July 13, 1952
The 27th annual session of the Vassar Summer Institute brought some 200 adults and 175 children to the campus for a month-long study of family and community living.
Eleanor Roosevelt was one of five speakers at a weekend conference in July sponsored by the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Led by the National Conference’s co-founder and president, Rev. Everett R. Clinchy, the gathering’s theme was “Intergroup Tensions: What Can Communities Do?”
Other speakers and discussion leaders included: Benjamin J. Buttenweiser, former United States Assistant High Commissioner in Germany; Dan W. Dodson, director of the Human Relations Center at New York University; R. Maurice Moss, associate executive director of the National Urban League and Max Birnbaum, educational director of the American Jewish Committee.
Dr. Mary Fisher Langmuir ‘20, the Institute’s director and chair of Vassar’s child study department, summarized the session’s discussions and conclusions in her closing lecture, “Peace in the Family.” Family peace, she said, was not the absence of conflicts or problems. “Instead,” she said, “peaceful, friendly and satisfying family life comes about when all members of the family accept problems as normal, learning to work together toward their solutions.”
The New York Times