[AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY & LITERATURE]

Institute of the Black World: Statement of Purpose and Program

Atlanta: The Institute of the Black World, 1969. First Edition. Slim quarto (28cm); printed sheets (rectos), side-stapled into beige pictorial card covers; [9]pp. Tiny spot to lower front cover, touch of dust-soil to rear cover; contents clean; Near Fine.

Innaugural program and ten-point platform of the Institute of the Black World (IBW), an African American think tank established in the Fall of 1969. Their introduction describes the Institute as "a community of black scholars, artists, teachers and organizers who are coming together in Atlanta under the aegis of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Center...a gathering of black intellectuals who are convinced that the gifts of their minds are meant to be fully used in the service of the black community. It is therefore an experiment with scholarship in the context of struggle" (p.1). Their governing board included Walter F. Anderson, Margaret Walker, C.T. Vivian, Hosea Williams, Charles White, Pearl Primus, Katherine Dunham, Horace Mann Bond, and others.

The Institute's ten-point program sets forth their agenda: defining and refining the field loosely called "Black Studies," the development of a new consortium for Black Education, the encouragement of academic research in the experiences of people of African descent, the encouragement of black artists, the development of materials and methods for teaching black children, the development of a Black Policy Studies Center, the establishment of creative links with their counterparts in other areas of the Black World, the preparation of a cadre of men and women trained in the scholarship of the Black Experience, the sponsorship of short-term seminars and workshops, and the development of a publishing program. The IBW disolved in 1983. A scarce publication; OCLC notes 6 holdings (NYPL, UC Davis, Wayne State, Swarthmore, Temple, Michigan State). 88693.

Price: $500.00

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