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Carleton Putnam (December 19, 1901 – March 5, 1998) was an American businessman, writer and advocate for
racial segregation Racial segregation is the separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, ...
. He graduated from
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
in 1924 and received a
Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...
(LL.B.) from
Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (CLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Columbia University, a Private university, private Ivy League university in New York City. The school was founded in 1858 as the Columbia College Law School. The un ...
in 1932. He founded Chicago & Southern Airlines in 1933 which, in 1953, merged with
Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, operating nine hubs, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being its ...
. Putnam later served as
chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...
of Delta Air Lines and held a seat on its board of directors until his death.


Life and career

Putnam was born to a prominent family from New England, his mother Louise Carleton Putnam, was the daughter of New York publishing magnate George W. Carleton. Paternally, he was a lineal descendant of
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...
general Israel Putnam. He was also related to the physical anthropologist Carleton Coon, with whom he corresponded closely regarding theories of anatomical and biological differences between human races. * He was raised as part of the American Episcopal Church and remained a lifelong member.


''Race and Reason''

Putnam's best known work is ''Race and Reason: A Yankee View'' (1961), a book critical of desegregation which originated in a letter he wrote to
Dwight Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...
protesting about the end of segregation in U.S. public schools. According to Putnam, the immediate impetus for his letter to Eisenhower was the
concurring opinion In law, a concurring opinion is in certain legal systems a written opinion by one or more judges of a court which agrees with the decision made by the Majority opinion, majority of the court, but states different (or additional) reasons as the bas ...
of Justice Frankfurter in '' Cooper v. Aaron'', 358 U.S. 1 (1958), which Putnam refers to as "the recent Little Rock case". Elsewhere in the book Putnam critiques ''
Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the ...
'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), calling for its reversal. Psychologist Henry Garrett wrote the introduction. In his review of the book for the American Bar Association Journal, Stuart B. Campbell wrote: Putnam hoped the book would educate the American people "in the principles upon which our republic was based and through which it grew to greatness. Neither equality nor integration were among them." After ''Race and Reason: A Yankee View'' was made required reading for high school students in
Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...
, the American Association of Physical Anthropologists (AAPA) passed a resolution condemning it. Louisiana-born
Neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
,
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...
leader and former politician David Duke has cited that reading ''Race and Reason'' in when he was a teenager in 1964 and taking in the assertions in the book led to what Duke called his "enlightenment", this book and what it purported convinced Duke that blacks were inferior to whites and that whites were superior to them in every way, leading to a racist worldview. Ultimately, it was Putnam's ''Race and Reason'' book that changed David Duke's life and led him to a lifetime of racism and by 1999, Duke was the most famous racist in the United States. Putnam also wrote a biographical book on
Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...
's youth that was praised by Edmund Morris, the author of the best known biography of that president. Putnam admired Roosevelt's belief that "Teutonic (and) English blood is the source of American greatness". Carleton Putnam died of
pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...
on March 5, 1998. He was survived by his wife, Esther Mackenzie Willcox Auchincloss, a daughter, three grandchildren, a stepdaughter, and three step-grandchildren. He was previously married to Lucy Chapman Putnam.


References


Works

* '' High Journey: A Decade in the Pilgrimage of an Air Line Pioneer'' (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1945.) * '' Theodore Roosevelt: A Biography. Volume One, The Formative Years, 1858-1886.'' (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958.) *
Race and Reason: A Yankee View
' (Washington D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1961.) * ''Framework for Love, A Study in Racial Realities: Address at the University of California at Davis with Subsequent Questions and Answers'' (Washington D.C.: National Putnam Letters Committee, 1964.) * '' Race and Reality: A Search for Solutions'' (Washington D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1967.)


Further reading

*


External links


Princeton Alumni Weekly Memorials: Carleton Putnam '24

Speech by Carleton Putnam, 26 October 1961
{{DEFAULTSORT:Putnam, Carleton 1901 births 1998 deaths 20th-century American biographers 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American male writers American airline chief executives American male non-fiction writers American political writers American segregationists Businesspeople from New York City People involved in race and intelligence controversies Proponents of scientific racism Writers from New York City Deaths from pneumonia in Virginia Columbia Law School alumni 20th-century American Episcopalians