Negro Digest - Freedom Archives
Negro Digest - Freedom Archives Negro Digest - Freedom Archives
seriously conceive of such a University . It has been a general problem in Western education ever since the advent of the new science . It was particularly crystallized in tire 19th century in the exchange between Matthew Arnold and Thomas Huxley . It is still with us in the crisis of the two cultures as described by C . P . Snow . It is still with us in the growing dissatisfaction with General Education programs, as well as a rather common awareness that Science alone cannot satisfy all of the complex needs of human society and culture . It is still with us in the widespread fear that a society completely dominated by science might eventually deprive us of those very values which make human life meaningful . Thus, if anything, if the Black University is predicated upon the intrinsic human value of philosophical blackness, or SOUL, the conflict between the humanistic studies and the natural sciences could conceivably be heightened still further . And if, as I assume, the Black University would probably come into existence as a result of modifying the structure of some one or more of the existing liberal arts colleges which have science departments firmly entrenched in the academic life, other practical and theoretical problems are generated . Suppose, for example, that at College X an ideal situation exists in which the administration and the board of trustees agree to change the identity of the college in order 82 to make it a Black College or a de facto unit in a larger Black University . What should be their attitude toward the mathematics courses and the courses in the natural sciences? What should be their attitude toward the Black Humanists, assuming again an ideal situation, who teach these courses? What should be their attitude toward the black student who is already discovering himself and his world through an exploration of the Black Experience but who happens to be a physics major? Should they, with a black stroke of the pen, wipe out as anti-Soul, and thus anti-black, the entire department'? Of' course not, for such an action would be in itself divisive and hence anti-Soul . It would chop both student and professor straight down the middle, producing the very kind of fractured sensibility which is the tragic inheritance of modern Western life . Then what recourse is there? A return to a pre-scientific state? This is clearly impractical, even if it were desirable . As I see it, it is not only undesirable ; it is foolish . Science is here to stay . Technology, a stepsister of science, is also here to stay . Not only must Afro-Americans come to grips with that fact, so also must the so-called Third World . And so in fact they have Witness the Aswan High Dam . Witness the brilliant successes of the Chinese in nuclear physics . Witness the history of Japan since the contact with the West . Lest one dismiss this March 1968 NEGRO DIGEST
lightly as Western intellectual imperialism or moral contamination, let us recall that the early history of science took place largely in non- Western areas of the world-in Africa, in the mid-East, in the Far East, and in pre-Columbian America . Left to develop without the devasting contact with the West, any one of these areas might well have evolved an independent modern science, and we have no assurance that the more negative aspects of scientism would not have developed likewise . Thus, since the study of science seems a natural and logical enough human pursuit, it should have, it seems to me, an honored place in the curriculum of the Black University . That place should not be subordinate to any other, for the rigorous discipline imposed by scientific study and the thrilling sweep of the scientific imagination would be extremely valuable in all of the other academic pursuits of the student . The result would be a new structure, a new balance, and, one hopes, a new man-a new vision of what it means to be a man . This would be our gift to ourselves, and through ourselves to the world . Perhaps it is not too late . Stephen E . Henderson, author of "The Black University : Toward Its Realization," is chairman of the Department of English at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga . He is co-author of A Humanities Handbook and of a number of short stories and articles . His article, "Blues for the Young Blackman," appeared in the August 1967 Necxo DIGEST . NEGRO DIGEST March 1968 83
