[AFRICAN AMERICANA]. Can You Pass This Soul Quiz on Black American Freedom Fighters, 1973

New York: Foundation for Change, Inc, 1972. Near Fine. Brochure folded into three panels (folded measurement: 8.5" x 3.75"), printed in green. AN ATTEMPT TO IMPROVE RACE RELATIONS BY A VISIONARY, NOW-FORGOTTEN NEW YORK CITY NON-PROFIT WHOSE SOLE PURPOSE WAS TO "DEVELOP STUDENT UNDERSTANDING OF MINORITY VIEWS AND TO ENCOURAGE WHITE RESPONSIBILITY TOWARDS EFFECTING SOCIAL CHANGE."

The history of the Foundation for Change (FFC) has been difficult to trace, but we know that it was established by Lyla Hoffman as early as 1968, and at one point had as many as six staff members (see the 1975 Directory of Social Services Organizations held by Swarthmore's Women Strike for Peace Records); there it is further revealed that FFC was in the process of "developing teacher and student training curricula on cultural clashes in the classroom."

This present "Soul Quiz" brochure presents eleven trivia questions (and answers) pertaining to notable Black Americans in the fight for freedom and racial equality, with powerful quotes by Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, W.E.B. Dubois, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others. The "Soul Quiz" as questions such as "Who was the first Afro-American protest marcher on record?" and "Who is the man generally credited with coining the expression, 'Black Power'?"

The Foundation for Change, Inc. merits further attention. Worldcat lists two pamphlets published by the FFC as "Fact Sheets on Institutional Racism" in 1975, specifically "White Control and Minority Oppression" and "Male Control and Female Oppression." Conny Katasse knew of 15 FFC flyers, including the "Soul Quiz," which she listed in her Textbook Review: Criteria for Alaskan Classroom Teachers (Anchorage, ca. 1975).

There are three recommended books in our brochure, their inclusion likely due to Lyla Hoffman herself; at various times she was a volunteer, consultant, and ultimately a director of the well-known Council on Interracial Books for Children (CIBC); this organization was founded "to promote a literature for children that better reflects the realities of a multicultural society." At some point the FFC may have merged with CIBC. While the fate of the former is uncertain, the latter was disbanded in 1989.