Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

TRUSTEES
If I seem indifferent to trustees,
the reason is only that, as a teacher
and quasi- or semi-administrator,
I have considered trustees only
as businessmen who give the blessing
of the practical world to the
dreams of educators . I foresee less
difficulty in securing trustees than
in securing anything else for the
Black University . Jackie Robinson,
Ralph Bunche, Mayor Carl Stokes
of Cleveland or Mayor Richard
Hatcher of Gary, Publisher John
H . Johnson-these are only a few
who are possible . Trustees-allblack
or all-Negro or all-Afro-
American or whatever you wish to
call "those people"-can be found .
PRESTIGE
The final need of the Black University
is for prestige . Even newly
established white institutions require
time to build reputations . But
I fear that, in America, a black
university will never earn national
reputation as long as it uses only
black teachers to instruct only
black students . And I wonder how
long Negro students will retain
pride in their institution unless that
pride is respected by non-blacks .
This is perhaps the final reason
reaffirming for me my original con-
elusion that the desired results may
be obtained more effectively by
building upon an already established
predominantly Negro university
rather than attempting to
establish a new institution.
Secure the necessary moneywhether
from black men or white
men, and add this to the money already
in the budget of a school .
Secure administrators whose talents
supplement those of a competent
administrator who already has
experience . Secure teachers-black
or white-who have the knowledge
and the ability to teach the desired
courses, and use them to strengthen
a staff which already has numbers
and competence . Accept students
-white or black-who wish to
experience the education provided .
Then revise the curriculum to meet
the needs and demands .
What results will not be the
Black University, for it accepts
white money, white faculty, and
white students . But it should be the
kind of institution best designed to
provide adequate opportunity for
black teachers and students to develop
their capabilities fully, to
serve the black community effectively,
to gain pride in and knowledge
of their heritage and themselves,
and to achieve recognition
for their ability . And these, after
all, are the major purposes for
which a Black University is proposed
.
Darwin T. Turner, author of "The Black University : A Practical Approach,"
is dean of the graduate school at the Agricultural and Technical
State University of North Carolina, Greensboro .
NEGRO DIGEST March 1968 69