapel Hill park and playground A tract of several acres at the southwest corner of town, beyond Pritchard's home, was to be reserved to Chapel Hill for all time as a park and playground. The givers were Pritchard, W. S. Roberson, J. F. Steiner, H. W. Odum, George B. Logan, Harold D. Meyer and E. R. Mosher, and one or two ball fields were planned. People: Isaac W. Pritchard, W. S. Roberson, Howard W. Odum, Harold D. Meyer Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: J. F. Steiner, George B. Logan, E. R. MosherSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, June 13, 1924, p. 6
  9. Chapel Hill aldermen name a committee to study extending the town limits and a new charter The board of aldermen appointed G. M. Braune and H. A. Whitfield to look into extending the corporate limits, with H. W. Odum as adviser, and to consider a modern charter. New homes had spread past the old line; the paper noted that an extension needed an act of the legislature and then a vote by the people who would be taken in. People: Gustave M. Braune, Henry A. Whitfield, Howard W. Odum Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 21, 1924, p. 1
  10. The University of North Carolina Press publishes Odum and Johnson's The Negro and His Songs The University of North Carolina Press published The Negro and His Songs, a collection of about 300 pages of spirituals, work songs and what the authors called social songs gathered by Howard W. Odum and Guy B. Johnson. The Weekly reprinted a notice from Charity and Children that called the book a good first step toward serious study of Black life by Southern scholars. People: Guy Benton Johnson Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 28, 1925, p. 3
  11. Howard W. Odum builds a stone arch bridge to carry Ransom Street south Howard W. Odum built an arched stone bridge over the ravine at the north edge of his place on the Pittsboro-Pinehurst highway, letting Ransom Street run south from Cameron Avenue to meet the highway at his gate. Odum designed it and Tom Lewis Booth laid the stone. Place: Ransom Street at the Odum place, Chapel Hill · Also named: Tom Lewis Booth · Also mentions: Cameron AvenueSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 26, 1926, p. 1
  12. The University holds its first Summer Institute for adult education The University extension division opened its first Summer Institute on August 16, 1926, a two-week mix of short courses and recreation with a school of citizenship under Howard W. Odum, a school of recreation and physical education under Harold D. Meyer, and a coaching school under Robert A. Fetzer. Durham's city recreation workers helped teach, and when it closed on August 27 extension director R. M. Grumman said it would be held every year. People: Russell M. (Russell Marvin) Grumman, Howard W. Odum, Robert A. Fetzer, Harold D. Meyer Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 20, 1926, p. 1
Show all 38 dated events
  1. The University of North Carolina Press publishes Odum and Johnson's Negro Workaday Songs By late August 1926 the University of North Carolina Press had published Negro Workaday Songs by Howard W. Odum and Guy B. Johnson, a companion to their The Negro and His Songs of a year earlier. Reviews in the Nation and the Saturday Review of Literature praised it, the latter singling out its chapter on John Henry; the songs had been taken down directly from Black singers. People: Guy Benton Johnson Place: University of North Carolina Press, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 27, 1926, p. 4
  2. Chase has an institute researcher's study of Winston-Salem Black businesses destroyed Robinson E. Newcomb, a Brookings graduate student working with the Institute for Research in Social Science, had pieced together Black wage data from pay stubs outside R. J. Reynolds plants. After trustee James A. Gray Jr., a Reynolds vice president, complained, Chase and Odum gathered every copy, and Chase assured Gray he had seen to the destruction of the draft and notes. One copy survived at Brookings. People: Harry Woodburn Chase, Howard W. Odum Place: Institute for Research in Social Science, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: Robinson Eli Newcomb, James A. Gray Jr.Search the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), pp. 367-368
  3. James Weldon Johnson speaks at the YMCA's Institute of Human Relations Harry F. Comer's weeklong institute, approved by Chase, brought speakers on race, labor and world affairs. Johnson, NAACP executive secretary, spoke in Memorial Hall and met classes. History chair J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton walked out when Howard Odum introduced him as 'Mister Johnson' and protested to Chase, while a Tar Heel editorial by David Donald Carroll welcomed the visit. People: Howard W. Odum, J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, Harry F. Comer Place: Memorial Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: James Weldon Johnson, David Donald CarrollSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), pp. 362-364
  4. The Southern Textile Social Service Association holds its ninth convention in Chapel Hill The ninth annual convention of the Southern Textile Social Service Association, which brought the leading mill social workers of the South to Chapel Hill, opened on the evening of August 25 for a two-day session under the University's extension division. It followed a ten-day textile social workers' institute taught by Howard W. Odum and other University men, and speakers included G. T. Schwenning on women in industry and the state vocational education superintendents of both Carolinas. People: Howard W. Odum, Russell M. (Russell Marvin) Grumman Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Also named: G. T. SchwenningSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, August 26, 1927, p. 1
  5. Rupert B. Vance joins the UNC sociology faculty and the Institute for Research in Social Science After taking his doctorate at UNC in 1928, Vance was appointed to the staff of Howard W. Odum's Institute for Research in Social Science and the Department of Sociology. He was named Kenan Professor in 1945. People: Rupert B. Vance, Howard W. Odum Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · NCpedia: Vance, Rupert Bayless
