J. Milton Yinger Papers

Collection

Identifier: RG 30-188

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The papers (1937-2003) of J. Milton Yinger provide minor information about their subject's personal life, but document fairly well Yinger's intellectual range as a social scientist. For example, a strength of this collection resides in its documentation of Yinger's research in educational sociology carried out under a grant from the U.S. Office of Education from 1965 to 1969. Copius amounts of correspondence also outline Yinger’s myriad of professional involvements, including visiting professorships and contacts with various religious, sociological, and political groups.

The collection is divided into fifteen series groups: I. Awards and Honors ; II. Biographical and Files Relating to the Yinger Family; III. Correspondence; IV. Committee Files; V. Day Planners; VI. Instructional Files; VII. Newspaper Clippings; VIII. Office of Education Cooperative Research Program (Middle Start); IX. Professional Conferences and Travel Files; X. Special Educational Opportunities Program Administrative Files; XI. Student Exchange Program With Black Colleges; XII. Student Papers; XIII. Talks and Lectures; XIV. Topical Files; and XV. Writings.

The most voluminous series in the collection is the correspondence series (Series III), which is broken down into five subseries; professional letters, personal letters, student/alumni letters, mixed letters, and correspondence relating to J. Milton Yinger’s published writings. Significant names appear in the professional correspondence subseries, including George Eaton Simpson, Robert Bellah, Al McQueen, and Robert Longworth. Yinger’s collection of personal correspondence in the second subseries includes an ongoing exchange with the Selective Service Board pertaining to Yinger’s Conscientious Objector status during W.W.II. Subseries IV, which represents a mixed professional, personal, and miscellaneous alphabetical file, was added with accession 1998/088 expanded upon with further accessions. More letters of George Simpson can be found here, as well as selections to and from Marc Bernstein, Steve Cutler, Joe and Joanne Elder, Amitai Etzioni, Gary Marx, Robert Merton and Harriet Zuckerman, George Simpson, Gerhard (“Jerry”) Lenski, and Robin Williams, Jr. For further information regarding George E. Simpson, see RG 30/64.

The second largest grouping in this collection is the writings series (Series XV), which contains many of the articles and book reviews written by John Milton Yinger throughout his professional career (1940s-2003). The writings series also contains proofs and penultimate drafts of two of Mr. Yinger’s books: Middle Start: An Experiment in the Educational Enrichment of Young Adolescence (Cambridge University Press, 1977) and Countercultures: The Promise and the Peril of a World Turned Upside Down (Free Press/Collier MacMillian Publisher, 1982).

The Middle Start book was born out of a research experiment for which Yinger was the principle investigator; the research and administrative materials for this study can be found in Series VIII. Office of Education Cooperative Research Program (Middle Start). The files document all phases of the project over a six-year period (1964-70), including grant application preparation, interim reporting to the federal government, training of research assistants, and data collection and analysis.

The records of Series XI, Student Exchange Program with Black Colleges, document Yinger's ongoing interest in promoting strong race relations. The files relate to the student exchange program initiated in 1946 between Oberlin and Hampton Institute and extended to include Tallageda College in 1951, Fiske University in 1950, Spelman College in 1958, and Tougaloo College in 1963. The correspondence (1946-65) from both Yinger and Chairman of the Sociology and Anthropology Department, George E. Simpson (d. 1998), to colleagues in the South concerns student recruitment for the programs. Student reports offer first-hand accounts of the experience of studying at black colleges.

Series XIII documents J. Milton Yinger’s vast public speaking career. The files hold many of the hundreds of talks, lectures, and public speeches delivered by the sociologist before various Oberlin College and outside university audiences, as well as those linked to several professional organizations like the American Sociological Association (ASA), and the NAACP.

Materials in Series X relating to the administration of the Special Educational Opportunities Program are scant. Included are an incomplete series of minutes, newspaper clippings, and select issues of the S.E.O.P. newsletters (1965-66). For supplemental materials, the researcher is advised to consult the Papers of Ira S. Steinberg, 30/111 and the Committee Files in record group 33.

Dates

Creation: 1937-2003, undated
Other: Date acquired: 07/23/1987

Conditions Governing Access

Series III, Subseries 3 Student Recommendations and Series VI, Subseries 3 Grade Books are restricted.

Conditions Governing Access

Gradebooks in Series VI, Subseries 3 are restricted. Letters of recommendation in Series III, Subseries 3 are also restricted.

Biographical Sketch

John Milton Yinger, a member of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Oberlin College from 1947 to 1987, was born in Quincy, Michigan on July 25, 1916 to George Daniel (1875-1934) and Emma May Bancroft Yinger (1875-1960), both Methodist ministers. His mother was among the first women to be ordained in the Methodist church. He had five brothers and two sisters. He received his B.A. degree from DePauw University in 1937, his M.A. degree from Louisiana State University in 1939, and his Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1943. On July 20, 1941, he married Winnie G. McHenry (1919-2002). This union produced three children: Susan (b. 1945), John (b. 1947), and Nancy (b. 1952).

