born May 24, 1884, near Bethlehem, Ga., U.S.
died Nov. 8, 1954, Chapel Hill, N.C.
U.S. sociologist.
In 1920 Odum joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina, where he established its departments of sociology and public welfare and founded the journal Social Forces (1922). His scholarly focus was folk sociology, particularly of Southern blacks, for whom he urged equal opportunity. His books include Southern Regions of the United States (1936) and American Regionalism (1938, with Harry Moore).