Winner, Outstanding Publication Award, American Educational Research Association
Etched into America's consciousness is the United Negro College Fund's phrase "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." This book tells the story of the organization's efforts on behalf of black colleges against the backdrop of the cold war and the civil rights movement.
Founded during the post–World War II period as a successor to white philanthropic efforts, the UNCF nevertheless retained vestiges of outside control. In its early years, the organization was restrained in its critique of segregation and reluctant to lodge a challenge against institutional and cultural racism. Through cogent analysis of written and oral histories, archival documents, and the group's outreach and advertising campaigns, historian Marybeth Gasman examines the UNCF’s struggle to create an identity apart from white benefactors and to evolve into a vehicle for black empowerment.
The first history of the UNCF, Envisioning Black Colleges draws attention to the significance of black colleges in higher education and the role they played in Americans’ struggle for equality.
Marybeth Gasman is the Judy & Howard Berkowitz Professor of Education in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the coauthor of Educating a Diverse Nation: Lessons from Minority Serving Institutions and The Morehouse Mystique: Becoming a Doctor at the Nation's Newest African American Medical School.
Marybeth Gasman (PHILADELPHIA, PA)is the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Endowed Chair and a Distinguished University Professor at Rutgers University. She is the author of Doing the Right Thing: How Colleges and Universities Can Undo Systemic Racism in Faculty Hiring and the coauthor of Making Black Scientists: A Call to Action.
Table of Contents
Foreword, by John R. Thelin Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Black Colleges and the Origins of the United Negro College Fund 2. Bringing the Millionaires on Board 3. Flirting with Social Equality 4. A Stigma of Inferiority 5. Responding to the Black Consciousness Movement 6. Speaking Out on Behalf of Black Colleges 7. "A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste" Conclusion Appendixes A. Pittsburgh Courier Letter to Black College Presidents B. Member Colleges, 1944 to Present C. Executive Directors and Presidents, 1944 to Present D. National Campaign Chairmen, 1944 to 1979 E. Archives and Oral History Collections F. Oral History Interviews Notes Index