  6. Howard W. Odum publishes Rainbow Round My Shoulder Bobbs-Merrill issued Rainbow Round My Shoulder, the University sociologist Howard W. Odum's account of a wandering Black laborer he called Black Ulysses, drawn from the songs, sayings and incidents he had gathered for more than 25 years. Reviewers in New York praised it as both document and art. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 9, 1928, p. 1
  7. Chase's memorandum warns faculty against advocacy that embarrasses the university Under attack from textile editor David Clark, Chase sent Howard Odum, Dudley D. Carroll and Frank Graham a discussion memo on proper activities for social scientists. Faculty whose causes involved colleagues in general embarrassment should leave, he wrote; in North Carolina such causes included certain taxes, labor organizing, racial equality and socialism. People: Harry Woodburn Chase, Howard W. Odum, Dudley Dewitt Carroll, Frank Porter Graham Place: UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: David Clark, Frank GrahamSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), pp. 381-383
  8. Odum's institute wins a $240,000 Rockefeller grant The Institute for Research in Social Science secured $240,000 from a Rockefeller foundation for studies of social and child welfare, crime and justice, taxation, industry and cooperatives. Place: Saunders Hall, UNC, Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Institute for Research in Social ScienceSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 101
  9. Aldermen set up a citizens' committee and job bureau for the unemployed After P. L. Burch told of earnest men seeking work at his University office, the aldermen authorized Mayor Zeb Council to name an emergency committee on unemployment. Howard W. Odum chaired it, and Bruce Strowd ran a free employment list at his garage; by early January 109 men had registered and 84 had been placed in jobs. People: Howard W. Odum, Bruce Strowd, Peter L. Burch, Zeb P. Council Place: Town hall and Strowd Motor Company, Chapel HillThe Chapel Hill Weekly, November 14, 1930, p. 5
  10. The Rockefeller Foundation grants Odum's Institute for Research in Social Science $30,000 a year The foundation announced a yearly grant of $30,000 to support the work of the university's Institute for Research in Social Science under Howard Odum. Covington says the announcement came the same day Coates held his first conference of public officials. Place: Institute for Research in Social Science, UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 137
  11. UNC names W. C. Jackson dean of a new School of Public Administration Graham and Odum announced Jackson, history chair at the Woman's College in Greensboro, as dean of the school Odum had planned for three years with a small state allocation. Graham urged Coates to fold the Institute into it and made him one of its trustees, but Coates kept apart; short of state money, the school was dissolved after Jackson returned to Greensboro as chancellor. People: Howard W. Odum, Frank Porter Graham, Albert Coates Place: UNC, Chapel Hill · Also named: W. C. JacksonSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., The Good Government Man: Albert Coates and the Early Years of the Institute of Government (2018), p. 137 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, June 10, 1932, p. 1
  12. Citizens call in the Duke legal clinic for Black owners facing loss of homes over West Franklin Street paving assessments At a meeting in the old Methodist church on January 17, a citizens' committee working for West Franklin Street property owners, mostly Black, who faced losing their homes over curb-to-curb paving assessments of $7.70 a front foot, called in the Duke University legal aid clinic, and the aldermen ordered the town records searched and an engineer hired to reconstruct how the assessments were laid. Questioning by the clinic's director brought out that the owners' petitions had been circulated by the paving contractor. People: Eugene Cunningham Branson, Joseph Hyde Pratt, Howard W. Odum Place: Old Methodist church and West Franklin Street, Chapel HillThe Chapel Hill Weekly, January 20, 1933, p. 1
  13. The Baptist church opens a Sunday evening series on race relations Dean W. C. Jackson opened a series of four Sunday evening talks on Black progress and race relations in the South at the Chapel Hill Baptist church on March 4, to be followed by sociologists Guy B. Johnson and Howard W. Odum and by President Frank P. Graham. People: Guy Benton Johnson, Howard W. Odum, Frank Porter Graham Place: Baptist church, Chapel Hill · Also named: W. C. JacksonSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 9, 1934, p. 3
  14. University and Duke committee issues its first report on cooperation A joint committee of University and Duke faculty, appointed in the autumn of 1933, issued its first report on cooperation between the two universities, released at once in Chapel Hill and Durham with a foreword by President Frank P. Graham and President Few. It urged coordinated graduate work, with students taking some courses for credit at the other school and exchanges of professors, along with shared library resources, research, lectures, concerts and publishing. People: Frank Porter Graham, Howard W. Odum, William Chambers Coker, Edgar Wallace Knight Place: Chapel Hill and DurhamSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 22, 1935, p. 6
  15. A state conference on race relations meets in Chapel Hill and at Duke A conference on race relations directed by N. C. Newbold of the state department of public instruction opened on May 20 in the University's Alumni building before prominent Black educators, with Howard W. Odum presiding. Librarians R. B. Downs and William K. Boyd described their libraries' holdings on race relations, a session took up the health of Black people and medical practice, and the meetings went on the next day. People: N. C. (Nathan Carter) Newbold, Howard W. Odum, Robert B (Robert Bingham) Downs Place: Alumni building, UNC, Chapel Hill (afternoon session at Duke University) · Also named: William K. BoydSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, May 24, 1935, p. 3
  16. UNC Press publishes Odum's Southern Regions of the United States The University of North Carolina Press in Chapel Hill published Odum's Southern Regions of the United States, a 664-page study of social conditions across the South prepared for the Social Science Research Council's Southern Regional Committee. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Internet Archive: Southern regions of the United States (Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina press, 1936)
