August 20, 1969

Milfred C. Fierce, who held that “White Studies have taken several hundred years of trial and error, revision, adjustment and improvement, and…still could use a thorough ‘housecleaning,’” was named the first director of the Black Studies program. Under his leadership and through such innovations as the Urban Center in Poughkeepsie and the African Summer Study Trip he led in the summer of 1971, the program—ultimately the multidisciplinary African Studies Program—became a vital element in the Vassar curriculum.

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