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STAFF

Roy I. Jones, Herman L. Davenport

Mildred N. Davenport

Imogene Lewis

Ernestine Jewell, Kenneth Wright, Doris Williams

Debbe Holford ( Kysha )

Carol Fraser, Alrundus Hart

Robert Padgett

Paul Barrows

Co-Editors

Secretary

Treasurer

Office Staff

Art

Photography

Literary

Layout

Editor's Note: We are at this time extendir\g an invitation to all students to participate in the publication of the

DRUM, especially in the area of prose.

THE DRUM, Winter, 1972
Vol. 3, No. 2

Editorial, Circulation and Ad-
vertising Offices located at 111
Mills House, University of Massa-
chusetts, Amherst, Mass. 01002.

Printing: Gazette Printing Co., Inc. Northampton,
Mass.

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CONTENTS

Editorial

"Guns"

Feature

"White Man" A.

Noted Black Women

Great Black Music

Sports

A Spinster's Frustration

Ray Miles on Art

"Attica: While the Blood Is Running"

Cultural Response to Education

The Potential of Mass

Communication for Blacks
The Worth of Black Studies
Mike Thelwell on Black Studies
Blueprint for Change
Acknowledgements

Roy Jones

Joseph Boy kin

Chet Davis

Jackson Line bar ger

Lillian Anthony

Bill Hasson

A I Key

Emmanuel Asibong

Debbe Holford

Luisin M. Medina

Earl Strickland

Burvell C. Williams

Herman Davenport

Bob Padgett

Acklyn Lynch

>i^^

Editorial

Many Black students now leaving their homes for colleges and universities
seem to share the common goal of going back to their respective communities upon
graduation. The desire of the "now" Black student is to acquire the necessary
educational tools to build businesses in their communities, to provide community
services, independent schools, political leaders, in essence to develop oppor-
tunities for what Malcolm called "self help".

Black students soon find that four years becomes a very long time, sometimes
too long to wait in order to fulfill the desired goals. This is not to say that inten-
tions were not sincere, but rather the way in which Black minds are shaped during
the course of four years. To be more explicit, there are at least two factors that aid
in the change of attitude or direction. The first as observed on this campus has to
do with Black student's need for immediate gratification. For example, the maj-
ority of Black students are members of the CCEBS program, which in itself seems
to be a detriment to students' thinking. Programs such as CCEBS have historically
been based on negative foundations. Many people believe that if it were not for
CCEBS there would not be any "niggers" on campus. Chances are they are prob-
ably right, but for the wrong reasons. It is true the majority of the brothers and
sisters cannot afford financially to attend, however, if you believe niggers have
been too deprived, unable to read, write or understand enough to get through the
university, that is something left for you to deal with. The sad part of this nega-
tive conception is that Black students begin believing these same psychological
blocks. The consequences of such a self image has disastrous results; it destroys
confidence, values, self worth and will lead the individual to failure upon failure
upon failure. Therefore, a Black student's desire for constant gratification is highly
important to understand if he is expected to keep on pushing. If absent, he loses
interest, loses sense of purpose or goal. Students begin thinking in terms of me
rather than we, thus we need to realize that me and we share the same problem. I
am not concluding that this need has to be a continuing reality for the student,
whether or not it is depends on the strength a student is able to gain through self
determination.

The second factor has to do with what I will term a "trance of luxury". The
total UMass-Amherst environment reinforces a luxury Black folks really cannot
afford. The hang - loose "do your own thing" atmosphere is not conducive for the
serious thinking we need to do as a cooperating body of students. In brief the point
that has to be made is that the true value of our education should only be to give
our larger communities of Black people understanding, definition and direction. If
we are to realize that our station should be that of service to other people, then it is
not hard to realize why we are here and proceed with steadfast discipline and
determination. UMass should only be a proving ground for ourselves so that we
can obtain the desired goal of instilling pride, dignity and nobility in our
communities. Of course, no one can dictate what an individual's actions should be,
however, it is imperative that we realize the spiritual motivating force lies in the
hearts of the millions of Black people that will never see UMass. One wonders if
"Kool and the Gang" understood the magnitude of the question, "Who's goin' to
take the weight"? We have been chosen as servants for our people! Will we choose
a most glorious future or suffer a most dismal failure? The time is most desperate,
each minute we waste on idle thoughts and vain imaginings will cost us a huge
sum. It can be said that any Black student allowing boredom or apathy to seep into
their lives "ain't takin' care of business."

Man made guns to protect their belongings not

themseives. ^

Man made gumt^W ail living things that ,

got in his vi^jHPP^

Man made lUlsto put people In, so they

wouldn't take what belongs to them.

Man also told a lot of lies to win other men

to his side, but man also made a big mistake

he said, you must go to school.

Some Random Thoughts on Black Education
AND THE Necessity for Community Control

In all of the motion that we currently observe in
educational '■innovation" as promoted by the
presently fashionable theorists (Charles Silberman,
James Coleman, Herbert Kohl, Christopher Jencks,
etc.) and schools of education across the country,
there is a curious omission when consideration is
given to the education of Black children. None of
these educationists take seriously the idea of
independent Black schools under all - Black control.
Apparently they have been convinced that Black
children can learn effectively only in integrated
schools, therefore, any serious consideration of all -
Black educational settings would be foolishness and
a waste of time. Also, it is probable that they feel that
to question or go against the liberal integrationist
doctrines current in the educational world is to fly in
the face of incontrovertible scientific evidence (the
Coleman Report, Racial Isolation in the Public
Schools, etc.) which tell them that not only must
Black children be in a school with white children, but
must be there in a certain numerical proportion and
the white children must be of a certain social and
economic class.