  17. An international conference on education in Africa and the American South meets at the Carolina Inn The fourth in a series of conferences on cultural change among non-Western peoples, after Yale, South Africa and Honolulu, met for a month at the Carolina Inn, bringing together educators from British Africa and state agents for Negro education in the Southern states under Charles T. Loram of Yale and Howard W. Odum. Speakers included Will W. Alexander, Edwin R. Embree, John Collier and Charles S. Johnson, and the delegates went on to visit Black schools in the South, Hampton Institute and Yale. People: Howard W. Odum, Frank Porter Graham, Will W. Alexander Place: Carolina Inn, Chapel Hill · Also named: Charles T. Loram, Edwin R. Embree, John Collier, Charles S. JohnsonSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 3, 1937, p. 1
  18. The American Jersey Cattle Club honors Howard W. Odum's Jersey herd Odum, whose cattle farm lay beyond Carrboro on the way to University Lake, was named one of six American breeders honored by the American Jersey Cattle Club for breeding and keeping a superior Jersey herd; Hoard's Dairyman reported that his fourteen milking cows averaged close to a 'Very Good' rating. The herd traced to one his father started in Covington, Georgia, in 1896. Place: Odum farm, beyond CarrboroSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 3, 1937, p. 3
  19. Educators from British Africa and Southern state agents for Black schools confer at Chapel Hill Government officials, educators and clergy from more than a dozen African territories spent a month of lectures and seminars at the Carolina Inn with the Southern states' agents for Black education and faculty of Yale, Hampton Institute and the University, which jointly sponsored the conference. Lecturers included Howard W. Odum, Edgar W. Knight and Guy B. Johnson; the visitors left on September 28 for tours of the Deep South. People: Howard W. Odum, Edgar Wallace Knight, Guy Benton Johnson Place: Carolina Inn, Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, February 4, 1938, p. 3
  20. Fire destroys Howard W. Odum's house just outside the town limits A spark on the shingle roof set the house afire on a Sunday morning; with a high wind and low pressure from a hydrant several hundred feet away, firemen could only slow the blaze while neighbors carried out most of the contents. The loss of the $20,000 house led the Weekly to point out that suburban homes had no water lines but small service pipes and that the town's one fire truck could not pump for fires outside the limits. People: Howard W. Odum Place: Odum home, just outside the Chapel Hill town limitsThe Chapel Hill Weekly, February 25, 1938, p. 1
  21. Brodie Thompson rebuilds the burned Odum house in record time After fire gutted the Odum house on Sunday, February 20, 1938, the insurance was settled in five days and Thompson's crew began clearing the ruins on the sixth. Within 26 days of the fire the new house on the old foundations had its walls, roof and most of its weatherboarding, which the Weekly called the fastest building job Chapel Hill had seen. The paper names only Mr. and Mrs. Odum; the house was probably that of sociologist Howard W. Odum. People: Brodie Thompson, Howard W. Odum Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, March 18, 1938, p. 1 (Odum House Rises Fast)
  22. UNC rejects Pauli Murray's graduate application Pauli Murray, who grew up in Durham and lived in New York, applied to UNC's graduate school in 1938 to study with Howard Odum and Guy B. Johnson. On December 14, two days after the Supreme Court's Gaines ruling, Dean W. W. Pierson rejected her because of her race, and her appeals to President Frank Porter Graham became national news. People: Frank Porter Graham, Pauli Murray, Howard W. Odum Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Guy B. Johnson, W. W. PiersonNational Humanities Center: Pauli Murray, "Members of Your Race Are Not Admitted" (Song in a Weary Throat, 1987, ch. 11) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, January 6, 1939, p. 1
  23. Howard W. Odum's Jersey herd near Carrboro earns a third Constructive Breeder's certificate A. M. Schaefer of the American Jersey Cattle Club classified the 3 bulls and 26 cows on Howard W. Odum's Carolina Avon-Indian farm, beyond Carrboro on the road to the lake, giving the herd a score of 85.9 against the 82 required for the Constructive Breeder's Registry Certificate. It was the sociologist's third such certificate; he had bred Jerseys for 25 years, first in Georgia and for about five years on this farm, and the herd drew cattle men from across the state. Place: Odum farm, beyond Carrboro on the University Lake road · Also named: A. M. SchaeferSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, December 22, 1938, p. 3
  24. The national defense commission assigns five research projects to UNC Of about forty national defense research projects the government asked colleges to carry out, five went to the University, under the general direction of Erich W. Zimmermann, Howard W. Odum and Ralph W. Bost; studies of naval stores, the pulp and paper industry, Southern capital and Southern resources were under way. People: Howard W. Odum Place: UNC campus, Chapel Hill · Also named: Erich W. Zimmermann, Ralph W. BostSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, September 13, 1940, p. 1
  25. Gordon Blackwell is named to succeed Howard W. Odum at the Institute for Research in Social Science Gordon Blackwell, director of volunteer training for Civilian War Services in Washington, was chosen to succeed Howard W. Odum as director of the University's Institute for Research in Social Science. Odum stayed on the Institute's staff and as head of the sociology department to give more time to research and writing. Place: Institute for Research in Social Science, Chapel Hill · Also named: Gordon BlackwellSearch the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, November 19, 1943, p. 5
  26. Howard W. Odum dies in Chapel Hill Odum died in Chapel Hill on November 8, 1954, while still at work on several books, after 34 years on the UNC faculty. Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Swarthmore College (archived): Robert C. Bannister, Howard Odum, Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 5

