Just cruising around the web lead me to an interesting dead economics weblog. Within its pages, I found a reference to this book which may or may not be of use. It's certainly interesting because it appears to point to a time at which Thomas Sowell was actively engaged in hacking out policy with other blackfolks. In his current throne as scold to the black masses, this work may be considered a throwback to earlier more optimistic days, but it exists nonetheless.
The Fairmont Papers: Black Alternatives Conference, San Francisco, December 1980 is a collection of edited excerpts from transcripts of the Black Alternatives Conference, sponsored by the Institute for Contemporary Studies, that took place on December 12 and 13th, 1980, at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco.
The table of contents is fairly interesting. Do check out the site.
Perhaps I'll revisit this in a longer piece. The Fairmont Conference was an explicit attempt undertaken by Ronald Reagan to replace the "civil rights leaders" with a brand of black conservative leadership. Nixon and others had tried similar strategies, but this was the first modern initiative. Among those invited was Clarence Thomas. The idea was that these individuals would usher a new wave of support among African Americans for conservative policies.
Posted by: Lester Spence at April 12, 2003 06:48 PM