There is also the question of who is to control the
educational process. Community people are
commonly thought to lack the "expertise" necessary
for running a school, or even being a significant
partner with professional teachers and
administrators. (Note the concept of the "para -
professional.") Interestingly enough, in the minds of
the educationists this view seems to apply only to the
Black and the poor. Rarely do they question the
intelligence or competence of residents of middle -
class white communities where the education of their
children is concerned. Of course, many of these
people possess the same "credentials" the educa-
tionists have, so it is automatically concluded that
they are capable of serious thought and action in the
field of education. Unfortunately, schools of
education, which should be engaged in more critical
analysis and evaluation of educational philosophies,
theories, and practices are among the chief promoters
of these attitudes.

When stripped of its jargon, the message of the
educational establishment to Black communities is
that they are not competent to organize and run
schools, and even if they were it would be futile to
run all Black schools because "scientific" research
has shown that Black children cannot learn in such a
setting anyway. And all of this is typically couched in

expressed concern about the counterproductivity of
"separatism" in a multi-racial society, "reverse ra-
cism", and the commitment of the country to equal
opportunity and massive integration. Again, when we
cut through the rhetoric of educationists and edu-
cational innovators and examine closely the assump-
tive underpinnings of their schemes and programs
certain things begin to become clearer. Perhaps the
major problem with these schemes and programs of
the educational establishment in regard to Black
children is that they all proceed from assumptions of
almost total pathology in Black communities. They
assume that there is nothing educationally viable in
these communities and therefore Black children must
be educated away from their backgrounds of
"cultural deprivation" and "educational
disadvantage". Thus, there is a proliferation of
"intervention" programs like Head Start, Upward
Bound, compensatory education, "enrichment", and
other schemes theoretically designed to bring Black
children "up" to a decided upon level of academic
competence which is to be measured by tests designed
by these same people and which have little or no
relation to the lived experiences of the children
themselves. Such an approach displays, on the one
hand, an arrogant racism, and on the other a severely
limited understanding of the nature of the learning
process. Within their frame of reference it could not
occur to these "experts" that the motivation in Black
children for learning could come from their own
communities and need not be externally provided.

The historical evidence of the mis-education and
non-education of Black children as reflected in the
present condition of the schools suggests that those in
control of the educational apparatus are incompetent
to deal with the education of Black children. In place
of these tarnished "experts" support should be
generated for educational experiments and programs
developed by Black educators and community people
on the local level. The argument that community
people (non - professionals) do not have the training
or professional expertise to develop educational
programs tor their children is no longer valid, if
indeed, it ever was. The fact is that literally thousands
of Black educators, students, and parents are now
engaged in creating educational programs by setting
up independent schools in their communities. A few
such schools are The Chad School in Newark, N.J.;
The Learning House and the M. L. King School in
Atlanta, Ga.; Uhuru Sasa School in New York City;

The Black Communiversity in Chicago; the
Federation of Community Schools in Milwaukee,
Wis.; the Mississippi Institute for Early Childhood
Education in Jackson, Miss.; and, the Freedom
Library Day School in Philadelphia, Penn. In
addition, within the past three years there have been
no less than ten national meetings convened by
various Black organizations to discuss and plan for
independent community schools as well as numerous
regional and local meetings for the same purpose. It is
evident that there is no shortage of Black people who
can do this. These people are serious and are
determined to take the control of the education of
their children out of the hands of incompetent,
ambitious, and even "well-meaning" white "experts"
who can provide no meaningful education for Black
children.

But Black people must also move for control of the
public schools in their communities. We must
understand that the schools in our communities
belong to us. They do not belong to the city or the
school board or even the administrators and teachers
who staff them, but to the people whose children are
the reason for the existence of the school and who pay
the taxes to support their education. The people of the
community should determine the educational

philosophy under which their children are to be
taught and have ultimate control over the process, i.e.;
decision making in regard to finances, curriculurri,
and personnel. That is the only way in which there
can be any real accountability. Obviously this concept
frightens many people, including the educational
bureaucracies, the teacher's associations, the schools
of education, and unfortunately some Black people
who have developed the mentality of a "ward" of the
educational missionaries. Interestingly enough, these
same people who do not want Black people to have a
significant voice in the education of their children
see nothing wrong in the practice of "performance
contracting", which brings private agencies into the
schools in Black communities and, in effect,
transforms education into a competitive business
venture. These agencies are, of course, run by white
educationists and educational hardware technicians
who can do little more than create more gimmicks
which might have a short term "novelty" effect.

