Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

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THE BLACK UNIVERSITY
In the evolving concept of the Black University, community is the
essential constant . All the laymen, students and scholars who are dedicated
to the idea emphasize the centrality of the community . It is to
serve the interests of the community that the Black University will exist ;
indeed, that definition of the Black University which equates it with
the dynamics of empowering the community is the most commonly advanced
definition . Other aspects of the Black University idea are in debate,
as they should be . In two previous issues of NEGxO DIGEST (March
1968 and March 1969 ) , scholars, teachers, students and involved laymen
discussed the concept and their own ideas as to how it should be brought
into being . Blueprints were offered, pitfalls were delineated, warnings
were sounded, and objections were set forth . The problems of the traditional
Negro colleges were outlined, along with some of their strengths
and some of their failures . In the first Black University issue, Vincent
Harding discussed the international implications of the Black University .
In the following issue, he brought his focus home again, zeroed in on
the dilemma of the Black-oriented educational institution seeking to
provide the best in educational plant, curricula and personnel in the
face of the white educational institutions' new awareness of the value
and potential of the Black scholar and student. Dr . Harding asked of
Black scholars and students everywhere, but particularly of those in
white institutions outside the South, that they make certain important
"sacrifices" in terms of status, income and convenience to contribute
time and talent to the establishment and perpetuation of Black Universities
. If resistance to the blandishments of the affluent white institutions
was too difficult, then Dr. Harding suggested a plan of action
wherein certain exchange agreements would be worked out between the
white institutions and the Black Universities .
The reaction to Dr . Harding's article, "New Creation or Fa~Tiar
Death?", was electric . The article had been billed as "An Open Letter
to Black Students in the North," but the response to the article was by
no means restricted to Black students, North or South. Administrators,
editors, laymen and, especially, Black scholars rushed to acclaim or to
rebut the article.
March 1970 NEGRO DIGEST