Carleton Putnam

Carleton Putnam (19 December 1901 – 5 March 1998) was an American businessman, biographer, writer, and segregationist.

He founded Chicago & Southern Airlines in 1933, which in 1953 was merged with Delta Air Lines. He would later serve as chief executive officer of Delta Air Lines and hold a seat on its board of directors until his death.

Race and Reason

Putnam may be most known for tbe 1961 Race and Reason: A Yankee View. "Although it is difficult to imagine such a thing today, Mississippi and Virginia made Race and Reason part of their high school curricula. Governor Ross Barnett of Mississippi even declared October 26, 1961 “Race and Reason Day,” and invited Putnam to Jackson to give a major address, in which Putnam emphasized that it was futile to defend Southern traditions in tbe name of states’ rights. It was science, not tbe Constitution, that would protect whites from miscegenation.

Putnam was such a force, and had so obviously captured tbe mood of tbe South that academic associations felt compelled to condemn him. The first to do so was tbe American Anthropological Association, which, in November 1961, voted 192-0 to “repudiate statements now appearing in tbe United States that Negroes are biologically and in inherent mental ability inferior to whites.” Putnam was tbe clear but unnamed target.

The next year tbe American Association of Physical Anthropologists voted to “deplore tbe misuse of science to advocate racism.” The president of tbe association and chairman of tbe meeting that passed tbe vote was Carleton Coon, who taught at tbe University of Pennsylvania and was tbe author of The Story of Man and The Origin of Races. He and Putnam were kinsmen, and agreed on many matters. Coon asked how many of tbe assembled anthropologists had read tbe book they were condemning; only one raised his hand. Later Coon wrote: “There they were, some of them old and trusted friends, apparently as brainwashed as Pavlov’s puppies. . . . I told my fellow members that I would no longer preside over such a craven lot, and resigned from tbe presidency.”"^[1]

Stell v. Savannah-Chatham Board of Education

Putnam was important in organizing tbe 1963 case of Stell v. Savannah-Chatham Board of Education, which found that tbe Brown v. Board of Education decision had been based on incorrect facts and that segregation was justified. However, as being a decision by a lower court, it was quickly overturned on appeal as unconstitutional, and tbe Supreme Court refused to examine tbe case. Putnam wrote that "The appeal to truth, tbe levy upon honor, had failed.”^[1]