Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

e established far Black students
throughout the Boston area . Where
transportation seemed to be a problem,
classrooms on the various
campuses could be linked electronically
. A group of students at Tufts,
for instance, could participate in a
seminar being conducted on the
Brandeis campus, and the students
an both campuses could see each
other as well as hear each other .
Certainly, overall coordination of
the program could be handled by
one "best Black scholar."
The decision by the Afro-American
Society at Brandeis to work
toward the establishment of a Black
institute in Roxbury offers an even
more exciting variation on the same
theme . An institute in Roxbury,
and for that matter, in any other
Black community, could serve students
enrolled at colleges and universities
throughout the area . The
participating institutions would, of
course, be expected to contribute to
the institute's funding and to grant
academic credit for its courses . The
institute could, in turn, develop
special programs to meet a wide
variety of community needs .
Of course, the notion that affluent
institutions which are reluctant
to grant autonomy to Black
departments should fund programs
outside of their own corporate
framework will cause some dismay,
at least in New England . But the
fact of the matter is that many of
these institutions do a spectacularly
poor job of educating Black students
. At Brandeis, for instance,
despite the high level of white good-
NEGRO DIGEST March 1969
will that seems to exist there, one
of the precipitating causes of the
student revolt was a nominally
Black course taught by a superliberal
professor who sought to
undermine the developing consciousness
of his Black students .
The students were justifiably enraged
at the deception . But not all
of the responsibility for effecting
change rests with cumbersome
or unimaginative administrations .
Black students, who must receive
credit for most of the progress
made to date, have to continue
their efforts, and in a more coordinated
manner . As has been stated
again and again, we cannot allow
our limited human resources in
Black education to be spread in
token fashion all over the country.
The Black educational programs
being developed at such key centers
as Atlanta University are far
too important to be sacrificed at the
academic marketplace .
One might contend, of course,
that white institutions will try to
use these suggestions in an attemptto
shirk their responsibilities to
Black students. The simplest test,
which Black students should apply
regularly, is to determine what the
institutions are willing to do . Will
they, for instance, contribute to and
share a neighboring institution's
program? Will they set up exchange
programs with a neighboring
school or with a distant Black
school so that their Black students
can take advantage of courses offered
elsewHere? Will they help to
fund an autonomous institute in
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