From the influence of the Chicago School of sociology upon studies of black and white relations in England and Wales during and since the early 1940s, to the role of the Ford Foundation in funding research into inter-ethnic problems in Britain's cities during the 1950s and 1960s, the framework for British studies of urban race relations was primarily based upon American points of reference. This American contribution was benign, as was further evidenced in the relationship of urban research to race relations policy in Britain after 1965.