Research Catalog

Title

Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization records, 1966-1984.

Author

Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (U.S.)

Supplementary Content

Finding Aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Walker, Lucius, 1930-
• Douglas, Ann.
• Clement, Marilyn.

Description

41 linear feet

Summary

The records of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), 1966-1984, document the origin and development of the organization within the context of the social and religious turmoil of the late 1960s, a period which gave rise to Third World theological perspectives, and the radical critique of racism and materialism in American society. IFCO records consist of files for the various programs and projects IFCO developed to assist poor and disadvantaged peoples gain justice, self-determination and economic independence, primarily in the United States, and to a lesser extent, Africa. Included are hundreds of proposals submitted by community, educational, health care and other organizations to IFCO's Grant Making Program, which provide documentation of community empowerment organizations in the United States from the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s.

Donor/Sponsor

Schomburg NEH Archival Resources for the Study of the Post-Civil Rights Movements Project.

Subjects

• African Americans > Civil rights
• Black Economic Research Center
• Church work with Indians
• Church work with minorities
• Community organization > United States
• Westside Mothers (Organization : Detroit, Mich.)
• Church work with Mexican Americans
• Mexican Americans > Civil rights
• Church work with African Americans
• American Indian Movement
• Forman, James D > Black Manifesto
• Amilcar Cabral Training Institute
• Church work with migrant labor
• Indians of North America > Civil rights
• Federations, Financial (Social service)
• Minorities > Civil rights
• National Welfare Rights Organization (U.S.)
• National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America
• Michigan Ohio Community Organization Council
• Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (U.S.)
• Los Angeles Brotherhood Crusade
• National Black Economic Development Conference
• Church and social problems > United States
• Community Organization Training Institute
• Relief for Africans in Need in the Sahel (New York, N.Y.)
• Alaska Federation of Natives
• National Black United Fund, Inc

Source (note)

• Lucious Walker

Biography (note)

• The Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) is an interdenominational "parachurch" agency, created in late 1966 to open lines of comunication between mainstream American churches and disenfranchised minority communities in the United States. Founded by nine religious groups and one foundation, IFCO initially included only one representative from a minority community on its board. By the mid 1970s, IFCO had developed into the largest minority-controlled foundation in the country.

Indexes/Finding Aids (note)

• Finding aid available in repository.

Processing Action (note)

• Processed
• Cataloged

Call Number

Sc MG 227

OCLC

NYPW00-A125

Author

Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (U.S.)

Title

Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization records, 1966-1984.

Access

Use of boxes stored offsite requires advance notice.

Biography

The Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) is an interdenominational "parachurch" agency, created in late 1966 to open lines of comunication between mainstream American churches and disenfranchised minority communities in the United States. Founded by nine religious groups and one foundation, IFCO initially included only one representative from a minority community on its board. By the mid 1970s, IFCO had developed into the largest minority-controlled foundation in the country.

Established by the Board of National Missions of the United Presbyterian Church as an autonomous agency, IFCO was charged with finding solutions to the problems that cause poverty through community and economic development, training in community organizing and cooperative programs in areas where disadvantaged minorities lived. Funding of projects affecting the black community became the foundation's top priority, followed by assistance to Native American and Mexican American communities.

From the beginning IFCO was embroiled in controversy over its funding of community groups involved in militant and protest activities. The most well-known controversy was over IFCO's sponsorship of the National Black Economic Development Conference (NBEDC) in Detroit in April 1969. It was at this conference that James Forman, head of the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE), first proclaimed the "Black Manifesto," demanding $500 million in reparations from America's white churches and synagogues to be used to address problems in the inner cities. Other controversial groups IFCO supported included the American Indian Movement; the Committee for a Unified Newark and JIHAD Productions in Newark, New Jersey (founded by poet and radical activist Amiri Baraka); Cesar Chavez' United Farm Workers Union; the Woodlawn Organization, Chicago, Illinois; films in support of the revolutions in Angola and Mozambique; the militant National Welfare Rights Organization; and the United Command of Zimbabwe African Peoples Union.

IFCO established several organizations and training institutes, at both the regional and national level in this country and in Africa. Regionally, IFCO spearheaded efforts to develop a coalition of churches, other religious bodies, and community organizations in Ohio and Michigan, called the Michigan-Ohio Community Organization Council. IFCO was also instrumental in the formation of the Black United Fund.

IFCO's international program included the Community Organizers Training Institute (COTI), renamed the Amilcar Cabral Institute in 1973, which was the major educational component of the international program. The Cabral Institute consisted of five programs designed to train minority individuals for leadership and staff positions in community organizations, train seminarians in community organizing, and establish Black United Funds. IFCO also developed the Relief for Africans in Need in the Sahel (RAINS), a coalition of concerned black individuals and organizations that attempted to secure immediate relief for the drought-striken countries of the African Sahel.

Indexes

Finding aid available in repository.

Connect to:

Finding Aid

Added Author

Walker, Lucius, 1930-

Douglas, Ann.

Clement, Marilyn.

Research Call Number

Sc MG 227