{"value"=>"<p>Arranged chronologically, the substantive part of this series deals with Guinier's tenure as chairman of the Afro-American Studies Department at Harvard. Letters preceding that period relate to business and civic matters, especially Guinier's association with the Urban League in the 1960s. The correspondence throughout the series is general in character; more topical letters will be found throughout the collection. The correspondence for 1969 and 1970 consists mostly of congratulatory letters from former labor and business associates, former colleagues at Columbia University, and Harvard faculty and black studies professionals in general. Many incoming letters came from American and overseas graduate and undergraduate students inquiring about admission procedures and scholarship opportunities, and from educators and writers seeking an appointment in the department. Many such letters include dissertation outlines and research proposals. Student groups throughout the country wrote to Guinier seeking his assistance in establishing black studies programs at their schools. He also corresponded with black studies program directors and administrators on what many perceived as a backlash at many colleges and universities in the 1970s. Correspondents in the field included James Turner, Molefi Asante, John Henrik Clarke, Louis Lomax, C. L. R. James, Ronald Walters and Sterling Stuckey.</p> <p>An important part of the correspondence deals with the day to day operation of the department and with Guinier's various points of contention with the University. A January 1971 letter to Dean Dunlop evokes, in characteristic fashion, the broad Faculty Senate mandate which led to the creation of the department, the better to deplore the lack of institutional support in the present. The series also comprises administrative letters and memoranda to the staff of the department. The December 1971 file includes letters from over twenty chairmen of academic centers, departments and divisions within Harvard, in reply to an inquiry by Guinier on their operation and administration and on the matter of student representation on their executive committees. This file also includes letters to and from members of the Visiting Committee to Evaluate the Afro-American Studies Department and the Commission of Inquiry which investigated the unauthorized exclusion of whites from a lecture by Mrs. Shirley Graham DuBois sponsored by the department. Harvard correspondents include deans John Dunlop, Franklin Ford and Henry Rosovsky of the Faculty of Art and Sciences, President Derek Bok, financial officers, deans of other schools and Harvard houses, and Walter Leonard, a special assistant to president Bok for affirmative action and minority affairs.</p> <p>The correspondence between 1976 and 1988 is very sparse and comprises few outgoing letters. Included within this period are letters from Louise Patterson, secretary of the William Patterson Foundation, and correspondence with attachments relating to a gift of books from Guinier's library to the University of Senegal. The latter group includes a letter from President Leopold Sedar Senghor (June 1984). A separate group of letters and research notes by Waring Cuney is located at the end of the series. Occasional correspondents include George Murphy, publisher of the <em render=\"underline\">Afro-American</em> newspaper; Adelaide Hill of Boston University; Irene Diggs, a personal friend and former associate of W. E. B. DuBois; Rosa Guy, an African-American writer, Mabel Smythe, the Jimmy Carter administration's Commissioner on Civil Rights; and John O. Killens, Marguerite Cartwright, John Henrik Clarke, Bernice Reagon, Derrick Bell, Jacob Lawrence and Alvin Poussaint. Guinier also wrote letters of recommendation on behalf of former students and employees, colleagues and friends, and junior black studies instructors. These letters are arranged alphabetically are restricted until 2041.</p>"}