Henry P. Fairchild

Biographical Information

Henry P. Fairchild was born August 18, 1880 and died in 1956. "Fairchild was a Professor of Sociology at Yale University from 1910-12. He taught the Science of Society from 1912-18. In 1918 Fairchild became the Associate Director of the personnel department at War Camp Community Service. He served in that role for a year, until he took up a position as the New York University Director of Bureau of Community Service and Research from 1919-1924. Fairchild stayed at New York as a Professor of Sociology from 1924-1951, later serving as the Chairman of the Sociology graduate school department from 1938-1945.

"Outside the classroom, Fairchild was enthusiastically involved in a number of groups and organizations. In 1923 he served on the National Research Council and as a special investigator on immigration for the Department of Labor. Fairchild was the first President of the Population Association of America, a position he held from 1921-1925. From 1934-1940, he served as the Town Hall Club President. One of Fairchild’s most famous contributions was the development of the Planned Parenthood of America Federation, called the Birth Control Federation of America until 1942. There he served on the Board of Directors in 1932 and later the Vice President from 1939-1948. Fairchild was also an active member of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship Club.

"Fairchild was largely Marxist in thought. He published a variety of works, many controversial during the time and even today. Some of these include: Immigration (1913), The Melting Pot Mistake (1926), The Alien in Our Midst (1930), General Sociology (1934), Birth Control Review (1939), People: The Quantity and Quality of Population (1939), Economics for the Millions (1940), and Race and Nationality as Factors in American Life (1947). He also gave a well-known speech, “Race Building in a Democracy”, to the Birth Control Federation of America (BCFA) and the National Committee on Planned Parenthood during their annual meeting in 1940.

"Fairchild served as the 26th President of the American Sociological Society in 1936. His Presidential Address "Business as an Institution" was delivered at the organization's annual meeting in Chicago in December 1936."