This book examines the historical, socio-political and cultural significance of ?The East.? It explores the efforts of The East to build and sustain viable community and family-centered institutions in the context of nation(alist) building. Nation building is defined here as the conscious and focused application of African people?s collective resources, energies and knowledge to the task of liberating and developing the psychic and physical space that Africans identify as theirs. Nationalist is used here to properly situate The East experience in the context and continuum of Black nationalist thought and praxis and its efforts to build upon this tradition. The activities and challenges of The East experience in cultural, institutional, and nation(alist) building are explored through a socio-historical case study of the institution and its components. This experience is indicative of the movements of Africans in America that have expanded their vision and strategy beyond the mode of protest and perpetual dependency to institution building and self-determination. Emerging after the Ocean Hill-Brownsville struggles for community control of schools, but during the Black Power and Black Consciousness era, The East was the direct result of the energies of skilled high school youth and the wisdom of a core group of committed adults. Through the collection of archival documents and interviews of The East family members, the book uses both organizational and experiential data to describe and analyze the major themes, patterns and activities.

The legacies of The East experience are to be found in its methodology of institutional development and the lessons it provided for the intergenerational process of nation(alist) building. Although, The East no longer exists as an active organization, the organization?s spirit and principles are still vibrant in the character of members who constitute what was/is The East family.