After their death in 1954

Later events: estates and burials, and the buildings, honors and histories that remember them.

  1. UNC sociologist George L. Simpson Jr. wins a Guggenheim fellowship to finish Howard Odum's last book George L. Simpson Jr., associate professor of sociology at the university, received a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship to complete a book begun by the late Howard W. Odum. People: Howard W. Odum Place: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Also named: George L. Simpson Jr.Search the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 12, 1955, p. 7

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Howard W. Odum, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Show 18 more

Indexed works

Works about or by Howard W. Odum. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

Howard W. Odum's Folklore Odyssey: Transformation to Tolerance through African American Folk Studies

Sanders, Lynn Moss · 2003 · University of Georgia Press

Lynn Moss Sanders traces how sociologist Howard W. Odum (1884-1954) came to study African American folklore at UNC and how that work shifted his views on race. Chapters cover Odum's liberal program at the university, the folk-song collections he compiled with Guy B. Johnson, the Black Ulysses trilogy of novels, his literary partnership with John Wesley Gordon, and folklore as a path toward racial tolerance within the academy. Published 2003, 184 pages with illustrations.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Library of Congress record: Odum, Howard Washington, 1884-1954.

Duke NC State NC Cardinal Durham UNC Library of Congress

Folk engineering

Ramos, Stephen J. · 2025

Stephen J. Ramos on Howard Washington Odum and the Institute for Research in Social Science, dated 2025. Topics include regional planning and regionalism in the southern states in the twentieth century. Odum's regional studies were carried out at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which places the book in Orange County.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Odum, Howard Washington, 1884-1954.

NC Cardinal

Oral history interview with Guion Griffis Johnson, May 28, 1974 interview G-0029-3, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).

Johnson, Guion Griffis · 2006 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Third of four Southern Oral History Program interviews with sociologist Guion Griffis Johnson (1900-1989), recorded May 28, 1974 by Mary Frederickson and running just over two hours. Johnson talks about her Chapel Hill education in the 1920s and her research at Howard Odum's social science institute at UNC, also discussing Gunnar Myrdal, studies of race discrimination, and women in Southern higher education. Issued online by the UNC Library in 2006 through Documenting the American South.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Odum, Howard Washington, 1884-1954.

