Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

available for more research, writing and publication . At the same
time we would not be wrenched away from the southern schools on
an indefinite basis . In a sense, this would be no more than a token
presence, of course, but it represents a temporary measure which
might have some mutual benefit while we discuss the questions
above and while we seek to increase the supply of brothers and
sisters who can do the job .
2 . On the recruiting of black students : There are obviously hundreds
of thousands of black students outside of the colleges who ought
to be involved in some meaningful experience of higher education .
Since your institutions have obtained funds from many sources
for some of this task, why not make at least part of that money
available in more creative ways? For instance, a consortium of one
or more white and one or more black schools could be created
solely for the purposes of recruiting black students . Through some
pooling of funds (mostly yours in the North), black students
could then be approached with this offer : Here are the funds you
need to go through college . You can use the money to attend (for
example) Morehouse, Dillard, Cornell or the University of Illinois .
If you choose a black school we ask only that you agree to spend
one of your years on the predominantly white campus, strengthening
your brothers there . If you choose an overwhelmingly white
school, you will have the privilege of going "home" for a year. In
this way black students could take the money from white schools
and use it in any way they choose . Besides, under the new conditions
now prevailing in both black and white institutions, the exchange
could not help but be fruitful .
3 . The issue of finances is a crucial one, especially as it relates to the
future of black colleges . Some institutions would obviously serve
the cause best if they merged with other schools to create new
strengths and expanded facilities . But even those which remained
need to be enlarged and endowed in ways that black schools have
not known up to now . Why, for instance, should it not be possible
for prestigious northern schools to use their prestige to help obtain
special research grants for certain work which can be done well
only by black scholars? Or why should your more affluent northern
institutions not be pressed to make other significant financial
contributions to the life of these schools they now so blithely seek
to rape? The United Negro College Fund might be one general
depository . Others can be found . Perhaps an autonomous but well
funded black educational foundation ought to be established, with
its single mission the financing of creative ventures in black educa-
NEGRO DIGEST March 1970 bq