Negro Digest - Freedom Archives
Negro Digest - Freedom Archives
Negro Digest - Freedom Archives
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e established far Black students<br />
throughout the Boston area . Where<br />
transportation seemed to be a problem,<br />
classrooms on the various<br />
campuses could be linked electronically<br />
. A group of students at Tufts,<br />
for instance, could participate in a<br />
seminar being conducted on the<br />
Brandeis campus, and the students<br />
an both campuses could see each<br />
other as well as hear each other .<br />
Certainly, overall coordination of<br />
the program could be handled by<br />
one "best Black scholar."<br />
The decision by the Afro-American<br />
Society at Brandeis to work<br />
toward the establishment of a Black<br />
institute in Roxbury offers an even<br />
more exciting variation on the same<br />
theme . An institute in Roxbury,<br />
and for that matter, in any other<br />
Black community, could serve students<br />
enrolled at colleges and universities<br />
throughout the area . The<br />
participating institutions would, of<br />
course, be expected to contribute to<br />
the institute's funding and to grant<br />
academic credit for its courses . The<br />
institute could, in turn, develop<br />
special programs to meet a wide<br />
variety of community needs .<br />
Of course, the notion that affluent<br />
institutions which are reluctant<br />
to grant autonomy to Black<br />
departments should fund programs<br />
outside of their own corporate<br />
framework will cause some dismay,<br />
at least in New England . But the<br />
fact of the matter is that many of<br />
these institutions do a spectacularly<br />
poor job of educating Black students<br />
. At Brandeis, for instance,<br />
despite the high level of white good-<br />
NEGRO DIGEST March 1969<br />
will that seems to exist there, one<br />
of the precipitating causes of the<br />
student revolt was a nominally<br />
Black course taught by a superliberal<br />
professor who sought to<br />
undermine the developing consciousness<br />
of his Black students .<br />
The students were justifiably enraged<br />
at the deception . But not all<br />
of the responsibility for effecting<br />
change rests with cumbersome<br />
or unimaginative administrations .<br />
Black students, who must receive<br />
credit for most of the progress<br />
made to date, have to continue<br />
their efforts, and in a more coordinated<br />
manner . As has been stated<br />
again and again, we cannot allow<br />
our limited human resources in<br />
Black education to be spread in<br />
token fashion all over the country.<br />
The Black educational programs<br />
being developed at such key centers<br />
as Atlanta University are far<br />
too important to be sacrificed at the<br />
academic marketplace .<br />
One might contend, of course,<br />
that white institutions will try to<br />
use these suggestions in an attemptto<br />
shirk their responsibilities to<br />
Black students. The simplest test,<br />
which Black students should apply<br />
regularly, is to determine what the<br />
institutions are willing to do . Will<br />
they, for instance, contribute to and<br />
share a neighboring institution's<br />
program? Will they set up exchange<br />
programs with a neighboring<br />
school or with a distant Black<br />
school so that their Black students<br />
can take advantage of courses offered<br />
elsewHere? Will they help to<br />
fund an autonomous institute in<br />
27