The multifaceted story of the UNCF.
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.