In 1969, University administrators didn't think there were enough qualified Faculty members to establish a high-caliber department of Afro-American studies.

Even today, when the department is considered one of the best in the country, many of those administrators still think they were right.

"Many of the Black scholars that the Rosovsky committee talked with said they were skeptical about the value of forming a separate department to study African-American history," recalls former Dean of the Faculty Franklin L. Ford. "There were very few great Black scholars, out there who wanted to identify their race with their principal teaching responsibilities."

Administrators say there was an element of appeasement in the foundation of the department. In his 1991 book The University: An Owner's Manual, Rosovsky likened the process, by which Afro-Am became a department to an "academic Munich"--a reference to the 1938 conference where the allied diplomats tried to appease Hitler.

Rosovsky staunchly supported the conclusions of his committee, despite student protests. But on April 22, 1969, the Faculty voted to ignore the committee's recommendations and establish the department--"a truly unbelievable moment in Harvard's long history," Rosovsky says.

Ford and Rosovsky both cite the Afro-American Studies Department's unimpressive early history as proof that their initial suspicions about a lack of Black scholars were right.

Henry Louis Gates Jr., the current chair of the Afro-American Studies, says his department did not really begin to emerge as a leading academic entity until a few years ago.

"It used to be that everyone we asked to come here would say no," Gates says. "Now, everyone we ask says yes."

Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III says the problem was that Afro-Am was established to appease students.

"I think the issue broke down this way: did we want the highest academic standards or did we want Afro-Am supporters to feel that they were respected?"

"We chose to show respect for those students," Epps says, "but we didn't get back onto the right academic path until recently."

But while Afro-Am's poor record in its early years remains undisputed, there is some question as to whether the problems was a dearth of potential faculty or Harvard's lack of commitment to finding them.

Thomson Professor of Government Martin L. Kilson, who was the first Black to be tenured at Harvard and was a member of the Rosovsky committee, says that while he disagreed with the proposal for a full-scale department, the problems with Afro-Am had nothing to do with Black professors being unwilling to join.

"The fact that I would have said no had nothing to do with me being Black," Kilson says. "I don't think there was much problem there because most of the appointments we were offering were joint appointments between Afro-Am and another, more established department."

Black scholars did exist in the country in 1969--they just didn't want to come to Harvard, says former student activist Robert L. Hall '69.