Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

A distinguished young educator from a leading black college
offers a possible pattern for a Black University which "should
be the kind of institution best designed to provide adequate
opportunity for black teachers and students to develop their
capabilities fully, to serve the black community effectively,
to gain pride in and knowledge of their heritage and themselves
. . ."
~t~~c'~OST RFFCIRII~Pnrlc
~`~~ ~in rr .vein . Perhaps
that will be the inevi-
~~~~ table result in any effort
to reform higher
education for Negroes in the
United States . Nevertheless, before
proposing the revolutionary
step of establishing a new institution-a
black university-I wish to
suggest ways of achieving the desired
improvement within the present
structure of higher education .
For fear that the very discussion
of this issue may seem to provide
substance for those hostile critics
who argue that Negroes are peculiar
creatures always demanding
or needing special attention, I must
point out that the need for reform
is not limited to the education of
Negroes . Higher education in the
United States needs attention . It
is a mongrel conceived from the
forced wedding of the European
ideal of educating the elite to the
United States ideal of educating the
masses . Students complain about
their loss of identity, their isolation
from professors, their inability to
receive respect as young adults,
and their subjection to antiquated
or absurd academic regulations,
NEGRO DIGEST March 1968
courses, and materials . Teachers
complain about the disinterest of
students and about the overemphasis
on athletics, grants, and research
. Administrators complain
about the continuous complaining
by students and teachers .
Although Negroes share in these
characteristic and perennial problems
of higher education, Negroes
experience additional problems
both in the "integrated" colleges
and in the "predominantly Negro"
colleges .
The Negro teacher in an integrated
institution knows that he
exists as a visible symbol of liberal
attitudes and practices of brotherhood
. if he is one in a million, he
may become the chairman of his
department . (Or who is there besides
John Hope Franklin?) If he
is especially astute in his studies of
Negroes, he may aspire to be a
Kenneth B . Clark . Most often,
however, he rises to the lowly post
of assistant or associate professor,
and squirms there ; the channels to
prominence are dammed for him
even though his intelligence and
training may surpass those of men
who rise beyond his rank .
If he works in a predominantly
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