NC Cardinal UNC

Oral history interview with Guy B. Johnson, July 22, 1990

Johnson, Guy Benton · 2006

Transcript of an oral history interview with the sociologist Guy Benton Johnson, recorded on July 22, 1990 and issued in 2006. Subjects include Howard Washington Odum, Frank Porter Graham, the Southern Regional Council and segregation in the South, subjects that run through Johnson's working life at Chapel Hill.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Odum, Howard Washington, 1884-1954.

NC Cardinal

Oral history interview with Harriet Herring, February 5, 1976

Herring, Harriet L. · 2006

Oral history interview with the sociologist Harriet L. Herring, recorded on February 5, 1976 and issued in 2006. Herring worked at the Institute for Research in Social Science at Chapel Hill under Howard Washington Odum, and topics include North Carolina textile workers, Meredith College and women sociologists.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Odum, Howard Washington, 1884-1954.

NC Cardinal

Oral history interview with John Ivey, July 21, 1990

Ivey, John E. · 2006

Oral history interview with John E. Ivey Jr. recorded on July 21, 1990 and issued in 2006. Ivey worked with Howard Washington Odum at Chapel Hill and later with the Southern Regional Education Board, and topics include college integration and the politics of higher education in the South.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Odum, Howard Washington, 1884-1954.

NC Cardinal
Show 6 more

In search of the silent South

Sosna, Morton · 1977 · Columbia University Press

Morton Sosna's study of southern liberals and the race issue, published by Columbia University Press in 1977, 275 pages. Figures discussed include Howard Washington Odum of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Virginius Dabney and Lillian Smith.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Library of Congress record: Odum, Howard Washington, 1884-1954.

NC Cardinal Library of Congress

The wasted land

Johnson, Gerald W. · 1970 · Books for Libraries Press

Gerald W. Johnson's short book on the economic and social condition of the South, related to Howard Washington Odum's work on southern regions at Chapel Hill. Reissued by Books for Libraries Press in 1970, 110 pages. Part of the Old State Library Collection.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Library of Congress record: Odum, Howard Washington, 1884-1954 Southern regions of the United States.

NC Cardinal Library of Congress

[Howard Washington Odum]

Material about Howard Washington Odum, 1884 to 1954, founder of the Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Odum, Howard Washington, 1884-1954.

NC Cardinal

W. E. B. Du Bois, Howard W. Odum and the Sociological Ghetto

Earl Wright · 2014

Earl Wright on Howard W. Odum's standing as founder of the sociology of the South, set against the earlier work of W. E. B. Du Bois at Atlanta University.

Included because: Catalog heading in the OpenAlex record: Odum, Howard Washington, 1884-1954.

OpenAlex

"The People Who Seem to Matter Most to Me": Folklore as an Agent of Social Change in the Work of Howard W. Odum and Paul Green

Lynn Moss Sanders · 1992

Lynn Moss Sanders on the circle of folk scholars at UNC in the 1920s, chiefly Howard W. Odum and Paul Green, and their use of folklore to argue for social change.

Included because: Catalog heading in the OpenAlex record: Odum, Howard Washington, 1884-1954.

OpenAlex

A study of Howard W. Odum's "new regionalism" and its effect on the collecting, study, and literary use of folklore at the University of North Carolina, 1920-1935

Sanders, Lynn Moss · 1986

Lynn Moss Sanders examines Howard W. Odum's new regionalism and its effect on the collecting, study and literary use of folklore at the University of North Carolina between 1920 and 1935. A 217 leaf typescript from 1986 with bibliographies, covering folklore in North Carolina, the intellectual life of the state and Odum's Institute for Research in Social Science.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Odum, Howard Washington, 1884-1954.

UNC

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

Catalog searches use the Library of Congress name heading: Odum, Howard Washington, 1884-1954. Historical-record searches use the person’s name and may include namesakes. Links open in a new tab.

Found a book OCPL doesn’t own? You can often borrow it through interlibrary loan at OCPL.

Picture: Howard W. Odum, 1953. Public domain. Alyssa LaFaro, "A Father for Social Science," UNC Research Stories, 11 July 2019, endeavors.unc.edu "Dr. Howard W. Odum Wins O. Max Gardner Award," Durham Morning Herald, 23 March 1953, 1, www.newspapers.com; via Wikimedia Commons

More to discover

Keep Reading Local

The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.

Browse New Arrivals → Meet Local Authors → Explore Local Publishers →
Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026