It is important for us that the education of Black
children be fashioned by people who know the
children and the community, because, as mentioned
before, outsiders tend to see only the so-called path-
ology of Black communities and have found no
strengths upon which learning can be based. Black

people know the strengths of their community life
and institutions because they are the products of
them. They know what can motivate their children
and they can shape this knowledge into instruc-
tional forms. This knowledge can, in fact, create
the basis for a turning inward of the whole approach
to education and using the Black community as the
"core" of the educational process. Education
should do at least three basic things: i) transmit
knowledge, 2) Inculcate values and identity, and
3) help prepare its recipients for the tasks they have
to face, both present and future. For Black children
this should be contained in a philosophy of educa-
tion which would, as the historian Lerone Bennett,
Jr. has said, ". . . conceive of Black schools as cen-
ters of applied knowledge and guides to action,
would relate learning to Black culture and the Black
community, and would develop the capacities tor
growth in the live problems of the day." 1

This "core" approach that I have suggested could
be used in the teaching of history to Black children.
Typically, the "new" approach to the history of Black
people in the United States is a supplementary his-
tory of "the Negro in." That is, special supplements
are prepared to go along with the regular textbook
with such titles as "The Negro (or Black man) in the
American Revolution", "The Negro in the West-
ward Movement", "The Negro During Reconstruc-
tion", and so on. Along with this there is usually a
listing of prominent Black people such as Crispus
Attucks, Benjamin Banneker, Booker T. Washing-
ton, etc. It is claimed that this material will create in
Black children a sense of pride and improve their self-
image by revealing to them that Black people
participated in the development of this country. But
to insist that this is Black history or that it has this
positive effect on Black children is to engage in de-
ception. While that approach does fill in a few ob-
vious and blatant historical gaps, it falls far short of
creating a sense of the flow and dynamics of the
history of the Black experience itself. It does not
develop any sense of the integrity of Black history as
the movement of a group of people, with its particu-
lar relationship to the rest of the society and' its own
inner motive forces. It does not touch the historic
heroism of common Black folk, or the richness of
Black social and cultural experiences, or religion and
mythology. These are the aspects of history which can
touch and engross the Black child and Black people
can find them in their own communities to transmit
to their children. This is the relevant transmission of
the "cultural heritage" that the schools of education
are so fond of promoting as one of the primary aims
of education.

1 The Challenge of Blackness, Atlanta, Ga.,
1970, BW

The task, then, is to direct Black children to those
people and places in their communities where this
information can be discovered and build a pedagogy
around their discoveries. In terms of process, such a
program is self-generating. As more and more dis-
coveries are made, more interest and motivation is
created and more investigative and communications
skills are developed. In other words, children will
want to read, write, listen, and record because they
will have a compelling reason to do so.

Where can the materials of history be found in our
Black communities.'' First, our communities are rich
in oral tradition. Thus, students can discover much
about the history of their community and of Black
people in general simply by talking with or
interviewing some of its elder citizens. Through such
interviews much can be learned about family life,
migration patterns, occupations, religious life,
folklore, organizations, dealing with racism and
oppression, etc. Many senior Black people have
historical artifacts such as, scrapbooks, letters,
photographs, lockets, items of clothing, etc. Southern
communities are particularly rich in this tradition.
Black students could also investigate the histories of
the institutions, formal groups, and societies in their
communities. The churches, clubs, fraternal
organizations, self-help societies, newspapers and
other publications, community centers, and vital
parts of the community offer the kind of relevant
Black history that should be taught.

Just these few suggestions clearly indicate the
possibilities of community based study of history for
Black children. This history does not concentrate on
"prominent persons" and "problems". It does not
assume that the Black experience is fundamentally
pathological. It does not tell Black children that their
salvation lies in rejecting their backgrounds and
trying to "integrate" into an alien historical
experience. Rather, it immerses them in the
continuity and vitality of their own past, which taken
as a whole places them firmly in a dynamic and
ongoing historical stream and gives them the identity
and knowledge which are necessary for the struggles
that lie ahead for Black people.

On the question of skills development, this kind of
curriculum will involve the students (and possibly
some of the parents, as was the case in a school in
Cleveland) in reading, writing, listening, reporting,
interviewing, map and chartmaking, and a host of
other communication and research skills. In effect, it
will acquaint the students with the tools and
techniques of the historian, to do with what they will
in any later academic endeavors. The skilled and
creative teacher will find limitless possibilities in this
approach to the teaching of history.

I have only mentioned history, but the same
community-core approach can obviously be applied
to other subject areas of the elementary and secondary
schools. It is also clear that this emphasis provides the
framework for a meaningful and consistent
interdisciplinary curriculum which relates the
different areas to one another organically (rather
than merely structurally) since all have their base in
thematic community study.

But beyond limited considerations of curriculum,
models must be devised which will involve the entire
community in the educational process. The school
must become a focal point of the ongoing life of the
community. Charles V. Hamilton makes the
following observations on that point;"

"The educational system should be concerned with
the entire family, not simply with the children. We
should think in terms of a Comprehensive Family -
Community-School Plan with Black parents attend-
ing classes, taking an active day-to-day part in the
operation of the school. Parents could he students,
teachers, and legitimate members of the local school

governing board Many of these parents could

serve as teachers along with the professional staff.
They could teach courses in a number of areas {child
care, auto mechanics, art, music, home economics,
sewing, etc.) for which they are now obviously train-
ed. The Comprehensive Plan would extend the school
program to grades through high school — for adults
and children — and it would eliminate the traditional
calendar year of September to June. {There is no
reason why the educational system could not be re-
vised to take vacations for one month, say in Dec-
ember of post-Christmas, and another month in Aug-
ust. The community educational program would be a
year-round function, day and evening.)

