Mitchell, Broadus, 1892-1988

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Broadus Mitchell, economist, historian, and liberal thinker, taught until 1939 at Johns Hopkins University, from 1947 to spring 1958 at Rutgers University, and from fall 1958 to 1967 at Hofstra University. He was the son of educator, Samuel Chiles Mitchell (1864-1948) and brother of educator, Morris R. Mitchell (1895-1976) and labor leader, George Sinclair Mitchell (1902-1962). His second wife was economist Louise Pearson Mitchell (1906- ).

From the description of Broadus Mitchell papers, 1900-1982. WorldCat record id: 26064077

Mitchell was a Professor of Political Economics at Johns Hopkins University, Occidental College, NYU, and Rutgers University before he came to Hofstra in 1958. He taught in Hofstra's New College program until his retirement in 1967.

From the description of Papers, 1926-1975. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 155550600

Economic historian; interviewee d. 1988.

From the description of Reminiscences of Broadus Mitchell : oral history, 1972. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 122513739

Broadus Mitchell was professor, author, politician, civic leader and civil rights activist, and labor leader.

From the description of Broadus Mitchell collection, 1926-1975. (Hofstra University). WorldCat record id: 50193752

(Parts of the following were taken from Jacqueline Hall's article on Broadus Mitchell in Radical History Review 45, 1989, pages 31-38.)

Broadus Mitchell, economic historian and ardent socialist, died on 28 April 1988 at the age of 95. Born 27 December 1892 in Georgetown, Ky., to Samuel Chiles and Alice Broadus Mitchell, he grew up in an academic family devoted to the New South panaceas of industrialization, education, and racial uplift. His mother was the daughter of the head of the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville. His father, who taught at Richmond College (later the University of Richmond), became president of the University of South Carolina in 1909, only to resign four years later when Governor Coleman L. Blease attacked him for favoring blacks over white womanhood. Mitchell had recommended that a Peabody Fund gift earmarked for black education go to the state college for Negroes rather than the white women's college. Broadus's siblings were Morris Randolph (1895-1976), educator and organizer and first president of the Friends World College; George Sinclair (1902-1962), textile industry labor leader; Terry, advertising manager of Waynesboro, Pa.; and Mary, wife of George Orr Clifford of Chapel Hill, N.C.

Broadus Mitchell was torn between journalism and academics. He first chose journalism, working off and on as a reporter between 1913 and 1918. He pursued graduate work in political economy at Johns Hopkins with the purpose of deepening his ability to write about the South's economic woes. His dissertation, completed in 1918, was published in 1921 as The Rise of Cotton Mills in the South . At Hopkins, he was drawn into social work and socialism, in part through his association with Elizabeth Gilman, one of Maryland's leading reformers. He also developed an enduring commitment to socialism, pacifism, and workers' education.

Although Mitchell opposed the U.S. entry into World War I, he served a brief stint in the army. After the war, he chose to join the faculty at Johns Hopkins rather than return to journalism. While at Hopkins, he took his students out of the classroom, guiding them on a trip to the Soviet Union, and using the city of Baltimore as a laboratory for illustrating the contradictions of poverty in the midst of plenty. He also conducted courses for immigrant workers, tried in vain to start a Labor College at Johns Hopkins, and taught first at the Bryn Mawr Summer School and then at the Southern Summer School for Women Workers.

Mitchell turned more sharply to the left as the Depression grew, and his 1931 investigation of two lynchings on Maryland's Eastern Shore earned him a reputation in the black community as one of the few sparks of liberalism at Johns Hopkins. In 1934, Mitchell ran for governor of Maryland on the Socialist party ticket against the Democratic incumbent who had failed to punish the protagonists in the Eastern Shore lynchings. Mitchell captured 7,000 votes, twice as many as Maryland Socialists had ever won before.

