About the Center

Ambassador Charles R. Stith
Director
African Presidential Archives and Research Center

Prior to assuming his present position as the Director of the African Presidential Archives and Research Center at Boston University, Ambassador Stith presented his Letter of Credence as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States to the United Republic of Tanzania in September 1998. He served as the Ambassador in the traumatic period after the August 1998 bombing of the United States Embassy in Dar es Salaam. Because of his able and steady leadership the Embassy emerged from the bombing stable and set a new standard for U.S. Embassies promoting U.S. trade and investment in Africa. Among his achievements were getting Tanzania to sign the first ever Open Skies Agreement between an African country and the United States and the successful negotiation of code-share agreements for Delta and Northwest Airlines. In September 1999 he organized Tanzanian President Mkapa’s historic visit to the United States. That visit had the distinction of having the largest delegation of African business leaders to ever accompany an African head of state on a visit to a western nation. Subsequent to that effort, Stith organized “reverse trade missions” to London and Johannesburg to enable a Tanzanian business delegation to meet with U.S. business interests having offices in those cities. Stith worked with the Tanzanian government to enable them to become the first Sub-Saharan African country to reach the decision point for debt relief under the enhanced Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC).

After concluding his term in Tanzania, Ambassador Stith was appointed by Boston University’s Chancellor to establish the African Presidential Archives and Research Center (APARC). The Center provides a forum and resources for exchange on political and economic developments in sub-Saharan Africa during this period of profound and historic change.

Ambassador Stith is a graduate of Baker University, the Interdenominational Theological Center’s Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta, and Harvard University Divinity School (Th.M). He is the founder and former National President of the Organization for a New Equality (O.N.E.), which focuses on expanding economic opportunities for minorities and women. Most notably during his tenure at O.N.E., he helped negotiate and broker the first comprehensive community reinvestment agreement in the country. The agreement committed Boston financial institutions to $500 million in mortgage and commercial lending to low and moderate and minority communities in Massachusetts. He later served on the CRA Regulatory Agency Working Group, chaired by then Comptroller of the Currency Eugene Ludwig. He was one of the architects of the regulations redefining the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which has resulted in nearly $2 trillion in credit and capital for low and moderate income communities and communities of color. Prior to heading O.N.E., he was the Senior Minister of the historic Union United Methodist Church in Boston He was an appointee of Senate Minority Tom Daschle to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. In addition, he has been an adjunct faculty member at Boston College and Harvard Divinity School. He has served on the National Advisory Boards of FannieMae and Fleet InCity Bank, the editorial board of WCVB-TV, and the boards of West Insurance, Inc and the Wang Center for Performing Arts, among others.

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