The school would belong to the community. It would
be a union of children, parents, teachers, . . . social
workers, psychologists, doctors, lawyers, and
community planners. Parent and community
participation and control would be crucial in the
hiring, and firing of personnel, the selection of
instructional materials, and the determination of
curriculum content. Absolutely everything must be
done to make the system a functioning, relevant part
of the lives of the local people.

If it can be demonstrated that such a comprehensive
educational institution can gain the basic trust and
participation of the Black community, it should
become the center of additional vital community
functions. Welfare, credit unions, health services, law
enforcement, and recreational programs — all work-
ing under the control of the community could be built
around it. Enlightened private industry would find it

a place from which to recruit trained, qualified
people and could donate equipment and technical
assistance. The several advantages of such a plan are
obvious. It deals with the important agencies which
are in daily, intimate contact with Black community
from many different directions, with cumbersome
rules and regulations, uncontrolled by and
unaccountable to the community. It provides the
Black people with a meaningful chance for partici-
pation in the very important day-to-day processes
affecting their lives; it gives them educational and
vocational tools for the future. All these things re-
flect the yearnings and aspirations of masses of Black
people today. ' ' ^

Models such as this one suggested by Brother
Hamilton are what concerned Black people should
be thinking about and refining for implementation
in specific communities. And Black students in
schools of education would seem to have a special
obligation and responsibility to explore this kind of
alternative to the education presently offered in Black
communities. It should be abundantly clear to us by
now that for Black people, the question is not one of
"integration" versus "segregation", but it is of
control. An all-Black educational setting is not "in-
herently inferior" as was proclaimed in the 1954
Brown decision. The quality of the education which
goes on in such schools will be determined by the
people who run them and working from such
premises and models as have been discussed in this
article, it is clearly possible to create viable and
comprehensive educational programs for Black
people.

In summary, the professional educationists have
defaulted, by reason of racism and incompetence, so
Black people can put no faith in them for the future
of our children and communities. History and the
present realities of our condition in this land demand
that we assume control over the instruction of our
children and ourselves. In order to do this we must
break free of the "native" and "minority" mentalities
which have kept us on educational plantations and
begin to move forward into our rightful future. Black
students have a special responsibility to the Black
community to play their part in this historic
movement.

2 "Race and Education: A Search for Legiti-
macy," Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 38 No.
4 Fall 1968.

Chester Davis

Assistant Professor

W. E. B. DuBois Department of Afro American

Studies

white man!

deal with this,

FREDERICK DOUGLASS
FRANTZ FANON
MALCOLM X
RAP BROWN
STOKELYCARMICHAEL
HARRIET TUBMAN
ROSA PARKS
ANGELA DAVIS
HUEY NEWTON
ELDRIDGE CLEAVER
KATHLEEN CLEAVER
JONATHAN JACKSON
GEORGE JACKSON

and 20 million more,
before you pay homage
to 1492 and the fools
who discovered a land
where for decades

brown men lay

their heads.

A. JACKSON LINEBARGER

Noted Black Women:
Lillian Anthony

f I '? f ^1 V 1 -1. Wv ^

The unfortunate aspect of having to interview a "dynamic" personality such as a Lillian Anthony has to
be transferring the "information" to paper. There is no way the interviewer(s) in this case can express what
really came out of the interview. Lillian Anthony has managed to master that undefined art of blending the
essence of "down-home soul" with intellectuality and making it functional. With this message I am en-
couraging Brothers and Sisters not to by-pass the opportunity to sit down and talk with Sister Lillian An-
thony.

As sister Lillian put it, her involvement in the
educational system "all blends together", evolving
from teaching three years of elementary and
secondary school in Egypt (1956-1959). She worked
with retarded and emotionally disturbed children in
Indiana (1959-1960) and helped set up the Black
studies dept. at the University of Minnesota, along
with teaching four courses (1969-1971). What is the
significance of pointing out Miss Anthony's
background? Sister Lillian does not think education
should be confined to the classroom, thus it is
important to know what she did between her years of
teaching. She taught in the Presbyterian church
between 1960-1965. She worked in the dept. of labor
for two and one-half years and set up poverty
programs in Minnesota and Wisconsin. She has been
actively involved with school systems in terms of
racism, particularly dealing in the areas of civil rights
and human rights. Out of this experience she became
director of the civil rights dept., city of Minneapolis.
The dept. got many complaints about the hiring
practices of the U of Minn., police brutality, student
riots, etc. The experience brought her in active con-
tact with Black parents and students alike, in and
out of courts. At this point in her life she began get-
ting a "whole new perspective of what was going on
in educational institutions other than, reading,
riting, rithmetic and it became a political growing
up process ' '.

