Book excerpt: «Intelligent and Effective Direction» examines the Fisk University Race Relations Institute from 1944 to 1969. Conceptualized and organized by African American sociologist Charles S. Johnson, this Institute brought together an interracial group of scholars, social, civic, and religious leaders, activists, and others to battle for civil rights. Scholarship and dialogue were the primary methods of protest and activism. «Intelligent and Effective Direction» bridges what we know about the efforts of those moving away from a Jim Crow segregated South with the efforts of those moving toward the famed civil rights movement.