best IVERSITY Edgar F. Beck Vincent Hard min E. BLACK HISTORY BLACK POWER U .S.A. THE HUMAN SIDE OF RECONSTRUCTION 1867-1877 BY LERONE BENNETT JR. A book about the first real attempt to estab- lish an interracial de- mocracy in America, and why it failed. $6.95 Illustrated Indexed 401 pages PIONEERS IN PROTEST BY LERONE BENNETT JR. In seventeen chap- ters, Ebony's senior editor tells the story of twenty men and 111 ,;,~j women, black and rj white, who have pio- field of neered in the ~~a black protest . Pub- enl~ lished September 30. $5.95 Illustrated Indexed 267 pages BOOK DIVISION JOHNSON PUBLISHING COMPANY 1820 SOUTH MICHIGAN AVE., CHICAGO, ILL. 60616 C®i'y~'>~' i'tw'~'~ MARCH 1969 VOL. XVIII NO. 5 Editor and Publisher: JOHN H. JOHNSON Editor's Notes . , . , . , . , 4 Managing Editor: New Creations or Familiar Death Hoyt W, Fuller Vincent Herding 5 Art Director: Struggle Ideology and the Black University Herbert Temple Gerald McWorter 15 Production Assistant: Ariel P. Problems of `Place,' Personnel and Practicality Strong Edgar F. Beckhrrm 22 Circulation Manager: Robert H, Fentress The White University Must Respond to Black Students' Needs . .Roscoe C. Brown 29 v A Cultural Approach to Education Milton R. Coleman 33 NEGRO DtGESr is pub- lished monthly at 1820 Black Invisibility on White Campuses S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 6616 . Nathan Hare 39 © Copyright, 1969 by the Johnson Yubusbing S Company, Inc. New Rural Black Colleges . .Gwendolyn Midlo Hall 59 York offices : Rockefel- ler Center, 1270 Ave- nue of the Americas, A Symposium : Black Educators Respond. 66 New York 10020. Los Angeles offices 3600 James R. Lawson, Benjamin E. Mays, Wilshire Blvd ., Los Samuel D. Proctor, Benjamin F. Payton Angeles, Calif. 90005, Washington, D. C. of- fices : 1750 Pennsyl- vania Ave ., N.W., Washington, D. C., 20006. Second class postage paid at Chica- go, Illinois . Reproduc- Special Feature tion in whole or in part forbidden without permission. Unsolicited Going Home . .Sarah lF'ebster Fabio 54 material will be re- turned only if accom- panied by a stamped, self-addressed enve- lope . Subscriptions $5.00 per year. For for- eign subscriptions add $1 .00. NEGRO DIGEST Regular Features articles are selected on the basis of general Perspectives (Notes on books, writers, artists and interest and do not necessarily express the the arts), 49-52 ;-Poetry, 53. opinions of the editors. NEGRO DIGEST March 1969 ~G~~GON ~ ~OGe~ Uni- The first point to be made clear in any discussion of the Black the limits of the versity is that the concept is not to be defined within it is university as it traditionally has existed in this country and as that is, it is imagined by the academics. The concept is revolutionary; existing university concerned with breaking out of-indeed, leveling-the education. Where structure and instituting in its stead new a~~ -oaches to University will be existing universities are scholar-oriented,~Tie Black the community-oriented; where the traditional university has emphasized the ends of intellectual and cultural development of the student toward will seek to in- academic excellence and elitism, the Black University of interrelated volve the total community and its institutions in a system which are designed and interlocking "schools" and programs of study unity, self-determina- to serve the black community in its reach toward power, and the tion, the acquisition and use of political and economic the American uni- protection of the freedom of the human spirit ; where a meaningful role versity has sought to prepare the student to assume goal will be in the mainstream of American life, the Black University's the values of the to destroy in the minds of black people the validity of have been used "mainstream," those values which, for nearly 400 years, and to generally diminish to debase and to dehumanize black people glorify within the the respect for human dignity, and to resurrect and to black community the spirit of Muntu.* being hurriedly Nor will the proliferating Black Studies Programs now across the country '' established at major white colleges and universities in de-fusing the succeed in co-opting the Black University concept and of some in the drive toward its realization, despite the expressed hopes heels of the an- academic and political Establishments . Hard on the of educational in- nouncement from Harvard University that that queen beginning in stitutions would offer a degree in Afro-American Studies schools as Yale the Autumn of 19b9 (joining such other Establishment an editorial commending - and Stanford), the New York Times published an issue that Harvard's move as "an important step in depoliticalizing . ." As is the cus- has become enmeshed in unnecessary controversy that "Even without the tom, after the fact, the Times editorial admitted been evident