She felt the most productive part of the whole affair here had been the informal discussion off-campus. In these discussions, like the one at Elma Lewis' home in Roxbury on Thursday night, Ms. Sizemore said she learned the kind of things "that help me to better understand the kind of things that students and administrators have to deal with" as black people in a white educational system.

Unfortunately, none of the knowledge that was given of gained in these discussions is on the tape the Black Caucus is taking back to Washington.

However, given the way the whole forum was structured, it was impossible for it to have turned out any better for Barbara Sizemore or any of the black activist professionals attending the conclave. The kind of conference from which they might best profit, probably would have been held at Moorehouse in Atlanta and not at Harvard. It would have been sponsored by black institutions as well as, if not in place of, the three liberal dailies and the Institute of Politics, and would have included people like Buzz Palmer, Arthur Hill or Renault Robinson as well as people like James Ahern on its panel on Law and Justice.

However, there was a very good reason why the Black Caucus chose to have its national priorities forum here, and co-sponsored by prominent liberal newspapers. With the tacit support implicit in that sponsorship, the Ethnic Catering Service may be able to go to Miami with the best meal in town.

IV

IT was unavoidably symbolic. William L. Clay (D-Mo.) Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, opened the final press conference with a brief summation of why the Caucus had conducted its two-day forum on national priorities and why the group had chosen to hold it at Harvard in conjunction with three large liberal newspapers and the Institute of Politics.

"Without the support of the people who mold public opinion in this country, we're not going to be successful in solving the problems that exist for Black Americans," Clay said. "So with that in mind, that is why the Congressional Black Caucus decided number one on having this conference at Harvard--with all of the prestige that goes along with that. And that is why we decided to have as co-sponsors of this conference such distinguished newspapers as the Boston Globe, the Philadelphia Bulletin and the Chicago Sun-Times."

Camera clicks mixed with the sound of Clay's clean Missouri drawl. "That is also why we decided that we would come down on the mass communications media, and come down on them hard. And I think that anyone who has read the position of the Black Caucus," Clay continued, "as it relates to mass communications is aware--"

"--Excuse me. Wait one minute," interrupted a white woman standing in front of the bank of TV cameras at the rear of the crowd of reporters. "We've lost all sound in the audio media," she said.

Clay grinned and shook his head, knowingly, with an ironic void of surprise. "I knew when we started talking about the mass communications media..."

The crowd, composed of conference participants as well as newsmen, erupted in honest and somewhat bitter laughter. Like Clay, they were accustomed to being tuned out.

"I don't know any thing about that," Clay said. "I was just sitting in. I need a doctor."