Wishes you a safe and happy holiday season.

Give the gift of CLA this year. Donate to the Gloster Fund for Underfunded Scholars, or buy a gift membership for a special scholar in your life. Any purchase of a gift membership(s) or donation over $250 will be gifted a CLA sweatshirt. Finally one sweatshirt you can wear during winter that doesn't give ugly vibes. All donations over $50 will receive a personalized message from CLA Treasurer Constance Bailey thanking you for your donation and detailing how the money helps CLA members and CLA in its mission of black literary excellence. 100% of all donations to the Gloster fund go to underfunded scholars to help them travel to the annual CLA Convention to present their research and help them to prove to their institutions that they are nationally recognized scholars in black literary studies. If you would like to donate to another scholarship of the general CLA fund, you can as well. Supporting 88 years of black literary studies and an internationally known academic journal, CLA is a 501(c)(3) organization that ensures that all of your donations to scholarships and awards are used only for the scholarship/award and nothing else. 

Either a video or letter from our president/vice-president talking about the wonderful things that CLA does and wishing everyone happy holidays 

According to the historical notes provided in the College Language Association archives housed at the Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library, "In 1937, a LeMoyne College professor named Hugh M. Gloster, through correspondence with Gladstone Lewis Chandler, a colleague at Morehouse College, discussed" the need for stronger critical thinking and English language education for students at their respective colleges. Gloster therefore "engaged other English teachers at  predominately private 'Negro' colleges and universities to form an association which would address the problem from its origins to its current state. In 1937, eight men and women met at LeMoyne and formed the Association of Teachers of English in Negro Colleges (ATENC)."

As the archives aptly remind us, "In 1941, the Association broadened its objective to formally include the teaching of literature and foreign language, thus changing its name to the Association of Teachers of Languages in Negro Colleges (ATLNC). In 1949, the ATLNC officially became the College Language Association (CLA)."

Marie H. Buncombe, CLA President (1986-1988), expands upon this rich history and the overwhelming significance of the Association in her 1987 presidential address entitled, "Legacy from the Past, Agenda for the Future: The College Language Association, 1937-1987," at the CLA Convention in Washington, D.C. "In reflecting history and recording it," she writes, "CLA has been making history for half a century. In salute, let us proudly lift the torch, keep it lit, and pass it on" (50).

Carolyn Fowler also attributes great value to the College Language Association in paving the way for today's educators and scholars. In her 1988 dissertation, "The College Language Association: A Social History," she explores the social landscape of CLA, relying upon extensive interviews and oral histories in order to help record the story of one of America's most important and long-standing African-American academic associations.