Founded in 1995 by Executive Director Lenard D. Moore, the roots of the organization were in necessity, circumstances not terribly different from those of a century and a half earlier. The isolation felt by early members such as Moore, Janice W. Hodges and Beverly Fields Burnette was based on the sliver of representation of black writers in the majority of existing writers' groups. The situation was and is not much better in the academy, where proportionately few black students enroll in creative writing classes in highly ranked programs. Race is culture. Race is experience.
Race is language.
Race is modes of expression. Race is history. Du Bois argues that possession of culture for African Americans must include their own experience in addition to providing access to classical signposts of civilization. Moore also discusses the need for a black writers' collective in terms of positive identification. This is a danger facing all writers' collectives both within and outside of the academy.