Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

It should be made crystal clear
what is meant by a black university
. How much of the curriculum
would be devoted to Afro-American
people? How much of the curriculum
would be devoted to disciplines
other than Afro-American
studies? Would the faculty be all
black? Would the student body be
all black? If white faculty and
white students are excluded, do we
expect so-called white colleges and
universities to exclude all black
scholars and black students?
Would the Supreme Court permit
this kind of segregation? Do we
mean by black' universities regional
centers of institutions that are already
in existence, as one writer (in
the March 1968 NEGxO DIGEST)
advocates? If we mean regional
black colleges and universities, the
question of the complexion of the
faculty and student body must still
be asked and answered .
Frankly, I do not believe we
need to build a new black university
in order to get what I think we
need ; nor do I believe we need to
concentrate on a few colleges and
universities in certain centers of the
United States in order to get what
we need and must have . I believe
that there could and should be
established in every Negro or black
college in the United States a division
of Afro-American studies
which would concentrate on the
black man's history and all that he
has contributed to the arts and sciences,
literature and art, sports and
drama, politics and business . I believe
existing institutions can do
7 0
this, including the institutions that
call themselves white .
This is not enough . I have always
believed that Negro or black
colleges should be deeply concerned
with and deeply involved in
the life of the black community. Instead
of training Negroes to get
away from the poor and the ghettos,
they should be trained to help
improve the conditions of black
people so that the gap between all
classes of Negroes will be narrowed
or eliminated. There are six million
college and university students
enrolled in institutions of higher
education of which 240,000, or not
more than four percent, are black ;
certainly not more than 300,000 or
five percent are black . A single
black university of 10,000 would
be a mere drop in the bucket. But
if all institutions of higher learning
tackled the problem of black identity
through the teaching of Afro-
American history and through
training to help improve the conditions
of less privileged black people,
we could do now what has
been neglected for a hundred years .
Negro students are ready for it
now . Years ago, when Dr . Carter
G. Woodson, the eminent Negro
historian, was trying to get black
students to appreciate themselves
and Africa, he didn't have much
success . And let me say, with emphasis,
that to get this done we do
not have to become racists and
drive out all white teachers and all
white students . With government,
irdustry, and white institutions
pulling black scholars apart to get
March 1969 NEGRO DIGEST