Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

out of "The Punch Out" and other
student hangouts .
I walk through the campus on
occasion and, now and again, students
wave or grin at me ; or come
over to shake my hand and to inquire
about my welfare ; and it saddens
me to see that they are not
concerned about their own . It is
sadder still to see in their faces and
reactions (and, frequently, frank
apologies and rationalizations) a
recognition that they have played
into the hands of dishonesty and
disgrace to their own heritage, bartered
away self-respect for insulation
against the risk of delay or
inconvenience in getting themselves
ratified (no pun intended) for the
rat race they feel lies ahead . Some
of them may never realize how
cheaply they sold out .
But students, unlike professors,
are not stuck forever in the cesspool
of Howard's mediocrity . Many
will be able to shake off the crippling
influences of their college
years and someday reclaim their
lives elsewhere and make full contributions
to the world and to their
race . The professors who remain
must either face dismissal or be left
to quiver aimlessly in the quicksand
of induced docility . I have watched
them, day by day, young professors
with style and promise already losing
their spark, grumbling in the
dark but falling silent and teethy
when administrators walk by ; old
men now dissatisfied, but powerless
at this late date to move, driven to
NEGRO DIGEST March 1968
(See Footnotes on Next Page)
drink in bars near the campus discussing
the books begun five to 10
years ago which their frozen pens
will now never finish .
The day before Christmas Eve,
I stopped by an asylum to visit a
former Howard professor and
friend incarcerated there . He had
been one of the deans of Negro
literature and black thought in the
days when Howard was in its heyday,
sought out for guidance by a
generation of black students when
Howard's faculty directory read
like a Who's Who Among Negro
Scholars . In late November someone
had told me how he stood in
a faculty meeting and angrily
threatened, should Howard go
through with a proposal to give all
this year's honorary degrees to
white individuals, he would write
exposes which would "make Nathan
Hare's seem mild ." Within
two weeks they compelled him to
retire ("leave of absence" beginning
the second semester until the
end of the year and then goodby)
after over thirty years on the faculty
. In a few days he was taken
by force to St . Elizabeth's hospital .
Coming down the corridor on the
day of my visit, he looked well for
his age and in good health . On approaching
closer he recognized me
and refused to see me, stating that
he did not wish to see anybody
from Howard again.
I am glad I was a Howard professor,
but I also am glad that
Howard fired me .
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