History Bump

The College Language Association (CLA) was "established in 1937 as the Association of Teachers of English in Negro Colleges. In 1940, in order to admit foreign language teachers, the name was changed to the Association of Teachers of Language in Negro Colleges. The group assumed its present name, to include members from predominately white institutions, in 1949. Because African Americans were barred from full participation in professional organizations like the NCTE and MLA, organizers of the CLA provided an important outlet for discussions about the teaching and assessment of writing" (630-631). In the 1960s, African American rhetoricians began to participate in CCCC and NCTE (635). In 1970 they pushed for a Black Caucus (636). Gilyard, Keith. "African American Contributions to Composition Studies." College Composition and Communication 50.4 (June 1999): 626-644.

And from my notes on Steve Parks' book:

In 1972, two resolutions proposed by the College Language Association Black Caucus passed (169), calling for "the larger publishing and academic communities to respect the historical role of the black college and black faculty" (170). Wallace Douglass went a step beyond these fairly innocuous resolutions and called upon CCCC to endorse Brown v. Board of Education and the completion of the task of integrating schools (170-171). . . . "Douglass was asking the CCCC to stand against the emerging conservative New Right forces taking control of the political debate in the United States" (171). The motion, which was "more in the spirit of the NUC than the emerging SRTOL" because it called for political engagement, passed by a vote of 83 to 12" (173). Parks, Stephen. Class Politics: The Movement for the Students' Right to Their Own Language. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 2000.

The SU library has, I believe, a complete run of the CLA journal.