Negro Digest - Freedom Archives
Negro Digest - Freedom Archives Negro Digest - Freedom Archives
the Black community in return for educational services to their own students? Will they allow Black students to design and teach their own courses if that seems the only way to develop a relevant curriculum? A white college president recently suggested that his students should concern themselves primarily with what is good for his institution . That is a rather strange thing to say to any student these 28 days, but its ludicrousness is quite unique in respect to Black students . As Black people move toward better communications and better coordination of policy planning, it will become a commonplace that Black students and Black educational personnel everywhere are part of the Black University . Their efforts to realize its full potential constitute the best hope for the liberation of Black men's minds and souls . Edgar F . Beckham, author of the commentary on the Black University, "Problems, of `Place', Personnel and Practicality," is director of the Language Laboratory and lecturer in German at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn . He currently is chairman of the Steering Committee of the Connecticut Association of Afro-American Educators. March 1969 NEGRO DIGEST
A Dual Responsibility The White University Must Respond to Black Student Needs "The black student awakening and the contemporary student activism on America's campuses point the way for the enhancement of the university as an important institution in our society" ~~~!~:~ N Thursday, April 4, 1968, Dr . Martin Luther King Jr . was assassinated as he stood on the porch of a motel in Memphis, Tenn . With one shot, an assassin snuffed out the life and light of a black leader whom both his admirers and detractors respected . Within hours after King's assassination, riots and violence swept the nation's black ghettos . Almost simultaneously, black students on the nation's predominantly white campuses began to hold demonstrations to present "demands" to college and univerity administrations . These demands were repeated as though they were being played on a phonograph rec- NEGRO DIGEST March 1969 BY ROSCOE C. BROWN ord : "more black students," "more black professors," "more black courses," "all-black dormitories" and so on . In a real sense, the black students had awakened. What is behind this awakening of black students throughout the country? Is it just a reaction to the King murder? Of course not! Black students have been in ferment for over a decade, first in the predominantly Negro colleges, and now in the predominantly white colleges . We should remember that the Civil Rights Revolution really began when, in February 1960, a group of black college students sat down at a lunch counter in a Woolworth's store in Greensboro, N.C. (a thing unheard-of at that time) and refused to move until they were served . The "sit-in" was the forerunner of the mass demonstrations, the marches, and now the angry confrontations that are part of the Civil Rights Revolution-and black students have been an important part of all of them . 29
- Page 77 and 78: penniless writer, he travels the ga
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- Page 93 and 94: "iON ONYE LOCKARD is a selftaught a
- Page 95 and 96: Plea ForA Second Chance : Work-worn
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- Page 99 and 100: THE DUKE NATURAL SET MAlR SHEEN lea
- Page 101 and 102: Edgar F . Beck Vincent Hard min E .
- Page 103 and 104: C®i'y~'>~' i'tw'~'~ Editor's Notes
- Page 105 and 106: An Open Letter to Black Students in
- Page 107 and 108: mentarily bolstered (or our minds m
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- Page 113 and 114: of white institutions that there si
- Page 115 and 116: Platform and Program S HL "Today we
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- Page 119 and 120: New agencies for Black education (A
- Page 121 and 122: ment of a plan to hire 200 Black pr
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- Page 133 and 134: Black Perspective A cU~TU~~L, ~~~I~
- Page 135 and 136: life-style, yet they persist in the
- Page 137 and 138: plex (a viable institution in that
- Page 139 and 140: The Positiveness of Separation BL~C
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- Page 145 and 146: Roach, Harold Cruse, Rhody Mc- Coy,
- Page 147 and 148: conferees attempted to eject white
- Page 149 and 150: ~. iii1~i-i Black Life, White "Expe
- Page 151 and 152: BOOKS Black Writing : this is u, th
- Page 153 and 154: Grow old? Maan! I ain't never Gonna
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- Page 157 and 158: at a time when the ratio of Negro d
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the Black community in return for<br />
educational services to their own<br />
students? Will they allow Black<br />
students to design and teach their<br />
own courses if that seems the only<br />
way to develop a relevant curriculum?<br />
A white college president recently<br />
suggested that his students<br />
should concern themselves primarily<br />
with what is good for his institution<br />
. That is a rather strange<br />
thing to say to any student these<br />
28<br />
days, but its ludicrousness is quite<br />
unique in respect to Black students .<br />
As Black people move toward better<br />
communications and better coordination<br />
of policy planning, it<br />
will become a commonplace that<br />
Black students and Black educational<br />
personnel everywhere are<br />
part of the Black University . Their<br />
efforts to realize its full potential<br />
constitute the best hope for the liberation<br />
of Black men's minds and<br />
souls .<br />
Edgar F . Beckham, author of the commentary on the Black University,<br />
"Problems, of `Place', Personnel and Practicality," is director of the<br />
Language Laboratory and lecturer in German at Wesleyan University<br />
in Middletown, Conn . He currently is chairman of the Steering Committee<br />
of the Connecticut Association of Afro-American Educators.<br />
March 1969 NEGRO DIGEST
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