Up for sale is scarce copy of the 1989 edition and the first-ever edition of POSITIVELY BLACK, a yearbook focused on Black Life among students at the University of Pennsylvania. Includes senior portraits, Black undergraduate organizations, athletic life/intercollegiate athletes, and congratulations messages. 128 pages.
From The New York Times article published July 23, 1989 title, “CAMPUS LIFE: Pennsylvania; Black Students Get a Yearbook Of Their Own.”
''Positively Black,'' a yearbook produced by the Black Students League at the University of Pennsylvania, is a collection of pictures and descriptions of the positive aspects of being black at the school.
The 128-page yearbook was created after the group decided it needed an outlet to reflect black achievements and the role of blacks on campus because other publications had failed to recognize them fairly, said Terri White of Philadelphia, who served as the project's faculty adviser. She said she thought that this is the first such publication at an Ivy League institution.
''Positively Black,'' which was distributed in the spring, resembles most college yearbooks but shows only the black faculty, undergraduates and clubs, including the Black Penn Arts League and the Black Wharton Undergraduate Association.
''Given the environment of our campus, I do think the blacks need something like this,'' Ms. White said. ''From the outside, reviewing our official publications, you would think there were just one or two black students on campus.'' 'Positive Input'
Kim Morrisson, the vice president for university life who made the decision to provide what he called ''seed money,'' said, ''What surprised me is that they were able to pull it off so well.'' It took several months less to produce than did the university yearbook, he said. ''As it came out, it's clearly a chronicle of experiences that probably wouldn't be chronicled the same way.''
The idea of producing a yearbook by and for blacks is not unique to the University of Pennsylvania. In 1988, six women at Pennsylvania State University, all of them seniors, spent a year producing a similar book called ''Strong Young Members of a Black Organized League (SYMBOL)'' at the college's University Park Campus.
But Larry Young, director of the Paul Robeson Cultural Center and a faculty adviser to SYMBOL, said he believes that because of cost and the time involved, it was the first and last time such a yearbook would be produced at the school.
At Penn, however, plans to create the second ''Positively Black'' yearbook next year have already begun. Ms. Fowler said the profit of more than $2,000 realized from the first edition will be used to help produce it.
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FINAL SALE
No returns or refunds, please.