The African Studies Center at UCLA was established in 1959 to further stimulate the growing national interest in the region and to develop outreach, academic, and research programs on Africa. Increased national demand for new language and area skills soon led to its designation as a National Resource Center for African Studies. In 1989, the Center was renamed to honor its founder James S. Coleman, whose pioneering scholarship marks him as one of the architects of African Area Studies in the United States. The Center is a broadly based academic support and research program.