By 1938, Mitchell's advocacy of socialism and racial justice had alienated some of his senior colleagues and won him the enmity of the Johns Hopkins administration. In 1939, after fights with the administration over academic freedom and the admission of a black social worker to the graduate program in political economy, Mitchell resigned.

In 1935, three years before his troubles at Johns Hopkins came to a head, Mitchell's wife, Adelaide Hammond, whom he had married in 1923 and with whom he had two children - Sidney, who became a professor of English at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Va., and Barbara Sinclair, who married Stefan Grove - divorced him. A year later, he married Louise Pearson Blodget, an historian to whom he was devoted and with whom he collaborated on a number of his later works. Broadus and Louise also had two children, Theodora and Christopher. In 1939, the Mitchells went to California, where Broadus taught at Occidental College. When he opposed U.S. intervention in World War II and took public stands on other controversial issues, Occidental's president refused to renew his contract. After two years at Occidental, the Mitchells found themselves back on the east coast with no means of support. After holding several temporary jobs, Louise began teaching at Mills College of Education, and, in 1943, Broadus took over the position of research director for the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union. When the war ended, Mitchell moved on to the Economics Department at Rutgers, where he taught from 1947 until he was forced to retire at age 65 in 1958.

Mitchell joined the Economics Department at Hofstra in the fall of 1958 and accepted the challenge of teaching in the University's experimental New College. There, he moderated a 1959 forum on communism. He also managed to bring onto the faculty a kindred spirit named Dorothy Douglas, an economist who had resigned from Smith when she became a target of red-baiting. When he was awarded an honorary degree and asked to deliver the commencement address in 1967, he took the opportunity to speak out against the war in Vietnam.

In 1967, at the age of 75, Broadus Mitchell retired once more. He spent the last years of his life in New York and on his beloved farm in Wendell, Mass.

Always an activist, Mitchell was above all an independent and dedicated scholar. All told, he wrote 17 books, counting those he co-authored, and numerous articles. During the 1920s, he wrote Frederick Law Olmstead, A Critic of the Old South (1924), which served as a vehicle for his own critique of the Lost Cause, and William Greed, Factory Master of the Old South (1928). With brother George Sinclair Mitchell, he published The Industrial Revolution in the South (1930). He was recognized as an expert on the life of Alexander Hamilton, on whom he wrote extensively, publishing numerous articles and books, including Heritage from Hamilton (1957); Alexander Hamilton (1957, 1962); Alexander Hamilton: The Revolutionary Years (1970); and Alexander Hamilton: A Concise Biography (1976). He also wrote American Economic History (1947); Depression Decade (1947); Economics: Experience and Analysis (1950); A Biography of the Constitution of the United States (1964, 1975); Great Economists and Their Times (1966); Postcripts to Economic History (1967); The Industrial Revolution in the South (1969); The Road to Yorktown (1971); and The Price of Independence: A Realistic View of the American Revolution (1974). Some of these works were written in collaboration with Louise Pearson Mitchell.