One of the major goals in settting up the Afro-
American Studies Dept. was to be a part of the lo-
cal community in the twin cities and throughout
the state of Minnesota. (Example: The Dept. worked
with prisoners in Stillwater Prison, Stillwater, Minn,
and in Federal Prison in Sandstone, Minn.) "/
knew if we were going to survive that our courses,
our self-awareness, our own Black consciousness,
the way that we used ourselves would effect Black
peoplehood, not just the students in the classroom".
She began to realize that "the very people, who are
in control and power of major educational institu-
tions today came from the same process and they
are dehumanizers" . Thus, in her classrooms she
was faced with a generation of students with the
same kind of educational foundation. In describing
one of her courses, "Personality of Black people",
she explained that her main source, outside of her
own experiences was W. E. B. Dubois. "Because he
was the only one over a long span of time that al-
ways dealt with the personality of Black people.
"Bad!" "He's too much!" "He really is!" In
dealing with the white personality again, "Dubois
was one of the few people that consistently analyzed
the white mentality. What kind of personality
12 would design a curriculum with the intent to des-

troy human life? What kind of mentality can sys-
tematically plan for human life not to grow, e. g.,
Jackson State, Kent State? All kinds of madness,
this madness in now turning in on its own, if this
madness is turning in on its own, how much more
is going to turn in on us?" Lillian went on to say
that this madness "did not dehumanize Black people,
but enhanced his humanity, because we were not in
control or planning genocide. "

The conversation really began to evolve into what I
will call the essence or pivot point of what Lillian had
to say. Through her own observation Lillian states
that, "we don't know enough of our African history
not only for the sake of peoplehood, but for the sake
of education". When talking about the "mother
country" her whole being lit up with an enthusiasm
that seemingly could move mountains. In drawing a
relationship between land and Africans, Lillian made
reference to South Africa having by some "fluke of
nature", the greatest abundance of wealth. "What
did land mean to the Zulus'? What does land mean to
Africans? How can you own land? Therefore, how
can you sell it? To Africans it's there for use to build
houses and raise families." Therefore, when
"negotiators" came in to buy land, "it was not that
the Africans were stupid, their whole
conceptualization of land is different. We need to do
some cultural translations of what that means. " She
emphasizes the importance of the whole study of
geography. "We don't have the same attachment to
land as the majority of the people do in this country. "

When asked how her teaching was different than
the traditional way of teaching she had this to say:
"I'm not interested in students soaking up
information and squeezing it out again in little
dribbles. I want to let their minds expand and grow,
so my classes were always noisy, because people were
thinking. When brothers and sisters would jump up
and say, 'you don't know what your talking about',
then we would use the references. The references
could be experiences, something mama said,
something uncle Joe said, bring uncle Joe! Bring him
on in here! Let's hear what he has to say! We had
uncle Joes', grandmas', all kinds of people in the
classroom. People were sittin ' on the floor. People
sittin' on top of one another. " Lillian stated students
were made to break down loose terms such as "the
system" and gave it meaning and form, thereby
causing students to think. "All of a sudden you don't
have that business about who's an A student, a B
student or a failing student, but rather who's a
learning student, who's a thinking student, who's a
dealing student. " Lillian feels her contribution has
been "to begin to let students know that they can take
that information and turn it into knowledge for truth.

The interview then shifted into a specific discussion
of Black women: Where do you feel Black women fit
into educational systems? "To the question of Black
women, I have a deep, deep religious and philo-
sophical statement to make about that. My religious
conviction is, that, we were all born to live out our
lives having every opportunity, with all the creative
forces here and all of the creative forces that have
gone before us. I don 't think any person has the right
to destroy or stop that creativity. This also ties in with
my philosophical one: If we are about peoplehood
than we must be about letting all persons be involved
in that process of developing peoplehood, at every
level, whether its male, female, child or adult. On
every level. The Anglo-Saxon division of male and
female is one of the most dehumanizing things we
have picked up. " At this point sister Anthony referred
to African woman as having '"distinct roles of the
teacher" in the "formative years" (12 yrs.) in every
major culture. By the time the father and elders took
over and taught skills, "the greatest education already
happen". She then emphasized the importance of
referring back to Africa for our own values stating:
"The values here, we cannot use to continue to be a
human being. " This statement brought us to the topic
of her dissertation: Black Values. Sister Lillian's
thesis is that "the Black woman has been the one,
who has been the transmitter of Black values. " Here
is where the conversation was said to have gotten
"really deep" because this is an area not quite
thoroughly thought out by Lillian. She credited a
book by Inez Smith Reid entitled, "Together Black
Woman", as having significant impact on her own
thinking. Research in the book has discredited the
thesis of Black matriarchy, Black male emasculation
by Black women and the stereotype of the militant
Black woman. "Not militancy but togetherness. "
Sister Lillians comment was, "that we just been taken
care of business cause we had our stuff together".
Again, referring to Africa "So% of the wealth in
Ghana is in the hands of women. The men ain't
talking about they emasculated, castrated or nothin '
else! It's just a natural thing! The women control the
markets. The men were the warriors and
philosophers." The session immediately shifted back
to the relationship between Black men and Black
women in this country. "As sisters and brothers began
to gain political consciousness from, 'oh Lord, thank
you Jesus', we don't say, 'I'm not going to take a job
if the man 's not going to take a job, what you trying
to do? One of the reasons I want him to have a job is
because I want to relate to my sex appropriate and
you ain't my sex appropriate. In other words you
would like to continue to grow with Black
conciousness and you cannot continue to grow alone
as a woman in system, say, with all women, so you
want Black men also there. You also have a situation,
where you have our Black children seeing,
(particularly Black male children), the Black male
with the Black woman in another situation other than
the home, so that his mind is not always directed
toward the white woman once he gets out of there.
The struggle must be for both of us to be there and
the struggle can no longer be for her fighting for him

to get there, the fight has to be his fight to get there,
also, also! ! Because that's his ability to test out what
he can do in dealing with the white man! If we
continue to do it, we are the ones who . ... we can
open his head wide open, we know that and it ain't
through our behind either. That's another fallacy, we
got to deal with, that whole fallacy, they ain 't but two
people free; the white man and the Black woman.
We ain 't never been free. "

