The Program, founded in 1984, is named in honor of the pioneering historian who authored History of Bigotry in the United States, NY: Random House, in 1943.

Dr. Myers began this research in 1925. He attempted to gain the support of religious and non-sectarian leaders to support the research, the book, and open opposition to bigotry. He succeeded in the last years of his research in gaining support from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Dr. Myers undertook his historical analysis in a time period when bigotry was popularly believed to be an occasional event. As Myers wrote in his introduction, p. ix:

When this book was originally planned and for some years later, no doubt many opposed to bigotry looked upon it as spasmodic, having its occasional flashes and then seeming to subside, and in nowise significant or affrighting. But this sanguine attitude has been shattered by fearfully tragic events in great parts of Europe and elsewhere, with repercussions here..."

Unhappily bigotry remains constant, its victims varying from time to time, but in essence continuing the same....[I]intermissions are only deceptive." (p. x)