1YIARCH Tlibb a Jotinsan Rl7"LICATIOM S6a BLACK POWER IS 100 YEARS OLD
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1YIARCH tliBB A JOtiNSaN rl7"LICATIOM S6a BLACK POWER IS 100 YEARS OLD 56.95 400 pages Illustrated Indexed The lessons of the Reconstruc- tion period ; the great achievements and brilliant careers of black men in the years after Emancipation and the bitter effects of the first "white back- lash" are detailed in Lerone Bennett's new book, a companion volume to his best-selling Negro history, Before the Mayflower. CONTENTS MARCH 1968 VOL. XVII NO . 5 Editor and Publisher: JOHN H. JOHNSON The Blacli University The Nature and Needs of the Black Managing Editor: University . , , . , , , . Gerald McIGorter 4 Hoyt W. Fuller The Black University: A Practical Approach Art Director : Darwin T. Turner 14 Herbert Temple The Black University : Toward Its Production Assistant: Ariel P. Strong Realization . Stephen E. Henderson 2l Circulation Manager : The Black University and Its Community Robert H, Fentress J. Herman. Blake 27 Some International Implications of the Necao Dmesr is pub- lished monthly at 1820 Black University . .Vincent Harding 32 S . Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60616 . (" Copyright, 1968 by Final Reflections on A `Negro' College : the Johnson Publishing Company, Inc. New A Case Study . , , , , . Nathan Hare 40 York offices : Rockefel- ler Center, 1270 Ave- nue of the Americas, Editor's Notes . , . . 97 New York 10020 . I os Angeles offices : 3600 W'ilshirc Blvd ., Los Angeles, Calif . 900115, Washington, D . C . of- Fiction fices : 1750 Pennsyl- vania Ave ., N .W ., Washington, D . C ., The Game . , . , . , , . , , ,Christine :0006. Paris office, 38, Reanrs 54 Avenue George ~' Paris R", France . Sec- ond class postage paid at Chicago, Illinois . Photo Feature Reproduction in w9tole or in part forbidden without permission . Jon Lockard, Unsolicited material Black Artist . , , , , . , , , , , , , , 93 will be returned only if accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope . Subscrip- tions $4 .00 per year . Regular Features For foreign subscrip- tions add $1 .00. NI=- cao lltcesr articles are Perspectives (Notes on books, writers, artists and selected on the basis of general interest and the arts), 49-52 ;-humor in Ilue, 39 ;-Poetry", do not necessarily ex- press the opinions of 47, 48. the editors . NEGRO DIGEST March 1968 3 A Choice of Forms BY OEI~ALD McWORTER EVOLUTIONARY '. WNile we can loot; to change for the libera- Lho future, at best, forit.s full tion of a people from quite possi- realization, tit is oppressive social lrle now to suggest a struc- structures is not the tural outline that reflects the fundamental assump- special function of one course of tiorrs about the Black L ni- action, but, more likely, the result w~rsitv's .social and intellrrc- of several . And while education is J tual role . .' generally hoped to be a liberating force on men's minds and bodies, ofttimes it has been used as a de- bilitating tool in the interests of an (See Editor's Notes, page 97) oppressive society. Accordingly, March 1968 NEGRO DIGEST Kwame Nkrumah compares the co- modern times in anti-colonial lonial student educated for "the art movements in the Third World . of forming not a concrete envir- In the United States there is no onmental view of social political question about the persistence of problems, but an abstract `liberal' segregation, racism, and more sub- outlook," with the revolutionary tle forms of neo-racism ., As the student "animated by a lively na- pernicious oppression of racism is tional consciousness, (who) sought an organic part of the institutions, knowledge as an instrument of na- symbols, and values of Western tional emancipation and integrity ." industrial society, so it is firmly en- So it is becoming rather clear that trenched in the U.S.A . ("as Amer- educational institutions are vital to ican as apple pie") . An Afro- a liberation movement, a fact of American liberation movement NEGRO DIGEST March 1968 must subvert and/or supplant such children trained as intelligent hu- a well-entrenched social system if it man beings should be, and we is to be a real source of radical will fight for all time against any chance and not a false one. proposal to educate black boys My primary task in this discus- and girls simply as servants and sion is an ideological consideration underlings, or simply for the use of the role of a university in the of other people. They have a liberation of the Afro-American right to know, to think, to aspire. community. It must be clear that We do not believe in violence this role has to deal with today's . but we do believe in . that world, as well as with what ought willingness to sacrifice money, to be. And certainly, it must in- reputation, and