Under the auspices of the United States Department of State, The Ford Foundation, Georgetown University, and the African-American Institute, more than 75 scholars and other specialists convened at the Shoreham Hotel, Washington, D. C., from August 17 to 21, 1964, to exchange views on problems of political and social change in francophonic Africa. The program was organized and directed by Dr. William H. Lewis of Georgetown University. The first such conclave ever to be convened in the United States, it brought together more than 500 scholars, government officials, and diplomatic personnel from Africa, Western Europe, Canada, and the United States.

The basic purpose of this special program was to stimulate greater interest among American scholars and graduate students in the unfolding problems of francophonic Africa -- extending from Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia in the north to the Congo (Leopoldville) and the Malagasy Republic to the south. To this end, the sponsors established a four-week graduate Institute which preceded the Congress. Conducted at Georgetown University, the Institute brought together a faculty of leading African and American scholars, as well as a student body comprising Africans, Europeans, and Americans. The Institute offered a program of instruction in African history, problems of economic development, parameters of social change, West African politics, and nationalism in North and sub-Saharan Africa.