Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

Negro college, he, generally, must
live in the South . Professionally,
his growth is restricted by the cultural
isolation, the poverty, and the
apathy frequently characteristic of
such institutions . Because he may
become a professor, a dean, or
even a president, he may earn more
money than he would in an integrated
institution . Psychologically,
however, he struggles to maintain
self-respect when professional
friends accuse him of martyrdom
or worse . Even though the quality
of instruction in individual classes
may equal that observed in any college
in the country, widely publicized
reports by white men have
proclaimed the innate inferiority of
such institutions . Thus, as long as
he remains attached to a predominantly
Negro college, he too is adjudged
inferior or, at best, an exception,
a small-sized frog in a
muddy cesspool .
It is no wonder that, vacillating
between such harsh alternatives,
Negro educators frequently dream
of a black university in which they
might rise to a level ordained by
their talents and ambition while
commanding the professional respect
accorded to teachers at prestige
institutions .
V Similarly, sensitive Negro students
feel repressed . In integrated
institutions, prospects are brighter
for them than for Negro teachers .
They may be elected to such exalted
positions as homecoming
queen or president of a club or
even a class. The only requirement
1 6
is that they be exceptional in intelligence,
athletic ability, charm, or
beauty, or that the school be campaigning
to prove its liberality . If
they are average or enroll during
the wrong year, they drop into obscurity,
where they remain far more
hidden than are white classmates
of equal talent . Regardless of their
prominence, they experience restrictions
in social life . Academically,
some suffer from the prejudice
of instructors who believe Negroes
incapable of swimming above
"C" level . Still others, intelligent
students, may suspect that they are
being crippled by condescending
tolerance . Their answers are accepted
too easily ; their mistakes
are forgiven too quickly . They fear
that they are being hurried along,
with good grades, by teachers willing
to evaluate Negroes on lowered
standards because, after graduation,
the Negroes will disappear
into their own world where their
ignorance will neither injure nor
threaten the white world . Furthermore,
whether talented or average,
these students will be taught very
little about the worthy achievements
of other Negroes .
As students in a predominantly
Negro college, they may achieve
more local prominence as individuals,
but they have read the studies
which advise them and the world
that their education is inferior . This
knowledge creates double dangers .
First, although they resent the situation
which labels them inferior
by association, they subconsciously
March 1968 NEGRO DIGEST