Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

Luther King Memorial Library (a documentation center for the
Movement) combine to present unusual library and archival resources
on the black experience . Apart from such tangibles, we
are also beneficiaries of the spirit of the great pioneering work in
black studies done in Atlanta by such persons as W . E . B . Du Bois,
E . Franklin Frazier, Rayford Logan, E . S . Braithwaithe, Ira DeA.
Reid and many others .
It is against this background of past and present resources that we
are now in the process of creating an Institute for Afro-American
Studies under the umbrella of the Martin Luther King Jr . Memorial
Center. Research, teaching, celebration and action are to be the
central driving forces-all focused on the life and times of the
peoples of African descent . I mention the Institute here because
it will need many things which you can help provide . It will need
millions of dollars, the best staff from every part of the African
diaspora, students who are ready to take care of business, and it
must have continuous exposure throughout the black community.
The schools you attend could help raise funds for this Institute.
For they will need our products (both human and informational)
if they are to be transformed into viable situations . Some of you will
ultimately comprise the staff and student body. The plans you now
have for the Afro-American studies in white settings must be reexamined
and challenged by Atlanta .
In short, I am proposing that you help this Institute become the
major black educational creation of this generation . You have a
kind of leverage in the white world which must not be dissipated
in minor, ambiguous victories . More importantly, you have a power
which must not be turned against meaningful black institutions . The
challenge to help create such an institute, to break down the many
brittle assumptions of conventional American education, to move
consistently towards our intellectual roots in the struggle for liberation-this
is, I think, a challenge more appropriate to your power .
As you ponder these matters, I trust you will remember that my questions
and proposals are meant to be only some of the ingredients in a
dialogue which must take place among us . The letter is written in the
spirit of black ecumenical concern as we move towards a new humanity .
The words are my own, but the concerns are shared by many other persons
on the southern campuses . We look forward to appropriate response
from the North, East and West .
Vincent Harding,
Atlanta, Georgia, March, 1969
On pages six and 12, responses to Dr. Harding's questions and suggestions
are presented .
NEGRO DIGEST March 1970 71