The silent force

Black Enterprise, April, 1995 by Joyce Jones

EACH TIME A PROPOSAL FROM the Republican Party's "Contract With America" comes for debate on Capitol Hill, Eddie N. Williams, president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, rallies his staff. A team of researchers quickly begins analyzing each proposal's potential effect on black America. A paper is then prepared. That was the scenario last December, when Williams and his staff unveiled a Joint Center report on the potential impact of the first Republican-controlled Congress in 40 years. Williams made his presentation at an emergency meeting of the Black Leadership Forum called soon after the November elections.

Since the Republicans now control Congress, Williams says, "We're going to have a slew of new public policies coming down the pike." Observers in the black community believe Republican policies may erode black social and economic gains. "African-Americans have to engage the Republicans with their own substantive proposals," William adds.

The Joint Center has aided that process for more than two decades. The center is reluctant to admit it, but its statistics, reports, publications and open dialogues have been so powerful, they have driven the national black political and public policy agendas for 25 years. This information has been the ammunition used by black politicians seeking to forward a national black agenda. This month, the Washington, D.C.-based think tank celebrates its silver anniversary and its tradition of influencing the decision-makers that make beneficial legislation possible.

Life without the Joint Center "would have been hell," says former Colorado Lieutenant Governor George Brown, when he recalled what it was like for black politicians in the early '70s. Now chairman of the Joint Center's board of governors. Brown says he belonged to a number of elected officials' organizations, "But they were white-oriented and unable to respond with what was needed to support the kinds of legislation [blacks] were seeking."

Today, blacks seek legislation that enhances their economic outlook. Although the Joint Center provides data to support such legislation, is that enough? Critics says the center should take a stan on the issues and provide political strategies to combat harmful policies. But should it really move in that direction? The social, economic and political future of black America rides on the answer.

THE EARLY YEARS

When it was established in 1970, the Joint Center was not a think tank. A group of black leaders that included Frank Reeves, then a Howard University Law School professor, helped persuade the Ford Foundation to launch the center with a two-year, $860,000 grant. It opened its doors in July 1970 as the Joint Center for Political Studies, its original name. Reeves served as the center's first president, and it was sponsored by Howard University and the Metropolitan Applied Research Center.

The center operated out of an eight-room office in a landmark building with a single creaky elevator in downtown Washington. The Joint Center's eight-person staff focused on providing hands-on training and technical assistance to black politicians. The need for this training and assistance was clear: Between 1965 and 1970, the number of U.S. black elected officials grew from about 300 to 1,469. "Power to the people" was becoming less of a slogan and more of a reality. The Joint Center helped these officials identify their constituents' needs and then directed them to resources.

Take the case of Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.). As mayor of Bolton, Miss., in 1974 he was struggling to provide his constituents with the basics. "We needed everything, including a fire truck," says Thompson. "Like most small rural communities, we couldn't afford one." The Joint Center learned that the federal government had surplus equipment left over from the Vietnam War, and Thompson soon had a fire truck. The mayor gained access to a number of government officials and funding sources, all through the Joint Center.

Reeves had been hired as the Joint Center's president primarily because of his resource connections. Current Joint Center Vice President Eleanor Farrar says, "Reeves was ideal for those first two years because he knew absolutely everybody." Before he resigned in 1972, Reeves' Washington insider connections established the center as a major resource among black politicians inside the beltway.

With Reeves' departure, the Joint Center's challenge was to become a nationally influential, nonpartisan research institution. Eddie Williams, the Joint Center's second and so far only other head, accepted that challenge in 1972.

BUILDING AN INSTITUTION

Getting Williams wasn't easy. At the time, Williams was vice president of public affairs at the University of Chicago. After numerous pleas from a persistent search committee, Williams recalls reconsidering: "Maybe there is something I have learned that could enhance the social, economic and political influence of African-Americans." He was right.

With Williams at the helm, the Joint Center benefited from the experience and skills he developed in the military, academia and government. A natural leader, Williams, 62, possesses the discipline of a soldier, the charm of a politician, the learnedness of a scholar and the communication skills of a journalist. Having served as a staff assistant on the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and as a foreign officer at the U.S. State Department, he was also familiar with the nuances of Washington politics.