As the Association for the Study of African American Life and History headed into Black History Month, its senior management told Diverse that the most important factor in the association’s ability to teach history was its ability to learn basic economics.

“The organization could not have been turned around without basic fiscal reform, like getting the financial records in order and developing a basic accounting system,” says association president, Dr. John Fleming. “In bad years, the annual conference lost $50,000 to $120,000. But we recently received a $1.5 million grant from Wachovia, and in 2006 we had a balanced budget and a growing paid membership of over 2000.”

It’s a far cry from the 1990s, when the association that Carter G. Woodson founded in 1915 was on the edge of bankruptcy. The paid membership was down to about 500 members and Woodson’s home at 1538 9th St. NW in Washington, D.C., was in need of maintenance. The association’s headquarters, also in the nation’s capital, was in such disrepair that the association was forced to clean out the building and sell it in 1999.

“Some neighbors actually cried when they saw the stacks of old books and journals being thrown into the dumpster,” says Dr. Daryl Scott, who is chairman of Howard University’s history department and head of ASALH’s publications committee. “There were multiple copies of those documents in libraries across the country so it wasn’t really a loss of important historical materials, but of a local symbol of Black pride.”

Ironically, as ASALH stood at the brink of bankruptcy, it’s greatest accomplishment, Black History Month, exploded in popularity. It is now observed in almost every school and community across the nation. And the number of Black history scholars, who make up the majority of the organization’s members, has been expanding.

But the association was unable to take advantage of those developments. During his lifetime, Woodson fought to keep ASALH independent of any particular college or university. But now the organization is only alive because of the assistance of historically Black colleges and universities. It’s publication, The Journal of African American Life and History, founded in 1916, failed to meet many deadlines and eventually stopped publishing. But it was revived by Dillard University professor and ASALH member V.P. Franklin. Today, the Journal operates out of a crowded office provided by Howard.