- Page 31 and 32: ployment rate for black youth betwe
- Page 33 and 34: For Our People - Everywhere "By far
- Page 35 and 36: analogues for possible study . ) We
- Page 37 and 38: World publication of the Caribbean,
- Page 39 and 40: NEGRO DIGEST March 1968 39
- Page 41 and 42: NEGRO DIGEST March 1968 4 1
- Page 43 and 44: make Howard "sixty per cent white"
- Page 45 and 46: Simultaneously there arose a hybrid
- Page 47 and 48: NEGRO DIGEST March 1968 In the days
- Page 49 and 50: A Call To Concerned Black Educators
- Page 51 and 52: BOOK "Great Literature i.s simply l
- Page 53 and 54: the members of Miss Brooks' worksho
- Page 55 and 56: BY CHRISTINE REAMS ' . . . Ifo .sat
- Page 57 and 58: as Mike and Jim dashed down the ste
- Page 59 and 60: "Oh, my hair i~ so curly, so curly
- Page 61 and 62: one of them a good whipping, no mat
- Page 63 and 64: a while . I didn't know what she me
- Page 65 and 66: Since sufficient teachers cannot be
- Page 67 and 68: NEW PROGRAMS AND EXPERIMENTATION Th
- Page 69 and 70: TRUSTEES If I seem indifferent to t
- Page 71 and 72: years when '`Christian character an
- Page 73 and 74: leaders and professors posing as mi
- Page 75 and 76: out of "The Punch Out" and other st
- Page 77 and 78: penniless writer, he travels the ga
- Page 79 and 80: No doubt about it, Mr . Williams ca
- Page 81: esearch crying for the kind of clar
- Page 85 and 86: as a white man with a similar educa
- Page 87 and 88: lacks are better off, but we must a
- Page 89 and 90: income blacks and better for the mi
- Page 91 and 92: compared to white men had not impro
- Page 93 and 94: "iON ONYE LOCKARD is a selftaught a
- Page 95 and 96: Plea ForA Second Chance : Work-worn
- Page 97 and 98: That something is gravely wrong wit
- Page 99 and 100: THE DUKE NATURAL SET MAlR SHEEN lea
- Page 101 and 102: Edgar F . Beck Vincent Hard min E .
- Page 103 and 104: C®i'y~'>~' i'tw'~'~ Editor's Notes
- Page 105 and 106: An Open Letter to Black Students in
- Page 107 and 108: mentarily bolstered (or our minds m
- Page 109 and 110: plications of such attitudes as you
- Page 111 and 112: 7 . Have you given serious thought
- Page 113 and 114: of white institutions that there si
- Page 115 and 116: Platform and Program S HL "Today we
- Page 117 and 118: ism, and we are becoming aware that
- Page 119 and 120: New agencies for Black education (A
- Page 121 and 122: ment of a plan to hire 200 Black pr
- Page 123 and 124: people in their struggle toward a c
- Page 125 and 126: else suggests that the group is bac
- Page 127 and 128: e established far Black students th
- Page 129 and 130: A Dual Responsibility The White Uni
- Page 131 and 132: a situation in a different manner w
lightly as Western intellectual imperialism<br />
or moral contamination,<br />
let us recall that the early history of<br />
science took place largely in non-<br />
Western areas of the world-in Africa,<br />
in the mid-East, in the Far<br />
East, and in pre-Columbian America<br />
. Left to develop without the devasting<br />
contact with the West, any<br />
one of these areas might well have<br />
evolved an independent modern<br />
science, and we have no assurance<br />
that the more negative aspects of scientism<br />
would not have developed<br />
likewise . Thus, since the study of<br />
science seems a natural and logical<br />
enough human pursuit, it should<br />
have, it seems to me, an honored<br />
place in the curriculum of the Black<br />
University . That place should not<br />
be subordinate to any other, for the<br />
rigorous discipline imposed by<br />
scientific study and the thrilling<br />
sweep of the scientific imagination<br />
would be extremely valuable in all<br />
of the other academic pursuits of<br />
the student . The result would be a<br />
new structure, a new balance, and,<br />
one hopes, a new man-a new<br />
vision of what it means to be a<br />
man . This would be our gift to ourselves,<br />
and through ourselves to the<br />
world . Perhaps it is not too late .<br />
Stephen E . Henderson, author of "The Black University : Toward Its<br />
Realization," is chairman of the Department of English at Morehouse<br />
College in Atlanta, Ga . He is co-author of A Humanities Handbook<br />
and of a number of short stories and articles . His article, "Blues for<br />
the Young Blackman," appeared in the August 1967 Necxo DIGEST .<br />
NEGRO DIGEST March 1968 83
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