NAACP and Africa America Institute Announce Alliance at NAACP Image Awards in Pasadena

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the Africa-America Institute (AAI) have formed a partnership that will lead to the development and distribution of a curriculum designed to highlight the accomplishments, achievements and history of Africa and its Diaspora.

The partnership was announced Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, during the 49th NAACP Image Awards at the Pasadena Convention Center.

“It’s appropriate that on a day that we honor Dr. King and promote positive images of people of color, we announce to the world a partnership that creates a center of gravity for African Americans and all peoples of African descent in the Diaspora, with a heightened sense of civic engagement, ” said Derrick Johnson, NAACP President and CEO.

Kofi Appenteng, President of the Africa-America Institute, said the AAI “has a long history of academic exchange and educational meetings between Africa and America. Now is an extraordinary time and opportunity to partner with the NAACP and together connect the more than 42 million Afro-descendants with the brilliance of the African history and its contribution to modern civilization.”

An NAACP press release on Monday said the curriculum that the partnership expects to develop could include content such as Africa’s Great Civilizations, the critically acclaimed series by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
The two organizations and NAACP chapters are also expected to benefit from organized screenings and lessons with an early education focus on positive identity formation, and a more advanced curriculum that includes studies in social sciences.

A campaign kick-off in support of the partnership’s objectives is scheduled to take place in February as a part of Black History Month, the NAACP said.

The AAI, based in New York, is the premier U.S.-based international organization that works to increase the capacity of African individuals and institutions through higher education initiatives, leadership development, professional workforce training, convening activities, program implementation and management.

The NAACP, founded in 1909, is the oldest and largest nonpartisan civil rights organization in the United States. Its members in the U.S. and worldwide are premier advocates for civil rights in their communities.