Two Universities Help Preserve the History of the Congressional Black Caucus

The Congressional Black Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives was formed in 1971. Then, there were 13 members. Today, there are 43. Over the past 35 years, the Black Caucus has often been the lone voice in Washington for a vast majority of the nation’s African Americans.

Now the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation has established an online resource to preserve the history of the Black Caucus and the legislative efforts of America’s black representatives. The Avoice Virtual Library Project is funded with a grant from Dell Computer. The University of Texas at Austin is providing the technical architecture for the Web site and the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University, the official repository for the Black Caucus archives, is providing much of the content for the site.

The Black Caucus says the goal of the site is to document black legislative history “enabling African Americans to become more familiar with the political issues of the past as a basis for understanding the political and legislative reality they face today.” The site also hopes to inspire black youth to pursue a career in government based on the examples set by current and former caucus members.

To browse the new Congressional Black Caucus online library project, click here.

Copyright © 2006. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.