The University of Arizona has accepted years of funding from a foundation infamous for promoting research linking race and intelligence — even after other universities and organizations, including white nationalist groups, stopped receiving support from the group, records show.
A University of Arizona psychology professor used some of the Pioneer Fund’s grant money to pay for recent travel to a conference in London that has included eugenics-themed presentations, according to documents The Associated Press obtained through a public records request. The eugenics movement has included theories about the controlled breeding of humans to “improve” the gene pool.
The Pioneer Fund was created by textile heir Wickliffe Draper in 1937 to — in the words of its original charter — advocate for “race betterment.” The organization has promoted eugenics and financially supported “race scientists” who maintain that blacks are intellectually and genetically inferior to whites.
The private, tax-exempt foundation in Maryland gave nearly $7.8 million to 48 organizations or individuals from 1998 to 2016, including nearly $3 million to at least 22 universities in the U.S. and abroad. But the University...