Arthur Huff Fauset

Welcome to the publication, “Representations.” This is a project designed to bring the perspectives of a wider variety of groups to the forefront of the anthropology classroom. To celebrate Black History Month, we are covering the accomplishments of 28 Black anthropologists across 28 days. Learn more about our project, and read on for the amazing accomplishments of Arthur Huff Fauset.

Folklorist, Arthur Fauset, grew up biracial in the era of segregation and he rejected the dangerous stereotypes associated with biological determinism well before such a stance was established in academia (Carpenter 213). Fauset’s work integrated expertise in folklore, journalism, and community organizing which propelled him to a position of leadership throughout the Civil Rights Movement and earned him the legacy as a “campaigner for social justice (ibid 215).

It is no exaggeration to refer to Fauset as one of the earliest practitioners of applied anthropology (anthropology intended to solve society’s problems). As his colleague, Carole H. Carpenter, stated, “Fauset was not inclined to follow an established order, to support any bureaucracy or institution to the extent of marching forward according to its demands; he was much more driven to challenge a system in an effort to transform it to accord with this social vision” (ibid 221).

Throughout the Harlem Renaissance (the 1920s-1930s), Fauset was known to make “large contributions in bringing awareness to African American folklore through tales, songs, conundrums, and jokes. Faust was also known for letting Black voices speak for themselves, telling them the way that they were told to him rather than imposing his voice and theories on them (AAREG).” The practice of letting informants “speak for themselves” was not in vogue at the time but, today, is that standard that anthropologists-in-training are encouraged to employ.

Fauset’s great achievements in fieldwork caused his fellow anthropologists to take his work seriously and to appreciate his masterful writing on a higher level.

Fauset’s career took him to conduct meaningful field research in three distinct locations: Nova Scotia, the Carribean, and the American South. In each context, Fauset worked to conduct fieldwork outside of traditional standards. In 1923, he practiced participant observation among Black culture in Nova Scotia in order to collect and record examples of local folklore. At the time, undergraduate courses on Black culture were not yet established (Carpenter 222) leading Fauset to trailblaze this area of academic research.

Arthur Fauset’s life reflects the diversity of America and prepared him for a lifetime of meaningful cultural research. Fauset was born in 1899 in New Jersey and was raised in Philadelphia, he was the middle child of three siblings. He grew up in an interracial family; his father, Redmon Fauset, was a Black African minister while his wife, Bella, was Jewish. Both of Fauset’s parents placed a heavy value on education, more specifically his father believed that writing was an essential discipline while his mother believed in social integration. Unlike his father, Fauset found himself breaking away from religion as an adult, therefore identifying himself as a “free thinker.”

Fauset earned a B.A. in 1921 and an M.A. in 1924 from the University of Pennsylvania, and after teaching for years he decided to pursue advanced studies, earning a PhD. in 1942 from UPenn. As an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, he was published in the Crisis newspaper with his short story “The Tale of The North Carolina Woods’’ a piece aimed at reviving pride in Black culture; this work is considered to be part of the creative canon of the Harlem Renaissance (Carpenter 232). Fauset has explained that his constant pursuit of higher education was to feed his need for a developed intellect. In spite of facing systematic racism in higher education, Fauset taught throughout his lifetime.

Fauset is called an anthropologist, activist, educator, and folklorist. Throughout his life, Fauset traveled abroad across Europe and Egypt; he lived in Mexico where he picked up the Spanish language. Unfortunately, during the “era of McCarthyism and the HUAAC, his association with the NNC and with the United Peoples’ Action Committee (also considered radical for the time) led to him being expelled from the New York Public School system in 1960.” Rather than leaving education, Fauset took this as an opportunity to enact essential social change; Fauset responded to his community’s needs by founding a school for recently arrived Spanish-speaking immigrants arriving in the United States.

Among so many accomplishments, areas of expertise, and publications, Fauset left behind a powerful legacy that laid the groundwork for Black cultural studies, the study of folklore, and the practice of conducting unbiased anthropological research.

Bibliography

“Arthur Fauset, Folklorist Born.” African American Registry, 21 Sept. 2020, aaregistry.org/story/arthur-fauset-folklorist-born/.

“Arthur Fauset.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Dec. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Fauset.

Carpenter, Carole H. “Arthut Huff Fauset, Campaigner for Social Justice: A Symphony of Diversity.” African-American Pioneers in Anthropology, edited by Faye Venetia Harrison and Ira E. Harrison, University of Illinois Press, 1999, pp. 213–242.

University of Pennsylvania. “Arthur Huff Fauset Papers”, 1855–1983.

Edited by Amanda Zunner-Keating, Los Angeles City College District.