 While teaching at Fisk University in 1946/1947 she researched the Negro in the United States and in Africa and was managing editor of the University's and the American Council on Race Relations' monthly summary of "Race Relations" in America.In 1947–1949 she joined Dr. Ruth Bunzel in establishing the China group of Columbia's Research in Contemporary Cultures to study immigrant Chinese culture, primarily in New York City, from 1947 into 1949, working with migrants from the same community from China's Kwantung Provincial village, Toi Shan.She undertook life histories, community self-analysis, and projective tests, then proposed an extended field project in the Toi Shan community to understand the interdependency in social and economic relations between migrants and their kinsmen at home.