"We Humans"

United Steelworkers of America

The Civil Rights Committee of the United Steelworkers (USW), established in 1948, organized seminars where leaders in labor, education, religion, and the social sciences debated how to mitigate prejudice in the workplace and in society.

Carnegie Museum curator James Swauger was invited to a USW "Seminar on Human Relations" in 1951. He brought museum artifacts made by diverse cultural groups and — presenting them without identifying information — challenged participants to racially label or judge them. That collaboration eventually created the opportunity for "We Humans."

UNESCO Statements on Race

In December 1949, a group of academics (mostly anthropologists) gathered in Paris to draft the first UNESCO Statement on Race of 1950, aiming to eliminate racial prejudice through knowledge. Ideas about race in anthropology were slowly shifting away from harmful comparisons between groups, even as many scholars still relied on now-discredited techniques like skull measuring to categorize people. The UNESCO Statement, and later "We Humans," reflect this moment of transition.

The UNESCO Statement called racism out as a dangerous social myth not supported by science. It defined "races" as groups of humans who through geographic isolation and natural selection came to show distinct, but variable, physical traits. Nevertheless, it still named three main racial groups as known to science (none of which are recognized as accurate today): Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and Negroid.

The UNESCO Statement thus combined messages about human equality that were progressive, and actually controversial at the time, alongside ideas that are now considered out of date and offensive. A few years later, "We Humans" repeated these same tensions.

The United Steelworkers of America

"We Humans" was touched off by the labor union The United Steelworkers of America and events being organized by their Civil Rights Committee. That committee was formed as a result of Black worker-led organizing to advocate for better and safer opportunities for Black workers in industry. When the Committee was formed, none of those workers were placed in positions of leadership. Instead, the leadership consisted entirely of white men, including secretary Francis Shane who initiated the collaboration with James Swauger and Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Over time, Shane\u2019s emphasis on seminars and public education and efforts like "We Humans" became increasingly frustrating to Black workers who felt that the Civil Rights Committee had proved ineffectual at securing their safety and advancement.

The City of Pittsburgh

Mayor David L. Lawrence\u2019s \u201CCivic Unity Council\u201D was a key partner in the development of "We Humans," and was the entity that contracted with the Carnegie Museum to co-produce and host the initial exhibit. The Mayor\u2019s Council was officially tasked with promoting positive relations between racial, religious and other groups, and its activities included reports on housing and investigations into police brutality.

In 1955, the same year that Lawrence\u2019s administration presented a message of racial and social unity with "We Humans," it approved actions that had disproportionate negative impacts on Black and other minority citizens. As part of his signature urban renewal plans, Lawrence allowed for the demolition of the Lower Hill District to make way for the Civic Arena (itself demolished in 2011). This resulted in the displacement of 8,000 residents, including 1,239 Black families.

Pittsburgh Public Schools

Students hearing the messages of "We Humans" in their social studies classes had to reconcile them with their lives in a multi-racial, but in many contexts segregated, city where they would have encountered or witnessed forms of racism daily. They were also likely aware of the galvanizing events in the history of civil rights and race relations in the U.S. that were happening in the same years, including: the lynching of Emmett Till (August 1955), the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955\u20131956), and the ongoing events and debates that surrounded the desegregation of schools after the Supreme Court decision striking down legal segregation in Brown v. Board of Education (1954).

Scholar and author Ralph Proctor, Jr. (1938\u20132024) was born and raised in Pittsburgh\u2019s Hill District and attended Schenley High School in the same years that "We Humans" was taught there. In Proctor\u2019s experience, Schenley was a school where he and other Black students faced rampant discrimination by teachers and administrators. Later, he earned his doctorate at University of Pittsburgh where he wrote a dissertation on racial discrimination against Black teachers and professionals in Pittsburgh Public Schools. In it, he cited statistics showing that in the years that he attended Schenley, while the Black student population increased, the white student population decreased, and there were few Black teachers.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the following individuals for their support in the development of this project:

Gretchen Baker, Jenise Brown, Marie Corrado, Amy Covell-Murthy, Sarah Crawford, Sydney Dominick, Christopher Fleisher, Kristina Gaugler, Laurie Giarratani, Ron Idoko, Morgan Riggenbach, Keirstin Rotharmel, Ellen Sanin, Rachel Thomas-Beckel, Breann Thompson, Annick Vuissoz, Amy Whipple, Ginger White, Gina Winstead.

Sources consulted and recommended

Archives:

Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Section of Anthropology Archives.

Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Library & Archives.

Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh Public Schools Records.

University of Pittsburgh Library System Archives & Special Collections, Francis C. Shane Papers, 1942–1969.

Books & articles:

Anthony Hazard, Postwar Anti-racism (Palgrave, 2012).

James B. Stewart, "Civil Rights and Organized Labor" (2005).

Tracy Teslow, Constructing Race (Cambridge, 2014).

Joe W. Trotter Jr. & Jared N. Day, Race and Renaissance (Pittsburgh, 2010).