Gunnar Myrdal became the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe in 1947. During his tenure, he founded one of the leading centers of economic research and policy development. After ten years in the position, Dr. Myrdal resigned as Executive Secretary in 1957. In 1956 and 1957, he was able to publish "An International Economy, Problems and Prospects", "Rich Lands and Poor" and "Economic Theory and Underdeveloped Regions." Myrdal was also a signatory of the 1950 UNESCO statement "The Race Question", which rebuts the theories of racial supremacy and purity, and also influenced the "Brown v. Board of Education" decision. In 1956, Myrdal wrote the foreword for African American author Richard Wright's "The Color Curtain: A Report on the Bandung Conference".