Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

ditional knowledge required for the
segregated society, the black society,
the little circle inside ofand
ignored by-the large circle .
We can blame ourselves . Nothing-to
my knowledge-prevents
predominantly Negro colleges from
offering any course that is desired .
I am fully aware that some Southern
legislators or governors have
applied pressure to some Negro
college presidents in an effort to
curb demonstrations . I know also
that some Negro college presidents
have succumbed to such pressure
or, timidly, have restricted student
ctivity in anticipation of such
pressure . Certainly, having taught
in North Carolina for nine years,
I know how legislators may try to
restrict freedom of speech . Fearful
of Communism, the legislature of
North Carolina banned from appearance
on campuses any acknowledged
communist or anyone
who had pleaded the fifth amendment
. Educators in North Carolina
understood, however, that this
law was not aimed at the predominantly
Negro colleges . The
white legislators scarcely knew nor
cared who spoke to the Negro students
. The legislators and their
constituents concerned themselves
with the speakers who came to the
campuses of the large state-supported
universities .
I do not know any instance in
which a state official has opposed
an attempt to introduce any racially-oriented
course at a predominantly
Negro college . Of course, I
NEGRO DIGEST March 1968
have no primary knowledge of
what happens in education in Mississippi
or Alabama, those bastions
of Confederate racism . I do know
teachers in those states, however,
and have no reason to believe that
courses have been denied .
The fact is that Negro educators
-and I must include myselfhave
not conceived courses oriented
to the Negro . Aside from the
history of the Negro in America,
a course in literature by Negro
American writers, and possibly a
course or two in sociology including
a discussion of the problems of
minority groups, few educators
have proposed courses studying
the achievements of black men . I
know no course in the history of
art or music of Negroes, no history
of education which includes a
study of predominantly Negro
segregated public schools and colleges,
no linguistics course which
analyzes the so-called Negro dialect.
There should be sociology
courses analyzing the structure of
the Negro community, business
courses describing methods of organizing
co-operative community
businesses, more courses concentrated
on practices in small businesses
.
These courses are desirable, can
be established, and must be established,
even at the predominantly
Negro colleges as currently structured
. The irony is that they may
be established first and, condescendingly,
at predominantly white
institutions .
1 9