Bureau for Intercultural Education (New York, New York) records

In January, 1934, Dr. Rachel DuBois, with the sponsorship of a number of Columbia University faculty members, founded the Service Bureau for Education in Human Relations, a “clearing house” agency designed to help teachers and school administrators in setting up programs in intercultural education. This agency sponsored intercultural programs in fifteen schools in the New York metropolitan area (1934-1935). In January of 1937, the Service Bureau was invited to become the “Commission on Intercultural Education” of the Progressive Education Association. This arrangement ended in September 1938, however, and the original organization was revived and renamed the Service Bureau for Intercultural Education.

During 1939-1940, the General Education Board, before deciding to make a commitment for financial support to the Bureau, conducted an evaluation of the activities of the Service Bureau. The report of the G.E.B. was critical of an approach to intergroup relations which emphasized the contributions of individual groups. The philosophic and programmatic differences which emerged at this time led to the resignation of Dr. DuBois and other members of the Board of Directors (1939-1941), and the dismissal of others not in agreement with the dominant point of view.

The Bureau for Intercultural Education (BIE) emerged out of a reorganization of the original Service Bureau accomplished during the period 1939-1941. During the next ten years, the Bureau for Intercultural Education assumed leadership over a number of influential programs in the field of intercultural education, including workshop training for teachers, scientific research in the emerging field of human relations and the establishment of field centers in such cities as Detroit, Gary, and Battle Creek. The Bureau’s major financial backers were the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League of B’Nai B’rith, and the Julius Rosenwalk Fund. The first director of the vamped Bureau was Stewart Cole, who served from 1940 to 1944. He was succeeded by H.H. Giles from 1944-1948, under whose direction made a major expansion of Bureau operations was carried out. From 1948 to 1954, a number of men assumed supervision of the organization, but a combination of factors led to a gradual reduction of the number and scope of Bureau activities. The decision to “suspend operations” was taken at the final meeting of the Bureau’s Executive Committee on June 9, 1954.