For Immediate Release December 2, 2004

For More Information Contact: Diane Brown, 317-274-7711 habrown@iupui.edu

New Group to Promote Study and Preservation of African American History

INDIANAPOLIS - Most Americans have a "very shallow" understanding of African American life and history, and invaluable pieces of Indianapolis ' black history have either been "lost" or "misrepresented" according to IUPUI history Professor Monroe Little.

With the establishment of a local branch of the national organization founded by the scholar considered "the Father of Black History," Little and others hope to change that.

About 20 people, most IUPUI faculty members, have organized an Indianapolis chapter of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). The group's initial organizational meeting was held in October.

Local ASALH members are committed to preserving the city's African American history and will take a pro-active role in controlling the destiny of the study of African American life and history in greater Indianapolis, Little said.

"This organization is going to make a difference not only in our local schools and colleges, but in the community-at-large," Little said. "It will set the agenda for the study of African American life and history in this city and in this county for the next 100 years."

The parent ASALH, founded in 1915 by Carter G. Woodson, is the nation's oldest organization dedicated to the systematic study and dissemination of knowledge about the African American experience. Several Midwest cities have chapters, including Chicago, Columbus, Ohio, and Dayton, Ohio.

Woodson, known as the Father of Black History, was the second black American to earn a doctorate in history from Harvard. Under his leadership the ASALH also organized the week-long celebration that has grown into what is now called Black History Month.

"The ASALH is notable for a number of firsts," Little said.

Besides sponsoring the first national observance of African American history in 1926, it established the first black-owned and operated academic publisher in the United States as well as the first scholarly journal by and about African Americans.

"This group has nearly a century of accomplishments in promoting African American history. I wanted to be affiliated with that tradition," said IUPUI Professor John McKivigan who has joined the local ASALH branch.

McKivigan is editor of the Frederick Douglass Papers project at IUPUI which is editing the works of the African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

Woodson was the first to collect and edit papers written by Douglass, publishing a collection of Douglass's letters in the tenth volume of the ASALH journal printed in 1925, the editor said.

When IUPUI initiated the Douglass Papers in 1973, the national ASALH's endorsement was instrumental in the procurement of federal grants for the editorial project housed in the IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI.

"Essentially these two (ASALH and the Douglass Papers) have been working hand in glove from the start," McKivigan said.

IUPUI will serve as the headquarters of the branch organization whose membership is also open to community members, as well as students and faculty from Butler , Ivy Tech, Marian and other area colleges and universities.

Plans call for the local branch to establish a student scholarship program, and participate in the National Visionary Leadership Project's "Legacy Initiative," an oral history project in which students interview African American community "elders." Completed interviews will be registered in a national online database.

The group will meet monthly. Annual general membership dues are $20 for students; $35 for those 65 and older; and $55 for others.

For questions about membership, interested individuals should call the African American studies office at IUPUI at (317) 274-0098. ###