History Of CAAPEI

The California African American Political and Economic Institute was created by California State legislation, SB 1721, one of former State Senator Tom Hayden’s last bills in 2002, and signed by former Governor Gray Davis. At the time , the “Economic” part was not there, the first center was to be established as CSU Northridge, and the only funding to begin operations for the Institute was not to come from public monies. The initial implementation of CAAPI at CSUN was problematic, and in 2003, newly reelected Assemblymen Mervyn Dymally, whose brainchild the Institute was authored AB1760, signed again by Gray Davis, which transferred the Institute to CSU, Dominguez Hills, added “Economic” to the name , and with the recent AB 165 amendment, expanded the range and scope of necessary fundraising opportunities for the CAAPEI.

Dr. David Horne, who has been with this project since its inception, was the first Executive Director at CSUN, and is the newly appointed Acting Executive Director at CSU, Dominguez Hills.

To learn more, click here to download the Executive Summary. (.rtf 40kb)