The papers of edu­ca­tor and advo­cate of minor­ity edu­ca­tion Dr. Carl A. Fields are now avail­able for research at Prince­ton University’s See­ley G. Mudd Man­u­script Library. Carl Fields became the first African Amer­i­can to hold a high-ranking posi­tion at an Ivy League school when he was appointed the Assis­tant Direc­tor of Stu­dent Aid and then later the Assis­tant Dean of the Col­lege at Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity. Through­out his tenure Fields began and directed sev­eral inno­v­a­tive pro­grams aimed at the reten­tion of African Amer­i­can and other stu­dents of color, includ­ing the Fam­ily Spon­sors pro­gram that intro­duced stu­dents to an African Amer­i­can fam­ily within the Prince­ton com­mu­nity. In 1967 Fields helped coor­di­nate the first Negro Under­grad­u­ate Con­fer­ence with the new Asso­ci­a­tion of Black Col­le­gians orga­ni­za­tion on cam­pus, which brought together black stu­dents from forty-one predominately-white uni­ver­si­ties. Fields also estab­lished the Fred­er­ick Dou­glass Award after attend­ing the 1968 Prince­ton com­mence­ment exer­cises, which had the largest num­ber of black stu­dents receiv­ing a diploma in the his­tory of the University.

Fields left Prince­ton for a three-year Ford Foun­da­tion Fel­low­ship, dur­ing which he served as the Plan­ning Offi­cer at the Uni­ver­sity of Zam­bia. From 1974–1984 he became the prin­ci­pal part­ner and founder of the African Tech­ni­cal Edu­ca­tional Con­sul­tant Ser­vice, where he served as a con­sul­tant for numer­ous orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the United Methodist Church. From 1984–1987 Fields became the admin­is­tra­tive offi­cer of River­side Church in New York City and from 1988–1989 was the asso­ciate direc­tor of the Bishop Tutu South­ern African Refugee Schol­ar­ship Fund. Fields was an active mem­ber and offi­cer of many other orga­ni­za­tions through­out his life­time, includ­ing the Col­lege Entrance Exam­i­na­tion Board and the Asso­ci­a­tion of Black Prince­ton Alumni.

Pro­mo­tional flyer for Fields’s posthumously-published book, Black in Two Worlds: A Per­sonal Per­spec­tive on Higher Edu­ca­tion (ca. 2006)

His papers doc­u­ment his life and active career, and include a large amount of mate­r­ial gen­er­ated from the three years spent as the Plan­ning Offi­cer at the Uni­ver­sity of Zam­bia, as well as his ser­vices as con­sul­tant and founder of the African Tech­ni­cal Edu­ca­tional Con­sul­tant Ser­vice. For more infor­ma­tion, con­sult the full find­ing aid for the Carl A. Fields papers. Click here for more infor­ma­tion about the Carl A. Fields Cen­ter for Equal­ity and Cul­tural Under­stand­ing at Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity, named in his honor in 2002. The pro­cess­ing of the Carl A. Fields papers was com­pleted in July by Nicole Milano, the 2010 John Fos­ter and Janet Avery Dulles Archival Intern.

–Nicole J. Milano