Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

evant educational institution, they
would have to build it themselves .
It was decided that the next logical
step was the development of
Malcolm X Liberation University .
Ideas for the University's development
were obtained in a series of
meetings with students, faculty, and
Black people from communities
throughout North Carolina. These
meetings ended in the late Spring
of 1969 . At this paint, an outline
of the University had been developed
which served as the base for
its continued development .
During the summer months of
1969, a task force of former students
headed by Brother Howard
Fuller worked with the community
people in Durham, and other Black
people around the country, in order
for the University to open in the
fall .
So we can see that the answers
to the above questions can be simplified
thusly : Malcolm X Liberation
University opened on October
25, 1969, in Durham because it
was an idea whose time had come .
It had come because of a logical
progression of events which had occurred
both in the Black community
and on the campus of Duke University.
The overriding purpose of the
University is to provide a framework
within which education can
become relevant to the needs of
NEGRO DIGEST March 1970
Black people . Training at the University,
therefore, is geared toward
the analysis of the American system,
and of all other institutions of
colonizing societies, which serve
the process of Black dehumanization
. Beyond this, however, the
University represents an attempt to
develop a functional Black ideology,
which will serve as a guideline
for Black people and will further
define and develop a program to
build self-reliance .
It is the feeling of those at the
University that if we are in fact
serious about Black liberation, then
we must be speaking ultimately of
Black independence . And if we are
speaking of Black independence,
then we are speaking basically
about these things :
1 . The control by Black people
of our goods and services ;
2 . The control by Black people
of our consciousness ;
3 . The control by Black people
of the mechanisms of force and
violence .
Malcolm X Liberation University,
then, is essentially concerned with
the building of Black self-reliance
in order to help bring about Black
independence .
The curriculum of the university
is broken into two sections, running
for approximately 10 to 12
months each . The first section,
broadly defined as the ideological
and cultural part, includes five
basic topics, plus physical development
and language classes . The
five topic areas are :
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