When asked about alternative schools in terms of
Black men and women: "/ think that Black women
and Black men need to begin by sitting down to design
a school that will meet the needs of our people. I am
no longer saying for our children, because I think we
need to have all of our people in school. I would like
to begin to change the terms of student-teacher back
to old terms of elders people of wisdom. It's all there
with grandmothers and people who lived in our
communities, who loved us, who 'd never been to school
a day, but you could sit and start talking to them and
get a beatin ' when you got home for staying away too
long. " What then, should we do when we sit down.''
Where do we start? "I thought about our home as
being a beautiful experience for learning for us. I
think we have to start where we are. Parties for
instance, the whole concept of schools without walls
is what it would be. We would begin tq^ talk not rap,
but think out loud and plan out loud and dream out
loud. Then somebody would say hold it, we been
doing this for centuries, we're not going to do it
anymore. Who is going to move on some of this
tomorrow? I think the deterioration of the churches
could be revitalized. We could begin to say a church
service could become school. There wouldn 't always
be the minister up there, but the elders, the children.
We need to go on and do that. I don 't have a plan for
an alternative school. I don't think anybody does. I
think there are attempts being made. I don't think
enough Black people have come together, to sit and
dream about it yet. It's still in the walls of academia,
except for Howard Fuller." She goes on to explain
that it has to be something we just "let happen, that
way it's so pure, real and beautiful". However, there
are some realities. "The reality is that we are out here
now trying to just live and to keep this man from
shootin ' us and killin ' us, that kind of happening in
terms of dreaming about some school, man, is like
insane!!" One particular reality which came out of
her own experience had to do with Black cab drivers
(Brothers) in Chicago. She experienced their refusal
to pick her up, based on an assumption that she was
going into the "Black Belt" due to her own apparent
color. In tears, because of humiliation and utter
frustration she asked a door man (a brother), outside
of O'Hara airport; "Why is this happening to
brothers and sisters? How can they make assumptions
about me?" When he replied, the dope, the mugging
and the people being robbed, sister Lillian's most
significant rebuttal was; "but brother we took all of
the robbin', lynchin' and murders from white folks
for four centuries, it seems to me like them brothers
ought to be able to take a little bit of that in the in-
house family for a little bit until we completely get
ourselves together. I will not buy that. " 13

GREAT BLACK MUSIC

Just recenf/y / changed the name of my jazz show to "Jazz and Politics". I use the word jazz to mean the great
music of black people and its political nature. The nature that it possesses and its implication for our freedom
from oppression. My reasons were two fold. While on the air you get calls from all sorts of people who tell you
how hip Miles is and how they dug that Coltrane you just played. After talking with the person for a while you
find that his participation in the struggle, on any level, is nil and that he prefers to see the music separate from
the struggle. I have to tell them I am not just simply playing records, but, instead, I am making political state-
ments using the music of the black artists. Secondly, a large portion of our music is constantly being ripped off by
young white faggot DJs who probably had a black roommate in college who turned them on to the music, and
all the latest hip black phrases (like dig it). And they think their accessibility to the air waves gives them a
license to host a jazz program and make statements about black people and their music. I say no good. What the
black listener ends up with is a watered down version of their own music because the host of the show will not
and cannot be consistent over a long period of time. And what can you do about it unless you have your own
radio station. If you listen to their programs long enough you will get what I call the three for one. The program
will open with a heavy tune by a blood and the next three tunes will be by grey groups they are trying to push.
Or you will hear a tune that sounds black and you will say ooooweeee that show is bad until you find out the
leader ain't black. A lot of record companies will only allow black artists to record as side men or back up some
half rate white musician in his rise to the top. The best thing Cannonball Adderley did was get rid of Joe
Zawinul, and the best thing Wayne Shorter can do is to get out of the new Joe Zawinul group called of all things
"Weather Report" and start his own group. We have to stop carrying these chumps along.

So, I decided to change the name of my program to make a definite distinction with other shows even though it
was different from the get. But for the importance of my listeners and those persons who are interested in, and
are serious about the great black music of people, the change was necessary.