life itself on the clude the management of whatever altar of right. social change is required to move The Booker T. Washington-Du effectively from the "is" to the Bois dialectical opposition is rele- "ought." The university is alive for vant here, as it is the important people in the world (including all example of the "is" versus the of the socioeconomic and political "ought" co-ncerning educational hangs-up involved), and so must ideology for Afro-Americans . meet the challenge of responding Training people to fit in where they creatively to whatever needs exist can (think of MDTA, Job Corps, now for those people . But, at the ete.) might be acceptable for short same time, it must project itself as term solutions, though not as a prophetic institution calling into Washington thought it to be . But question all that which is incon- the educational ideology of Du sistent with its highest ideals, and Bois is our prophecy, a rationale to organizing its activities to bring built a Black university-the cruci- about the realization of its ideals . ble of definitive social change. The focus of this discussion is on In order that the idea of the new what ought to be, the prophetic .so- university and the notions of how cial role of the Black University, we are to achieve it as a goal will be for therein lies the fountainhead of more clearly understood, it is im- revolutionary liberation. portant to discuss briefly the cur- We must be reminded of this rent social situation. The current same theme as stated by Dr. W. situation is one charged with a E . B. Du Bois over 50 years ago in great deal of expectancy on the the 1910 Niagro Movement reso- part of many Afro-Americans, an lutions : expectancy frequently expressed by And when we call for education, the emotional connotations of a we mean real education . Ed- term or phrase but usually not de- ucation is the development of lineated in structural or program- power and ideal. We want our matic terms. But this programmatic March 1958 NEGRO DIGEST deficiency is not sa much a short- sire to get more out of society there coming, for the exciting search for also is the increasing saliency of a innovation and relevance is the first nationalistic alternative to the sys- sign of progress. A major question, tem. The general components are then, is what conditions give rise to militancy, self-determination, and this expectancy, this charged at- a desire to identify with similar op- mosphere crystallized around the pressed people throughout the term Black University? world (who are not by accident mostly colored people) . This alter- native is grounded in communalism and finds its legitimacy from within Afro-America and not outside of it. Nationalism in this c~nrPxr A major trend in today's world means total concern fo ~ m- is that, as oppressed people know mumty o common experience, so that the world offers more than _Af_~~A-merlCan Natinna icm ie they have, and as they are able to gxoiuided in the Black Ex;PriPn~~ get a little more of it, they also ex- Communalism. meaning self-help pect to get very much more. This cooperative efforts, is the ethic sup- has been called "the revolution of portin~ the new alternative rising expectations ." A figurative These two major trends cannot example: An Afro-American fami- be viewed outside of the total con- ly gets a television set and enters as text of world events, especially a spectator the world of affluent those events of particular relevance Euro-American society. It is not to the Afro-American community . complicated to see that this would The military-industrial machine lead to the family wanting more of the Western powers is equally than it has, much more. Just imams offensive and outraging in Vietnam ine how cruel it must be for poor and South Africa, in Santo Do- oppressed Black people to watch mingo and Ghana. But the give-away quiz it seems programs on apparent that peoples can only which white people win appliances, furniture, and cars in 20 minutes or unite across the world in aspiring so. Then think of a scene of ghetto for the same universals-peace, destruction during which people freedom, and justice-while focus- brave armed police to steal appli- ing their working activities on the ances, furniture, and cars in 20 social ills as manifested at home. If minutes or so. Oppressed people we are to reap a harvest of world see what is going on, and want `in' brotherhood, then each man must in the best way they can get `in' first tend to his own garden. But (yes, by any means necessary to do for each garden to have its true it right now!! ) . meaning, the gardener must know Along with this developing de- his historical role and his relation- NEGRO DIGEST March 1968 ship with all others working for the black community's own shortage of same harvest.