Course to Study Afro Experience Clears a Hurdle

The Committee on General Education's sub-committee on Social Sciences has approved plans for a new middle-level General Education course in Afro-American studies.

The sub-committee held a special meeting Thursday with the new course its only item of business.

Approval for the new course must now come from the full Committee on General Education and from the Committee on Educational Policy. The CEP will hold its final meeting of the semester on May 29.

If so approved, the new course will begin in the Fall. It is planned as a full-year course. The first semester will examine the evolution of the Afro-American's status in this country. The second semester will treat the position of the Afro-American since 1945, concentrating on specific problems.

Frank B. Friedel, professor of History, and Daniel M. Fox '59, assistant professor of History, will teach the course, with several outside lecturers expected.

Friedel is a member of the Social Sciences sub-committee which approved plans for the course Thursday. Its chairman is Richard E. Neustadt, professor of Government.

The new course will probably be restricted to 200 students next year, partially because there is a limited number of available teaching fellows.

If approved, it will precede a Harvard undergraduate major in Afro-American studies. Dean Ford has created a Faculty committee, chaired by Henry Rosovsky, professor of Economics, to prepare the new major. Fox is a member of Rosovsky's committee, as well as lecturer in the planned Gen Ed course.