protest of black students across the country, it should have part of American social, to college curriculum-builders that a significant shamefully neglected," but economic and cultural history has long been p ~ontinued on page 95) March 1969 NEGRO DIGEST An Open Letter to Black Students in the North NEW CREATION OR FAMILIAR DEATH? BY VINCENT HARDING A letter nf the greatest urgency "u;ritten in the spirit of black ecumenical concern as we move towards a new humanity" DEAR Brothers and Sisters, This letter may touch on sensitive and painful areas, but it is based on the assumption that every contradiction within our struggle must be examined with relentless care and dis- cussed with total cardor throughout the brotherhood of our blackness . On the other hand. it must also be clear that I do not assume that those of us who work out in the academic halls of the South are any more free from powerful and ironic inner confusions than v~u who oper- ate in the North. Nevertheless, there are certain current developments among you which appear dangerous-indeed disastrous-from our per- spective. We are convinced that no meaningful building of the Black University can take place unless at least some of these issues are resolved. So I have taken it upon myself to try to articulate our general concerns, especially as they are directed to those of you who study and teach on northern campuses. Let me get to the point in the most brutal manner first, and then attempt to elaborate with greater precis~on as I go. The center of our concern is this: Do the black student (and faculty) brothers in northern schools NEGRO DIGEST March 1969 5 realize that much of your motion over the past year has often appeared to encourage the destructi _a of those colleges and universities where some 125,00(1 black students study in the South? Besides, do you realize that such action towards destruction puts you in league with many white, northern, academic administrators who are ready to deny the future of black southern education, ready to manipulate the death of potentially powerful black institutions? Now, let me say more fully what I mean. Over the past several years, for dozens of good, bad and indifferent reasons, the schools of the North have been discovering that they need black students, faculty persons and various levels of black-oriented curriculum. (As you well know, the cur- rent commercial value of blackness has not been one of the least of the reasons for the belated and somewhat sudden awakening. ) As might have been expected, these white institutions turned increasingly towards the black campuses of the South. There they found a ready-made supply of black faculty, and discovered the presence of some Afro-American cur- riculum which had not been destroyed by "integration ." In addition, they began to enter into serious competition with the southern schools for the best black students. All this action was facilitated by the ready access such institutions had to the very financial sources which had been traditionally parsimonious in their help to black schools for some of the same tasks. (Of course, it should also be said loudly that the brain-draining process was significantly aided by the great hesitancy on the part of many faculty persons and admini- strators in the "predominantly Negro" colleges to realize that our ex- perience as a people was worthy of serious academic exploration, and by their failure to offer the younger black scholars those encouragements which money cannot buy. But that is another article! ) Then came the assassination of our brother in April, 1968, and many of you stepped up the pace of your action a hundred-fold . Wherever you were gathered on the northern campuses, whatever your numbers, you de- manded more faculty, more courses, more black students than ever before. "Freedom, Now!" became "Blackness, Now!" So you rapped with articu- late vigor, boycotted, threatened all kinds of things, took over meetings, classes and buildings-and generally raised hell. Meanwhile, we watched from the South. We applauded. We laughed at trembling white administrators who seemed ready to offer you everything you demanded-sometimes before the words were dry on the leaflets . Oc- casionally we joined in the action on your behalf, and strengthened our own students in their resolve to their own southern thing. As a matter of fact, when an increasingly large number of us were wafted through the skies to visit your campuses as consultants and lecturers and to become objects of tempting salary offers, some of our egos were mo- March 1969 NEGRO DIGEST mentarily bolstered (or our minds momentarily deranged) beyond de- scription. Our black academic forefathers had never known such high adventure, we thought. Now, for a variety of reasons, a blessed but painful clarity has begun to break into our euphoric white visions.