Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

contradictions they entail . Furthermore, i agree that a program of action
is needed to correct this unfortunate situation .
My areas of disaccord are concerned with a number of Professor
Harding's specific criticisms and recommendations, and, more importantly,
his tendency to altogether ignore or to treat in a cursory fashion
certain very crucial matters pertaining to the black higher education
crisis .
Let me begin by amplifying this point as it specifically relates to the
recruitment of black students . If those of us who are involved in increasing
the enrollment of black students on northern white campuses
were committed to the view that we should only search for the so-called
"best" black students ., Professor Harding's arguments would have an
unshakable foundation and we would be forced to seriously reappraise
our efforts . Although Professor Harding seems to confine his remarks
to the elitist segment of the black student population, I do not know of
any massive recruitment campaign which is designed to enroll hundreds
of black students each year that restricts itself in this manner . On the
contrary, in response to or anticipation of black student demands, northern
colleges have developed a proliferation of programs to enroll "high
risk" black students . Attempts to discourage such efforts would, in the
final analysis, be catastrophic for the hundreds of thousands of denied
black students who were, until recently, virtually ignored by institutions
of higher learning . They were the forgotten black students from impoverished
backgrounds-concentrated in northern ghettoes . They either
did not meet the entrance requirements of nearby state colleges, or did
not have the financial resources to attend open-door black colleges in the
South . In fact, black students who lived in the South had a greater chance
of entering colleges than those living in the North . For instance, we
know that in 1965 approximately 30 percent of the black high school
graduates in the South enrolled in institutions of higher learning (mostly
black schools) . In the North, however, (except in the state of California
which has a large number of open-door junior colleges), the situation
for black students was critical .
I would like to focus, very briefly, on the New England area, for
here the critical state of black higher education throughout the North
is most forcefully exemplified . In 1965-66 there were only 2,216 blacks
enrolled in the colleges and universities in New England, including junior
colleges, or 0.69 percent of the total student population . Because the
few black students attending New England colleges at that time represented
largely the managerial and professional segments of the black
population, one author was led to conclude " . . . that as far as the
economically and socially depressed main body of American Negroes is
concerned, it would not matter at ali if New England colleges and uni-
g March 1970 NEGRO DIGEST