From the guide to the Broadus Mitchell Papers, 1900-1982, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
referencedIn Papers, 1911-1999 Harvard Law School Library Langdell Hall Cambridge, MA 02138
creatorOf Mitchell, Broadus, 1892-1988. [Broadus Mitchell collection, 1928-1929]. Johns Hopkins University, Sheridan Libraries and the Milton S. Eisenhower Library
creatorOf Mitchell, Broadus, 1892-1988. Broadus Mitchell collection, 1926-1975. Hofstra University Library, Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library
referencedIn Samuel Chiles Mitchell Papers (#1003), 1861-1948 and undated University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection
creatorOf Mitchell, Broadus, 1892-1988. Broadus Mitchell papers, 1900-1982. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
referencedIn Driver, Cecil Herbert, 1900-1958. Cecil Herbert Driver papers, 1807-1948 (inclusive). Yale University Library
creatorOf Mitchell, Broadus, 1892-1988. Letter, 1986 Apr. 11, Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., [to] Margaretta [P. Childs, Charleston, S.C.]. University of South Carolina, System Library Service, University Libraries
referencedIn Stringfellow Barr letters to Broadus Mitchell, 1952, 1954 New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division
referencedIn Earl Browder Papers, 1879-1990 Syracuse University. Library. Special Collections Research Center
referencedIn Herbert Aptheker Papers, 1842-1999, (bulk 1934-1994) Stanford University. Department of Special Collections and University Archives
creatorOf Broadus Mitchell Papers, 1900-1982 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection
referencedIn Douglass Adair letter to Broadus Mitchell, 1954 New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division
referencedIn Cecil Herbert Driver papers, 1807-1948 Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
creatorOf Papers, 1926-1975. New York State Historical Documents Inventory
referencedIn Lewis Graham Hines Papers, 1916-1959, (bulk 1939-1956) Library of Congress. Manuscript Division
creatorOf Bakeless, John, 1894-1978. Typescripts collection, ca. 1930s- New York Public Library System, NYPL
referencedIn Anderson, Sherwood, 1876-1941. Sherwood Anderson postcard, 1934. Johns Hopkins University, Sheridan Libraries and the Milton S. Eisenhower Library
creatorOf Mitchell, Broadus, 1892-1988. "Town Meeting of the Air" broadcasts in Madison [sound recording], 1954. Wisconsin Historical Society, Newspaper Project
creatorOf Mitchell, Broadus, 1892-1988. Reminiscences of Broadus Mitchell : oral history, 1972. Columbia University in the City of New York, Columbia University Libraries
referencedIn Guide to the Norman Thomas Papers, 1925-1969 Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Role Title Holding Repository
Relation Name
associatedWith Adair, Douglass person
associatedWith American Civil Liberties Union. corporateBody
associatedWith Anderson, Sherwood, 1876-1941. person
associatedWith Aptheker, Herbert person
associatedWith Barr, Stringfellow, 1897-1982 person
correspondedWith Broadus, Mitchel, 1892- person
associatedWith Browder, Earl, 1891-1973 person
correspondedWith Childs, Margaretta P. person
associatedWith Driver, Cecil Herbert, 1900-1958. person
associatedWith Gregg, William, 1800-1867. person
associatedWith Hamilton, Alexander, 1757-1804. person
correspondedWith Hines, Lewis Graham, 1888-1960. person
correspondedWith Hiss, Alger, 1904-1996 person
associatedWith Hofstra University corporateBody
associatedWith Hofstra University. New College. corporateBody
associatedWith Johns Hopkins University corporateBody
associatedWith Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956. person
associatedWith Mitchell family. family
associatedWith Mitchell, H. L. (Harry Leland), 1906-1989. person
associatedWith Mitchell, Louise Pearson, 1906-1986. person
associatedWith Mitchell, Morris R. (Morris Randolph), 1895-1976. person
associatedWith Mitchell, Samuel Chiles, 1864-1948 person
associatedWith Murad, Anatol, 1904- person
associatedWith Oldknow, Samuel, 1756-1828. person
associatedWith Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945. person
associatedWith Rutgers University corporateBody
associatedWith Singal, Daniel Joseph, 1944- person
associatedWith Socialist Party (U.S.) corporateBody
associatedWith Solo, Robert A. person
associatedWith Syrett, Harold Coffin, 1913- person
associatedWith Thomas, Norman, 1884-1968. person
associatedWith Turgeon, Lynn, 1920-1999. person
Place Name Admin Code Country
Maryland
Southern States
UnitedStates
Confederate States of America
Salisbury (Md.)
United States
United States
Maryland
United States
Maryland
Subject
Academic freedom
African Americans
African Americans
Authors, American
Civil rights workers
College integration
College teachers
Cotton textiles
Economic history
Economics
Economists
Economists
Governor
Lynching
Sharecroppers
Occupation
Economists
Activity

Person

Birth 1892-12-27

Death 1988-04-28

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