Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

not . (The National Association of African-American Educators should
facilitate an easy start in this direction . All we have to do is relate to it . )
Other than this, I urge you all to persist in your loyalty to the 125,000
black students who study with you in the South, even in the face of
tempting salary offers and the handful of us who have been farmed-out
as window dressing for the "prestigious" institutions of the North . You
have the ball (essence) and "they" are simply waiting to steal it after
"we" have tackled you .
In answer to question no . 2 : it is my opinion that you should refuse
any offers from either us or "them" until some arrangement regarding
the above has been formalized .
4 . There is presently nothing in white institutions that is worth "imitating
." Anything that we could create in them to imitate might just as
well be created in the right place to begin with .
6 . It would make a great deal of sense, in my opinion, for us to attempt
to provide as many serious Northern black students as possible with
exposure to the black-oriented brothers in the South and the Southern
Black Experience in general . Indeed, many of us have already developed
a vision of our circumstances that is tunneled because we lack such exposure
.
As is evidenced by the tone of this letter, I found your suggestions
for action wholly appropriate and in keeping with our needs . Of these,
I do not believe that enough can be said for the usefulness of a scheme
such as the Consortium that you suggested . Unless some such arrangement
is effected, we may reasonably expect not only a continuation of
the present rape and deprivation of southern black institutions, but it
appears that we can expect an escalation of this situation . Whether or
not we are able to create such consortiums may be largely determined
by our ability, or willingness, to communicate the sordidness of these
circumstances and to move constructively to prevent them . Still, there
is the need to be more specific about what to do and where to do it .
And it is here that I wish to offer some further suggestions .
It is a fact that we are still in the midst of a general stampede in the
direction of Black or Afro-American Studies . It is equally a fact that
this approach (Black Studies everywhere/anywhere) is not conducive
to the construction of ONE really good program anywhere . Therefore,
we ought to decide where such programs are really needed/can function/
and devote our time and energies to these alone . The 30 to 50
million people that we are concerned about are spread across the country
; West Coast, East Coast, Midwest and South . The task, as it appears
to me, is to construct some programs) that will bring as many of us
together as is possible to insure that at least FOUL major programsdirectly
related to the Black University-are developed in the country .
NEGRO DIGEST March 1970 65