Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
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| Formation | April 1970 |
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The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies ("Joint Center"), headquartered in Washington, DC in the United States, is a national nonprofit American research and public policy institution or think tank. Founded in 1970 to provide training and technical assistance to newly elected black officials, the Joint Center now explores a range of public policy issues of concern to African-Americans, AAPIs, Latinos, and Native Americans.
According to its mission statement, the Joint Center, through research, policy roundtables, and publications, produces innovative, high-impact ideas, research, and policy solutions that have a positive impact on people and communities of color.
During the Civil Rights Movement, more and more blacks were being elected to public office. Many of these new black elected officials, or "BEOs", knew little about the ropes of their new jobs, such as political networking or even day-to-day administration. What's more, they couldn't count on help from their more experienced and better-connected white colleagues.
At two national conferences -- Chicago in 1967 and Washington DC in 1969—BEOs expressed a need for a new organization, one that would provide new BEOs training and assistance that would give them a foothold in the mainstream American political process. In April 1970 The Joint Center for Political Studies (its original name) was begun with a two-year $860,000 grant from Ford Foundation. Howard University law professor Frank Reeves served as the center’s first executive director. The first board chairman was Louis (“Louie”) Martin, a newspaper editor who would later serve in the Jimmy Carter administration.
In July 1972, Eddie N. Williams, director of the University of Chicago's Center for Policy Study, became the Joint Center's new president. Williams' varied background—he was a former journalist and staff assistant in both the U.S. Senate U.S. Department of State—positioned him to forge the center into a full-fledged think tank, one that would "identify public policy issues that have implications for [black Americans] ... to be both a center for intellectual discovery and a wellspring of practical knowledge."
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