As I look at the black music scene this is what I see happening. I fear that we have heard the best of Roberta
Flack and maybe it's just as well, unless she makes some drastic changes in her selection of tunes, if she has the
power to make those selections. Now most people will be very upset by this position but at this time I feel it is
very important for us to make an analysis of what has happened to the music of Roberta. On her first album she
cried and I liked it, on her second album she cried and I became suspicious, on her third album she cried and I
knew something conspiratorial was going on, and they had the nerve to call the album "Quiet Fire". Black
Women, if you will permit me as a black man to say, are not talking about crying anymore. I say to the record
companies we do not want any more songs that tell us how we have been kicked in our asses for four hundred
years, and all we can do is cry, love it, and buy all the LPs that signify this plight. I feel there is an attempt to
suppress the spirit of black people by suppressing the music of the black artist. The correlation I am drawing is
that of the popularity of Sister Flack, the rise in the support of black women for their men and the almost over-
whelming enjoyment of Sister Roberta Flack's music by black women. One can imagine what would happen to
the relationship of black men to their women if Sister Flack would be telling the sisters some other kinds of things
except crying. It is no coincidence why we haven't gotten any more records from Sister Elaine Brown, who is a
member of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Simple. She was talking about liberation and not crying
time. And you probably won't get anymore until you begin to support the artist that is moving in this direction
instead of buying that other garbage that sounds black but is not black in its essence.

We also have to be careful of what we call revolutionary music. Freddie Hubbard has a record out called "Sing a
song of Song My" where he employs a machine called the synthesizer, all sorts of choral voices and some mono-
logue. On the surface the record's intentions in condemning the atrocities of the Vietnam war are probably
good, but by the end of the record much has been lost by the employment of this kind of personnel. In another
case there is another record out called "The Black Messiah" which happens to be super mean. It was recorded
live at the Troubadour in Son Francisco, California by Cannonball Adderley, who I think redeems himself on this
jam. I have been very disappointed in the latest Cannonball sides. However, in this particular two record album,
which employs some heavy percussive work and some excellent electric piano playing by Brother George Dukes,
we find a record I would highly recommend.

In closing I would like to say that there is a need for great black music discussion groups that operate just like
study groups where you have four or five brothers and sisters meeting as often as possible to discuss a particular
black artist or individual 'o whom you are willing to make a commitment. In this way the responsibility for
education is placed on you. And you have only yourself to blame if you are not informed. So as a start I would
say for you to go out and buy a record by a great black music artist today!

Bill Hasson
12'71

INTEGRATION AND THE BLACK ATHLETE

With the beginning of the 60's a new and profoundly "progressive" era for the Black aca-
demic population was ushered into existence.

Dr. Martin Luther King's nonviolent and compromising tactics led to major state and nation-
al judicial reversals and amendments on the questions of segregation of public places, and in-
stitutions supported, not only by public funds, but the sacred ideals of American democracy and
free enterprise. Dr. King with the aid and blessings of his God and followers and the "Supreme
Court," revived the 1954 decision to integrate the nation's public institutions of "learning."

After the smoke had cleared away from those countless cross burnings and church burnings,
the true nature of the problem of contemporary America was revealed.

The national conscience is depicted as being based on racial hatred and degradation that has
run rampant since the first "heathen" from the bowels of English society decided on emanci-
pation from the mother country.

Thus we have a phenomenon that is somewhat new and difficult to grasp and analyze. Recent
mass integrationist programs and proposals have resulted in the destruction of many young un-
prepared Black children, men, and women. This may be taken by some to be an unfounded
statement but any fool able to read can check statistics on the amount of high school graduates
of colour now able to attend higher educational institutions on ordinary student merits since the
advent of the integration push.

I am quite certain that there are those of you who are still anticipating my dealing with the
"plight" of the Black Athlete since the intervention of the fund saving integrationists. The pur-
pose for my structuring this "what ever it is" in this manner is to lead up to the extinction of
any traces of manhood the Black athlete had acquired through associations with coaches and
administrators of colour and the revitalization of "Sambo."

Realizing the attitudes of white people concerning the character — past and present — of peo-
ple of African ancestry in this nation, one should ask the question, why wasn't there an orienta-
tion period for white people destined to be exposed to these oversexed, demoralized darkies. If
integration, or should I say limited assimilation, was to be successful, I think its failure or suc-
cess depended on the "re-education" and "humanization" of its founders. No such steps to edu-
cate the morally deprived white masses of the humanity of the Black race was attempted or
even envisioned. Young Black students were pushed into the venomous pits of white institution-

alized racism at its best. Segregated schools all
over the nation were (are) closed and the prac-
tice of castration rides (busing) became the
mode of the day.

It is strange that although school governing
bodies in this great land of ours negated the in-
sinuation made by various government agencies
as to their unfair practices in the field of educa-
tion, bussed the Black kids from their neighbor-
hood schools to those in white areas. If the argu-
ments of equality by those in charge of the
schools were valid one asks, "why were over
ninety-percent of the Black institutions closed?"

The preceding statements have all been sup-
portive of the notions of the needs to educate
and somehow transform the white citizens of
this nation into some semblance of humanity.
My finale will only attest to those notions.

The treatment of the Black male as a "stud,"
an almost super human, and a being of a happy-
go-lucky do nothing nature is exemplified in any
manner or field of endeavor with no more clarity
than on athletic fields. The sad thing about this
is that most athletes of colour do not recognize
this phenomenon themselves. Only through the
outspokenness of such athletic stars as Tommie
Smith, Harry Edwards, John Carlos, Al Newton
and the Syracuse brothers, including Jimmy
Brown and numerous others have Black athletes
begun to question the Athletic Institution.