From 1941 to 1947, Yinger taught sociology at Ohio Wesleyan University. In 1947, he was appointed Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Oberlin College, rising to the rank of Professor in 1952. At Oberlin he taught specialty courses in “Race Relations,” “Society, Culture and Personality,” “Sociology of Religion,” “Methods of Research,” and others. He served as department chairman from 1969 to 1975. In 1971, Yinger was elected Secretary of the American Sociological Association and A.S.A. President in 1976. His numerous academic honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation (1968-69), the National Endowment for the Humanities (1976-77), and the East-West Center, Honolulu (1968-69). In 1976, he was a visiting fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge University where he worked on British materials. Prior to his retirement in 1987, Yinger was elected to honorary membership in Phi Beta Kappa. Also, he received honorary degrees from DePauw, 1982 and Syracuse, 1996.

Yinger's scholarly achievements are broad and significant. His research and publications range over several disciplines, including the sociology of religion, race relations, and educational sociology. His book Religion, Society, and the Individual (Macmillan, 1957) was translated into Italian in 1961, French in 1964, and Spanish in 1968. Other translations include A Minority Group in American Society (McGraw-Hill, 1968) into Spanish, Orissa, and Portuguese; The Scientific Study of Religion (Macmillan, 1970) into Japanese in 1990; and, Countercultures (Free Press, 19820) into Chinese in 1995. Yinger and his Oberlin colleague George E. Simpson (d. 1998) co-authored Racial and Cultural Minorities: An Analysis of Prejudice and Discrimination (Harper Brothers, 1953), a modern classic now in its fifth edition. In 1958, Yinger and Simpson received the Anisfield-Wolf Award for the best scholarly work on race relations. The Oberlin authors shared the award with Martin Luther King, Jr.

He also served as the associate editor or consulting editor of scholarly journals, such as The Journal of Conflict Resolution, 1964-70, and The American Sociologist, 1987-91.

Professor Yinger and his wife, Winnie, traveled to Japan (1969), China (1979) and the Soviet Union (1988).

Five years of research among disadvantaged adolescents attending the Special Educational Opportunities Program at Oberlin College culminated in the publication of Middle Start: An Experimental Study of Educational Enrichment in Early Adolescence (Cambridge University Press, 1977), a joint study with Oberlin faculty Kiyoshi Ikeda, Frank Laycock, and Stephen Cutler. Yinger served on the Editorial Board of three professional journals: The American Sociological Review, Social Problems, and the Journal of Conflict Resolution.

As Emeritus Professor, Yinger continued to lend his insight and expertise to Oberlin College, serving on the Dean's Research Group on Black Student Progress (1986-87) and on the Archives Advisory Committee (1989-95). He co-authored in 1987 The Costs of Housing Discrimination and Segregation: An Interdisciplinary Social Science Statement, a landmark report about how racial ghettos became a structural feature of American urban society. In 1994 he authored Ethnicity: Source of Strength? Source of Conflict? During the 1996 Commencement–Reunion Weekend, he presented a talk entitled "Along Many Paths—To a Common Destination" to the Friends of the Oberlin College Library. A number of other articles were published over the years 1999 to 2003.

In December 1993 Emeritus Professor Yinger and his wife Winnie moved to the Kendal Community in Oberlin. In retirement, in addition to his scholarly pursuits, Yinger enjoyed playing tennis, bridge, and listening to classical and religious music. Mrs. Winnie McHenry Yinger died on December 22, 2002. J. Milton Yinger died on July 28, 2011.

SOURCES CONSULTED

Oberlin College Archives. Record Group 28/3. Faculty/Staff file. John Milton Yinger.

Editorial comments and suggestions provided by Emeritus Professor John Milton Yinger.

“Emeritus Sociology Professor J. Milton Yinger, 1916-2011,” The Source, Oberlin College Office of Communications, 1 August 2011. Accessed 15 April 2013.

Note written by Valerie S. Komor.

Extent

17.65 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Method of Acquisition

The papers of J. Milton Yinger were received by the Oberlin College Archives under deed of gift from Professor Yinger. There have been twelve separate accessions: four in 1987, two in 1990, three in 1997, one in 1998, one in 2002, and one in July of 2007 which was received from J. Milton Yinger’s daughter, Susan Johnson Yinger.

Accruals and Additions

Accession Nos: 1987/062, 1987/065, 1987/068, 1987/072, 1990/072, 1996/080, 1997/038, 1997/055, 1997/056, 1998/088, 1998/141, 2002/043, 2007/044.

Related Materials

For additional records of the S.E.O.P., consult the papers of Professor of Education, Ira S. Steinberg, 30/111. Records relating to Yinger's service on the Mead-Swing Committee are housed in record group 33/1, Committees. The Library of Congress holds the records of Yinger's tenure as President of the American Sociological Association. As mentioned earlier, further information on George Eaton Simpson can be found in record group 30/64.