Recruited and enrolling in pseudo integrated
institutions, the Black athlete — decreased in
ranks by the integration of high schools; larger
quantities of brothers now drop out of the high
school scene, fewer make all-star teams be-
cause of the dominance of white players and
choosing coaches — finds himself in the same
situations that were probably occupied by his
forefathers shackled to the plantation by chains
and threats of death. The contemporary
"slave" finds himself shackled to the various
university and college campuses with the threats
of losing his athletic scholarship and economic
and social (among his peers) death if he doesn't
succeed.

Brothers encounter strange things during the
duration of their involvement with athletics on
the intercollegiate level. Brothers Smith, New-
ton, Carlos, and others were exposing some very
important and profound attitudes that exist in
the deranged minds of today's American citi-
zens.

The idea of a white chick just seen talking to
a Brother, not deserving respect from her con-
stituents, for what they perceive is happening
is appalling. Junior Coffey ex-University of
Washington fullback is one individual whose

pro-career was possibly affected by this white-
woman-and-Black-man-equals-no-respect syn-
drome. Coffey dated a white girl in 1964 and
never started another game for the Huskies —
this was his all important senior year. Although
Coffey was eventually able to go on to pro ball
one should consider the countless brothers whose
careers were ended because of such goings-on.

The sexual question has even been exemplified
since I've been enrolled here at the University
of Massachusetts. One afternoon while eating
dinner on an away trip, the white "boys" were
riding one of the Brothers about how much food
he consumed, somehow the topic shifted to the
size of the Brother's penis. Can you imagine
eating dinner and a cat begins to discuss the
specifics of another man's genitals?

Later on that night the Brother and I began
earnestly to analyze the situation as it existed
on the team regarding us as Black men. We re-
called remarks made by coaches as to possibili-
ties of certain white members of the team be-
coming professional athletes, with no such con-
notation ever being made to the Brothers that
were on the team. We recalled how practice ses-
sions to us were more crucial than any game
that either of us ever participated in, because
any sloppiness on our part in practice resulted
in long afternoons at game time. The white cats
on the team were allowed to miss an occasional
pass, punt or block here or there without too
much being made of it. However, such an action
by a Brother usually led to a more severe tongue
lashing.

One day after I had severely dislocated my
thumb, I was having a change of dressing by
one of the team physicians. After the idiot put
another splint on my thumb he remarked that I
would now be able to go out and spear some
watermelons. What a stupid motherfucker,
where the hell could you find watermelons small
enough to spear with a two inch thumb.

Quite seriously, I am tired of writing about
these God fearing, apple pie eating patriots,
who according to them don't need the re-educa-
tion, that is an absolute necessity for them to
continue to exist on this earth.

It is my belief that the question of Black edu-
cation can be dealt with effectively if there were
more humanistic, morally oriented educational
institutions. And not these concentration camps
concentrating on the supremacy of the white
race and decadence and destruction of non-
white people.

Amicus Humani Generis
AlKey

The Cockroach On A Bike

Part II of a three part epic poem

by Emmanuel Asibong,

English Dept.

A Spinster's Frustration

Andy is in the kitchen
Mimi is in the garden
Mimi come and meet Jill.

How do you do?
How do you do?

I lay on the sofa

condemned by my own morality . . .

Samaru, Samaru

I want to go to bed with you

You piece of masculine juicy stuff,
I want to go to bed with you,
squeeze some life out of you
when you castle out of check.

White queen takes black knight
black and white
it must be right
it's all the rave.

Goodnight.

White Skin, Black Masks
I
I AM TOTALLY OPPOSED TO THE SALE OF
ARMS TO APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA.

From this small
meagre circle
of white spotless hands
with spluttering pens . . .

pinned to doors
hung up in offices
pasted on vans
cars and walls
SO WHAT?

Jesus of Nazareth

recrucified
I shall never be

satisfied.

Instead this . . .

"Did you meet a robber on your journey?"

"No . . . only a poet."

A brief interval to eat some maize . . . and

two days have passed. "We must hit the
road tomorrow, Pete," I said.
"I know when my black lover sees me
he'll be surprised."

Back in London . . .

my coloured lover lies on my bed

eyeing me like a new television.

How can one have skin that changes colour?

Does it hurt to go brown? Will you ever

be white again?

Ill

Freak.

I see no vultures

I see no carrion . . .

Walking under the stars

talking with a Nigerian

who arrived only an hour ago,

courting seduction

avoiding seduction

drinking wine

eating nuts

talking of sickle cell disease

like we did in Zaria . . .

Could you ever marry a Nigerian? How many

children would you want?

FREAK.

At the Pool
Here are mature ducks
and their little ones
floating on the cool
surface of a pool
like sour indigestion spots.

Besides their sounds

of animal laughter

amidst ripples of dirty water

I can see my own

thoughts' reflection

like distant sea-weeds.

They come moonlight swimming
after a bottle of star,
bathing time
mating time

they come moonlight swimming
after a bottle of stout.

Aged ducks

in tattered trunks

with murky holes in them . . .

white skin evident everywhere

Ruth's rude rump.

Ducks in their teens
wearing faded blue bikinis
flaunting balloon-like breasts . .

Take my towel.

Gathering up bile

from their slim little throats

they shot it into the pool.

Thank you.

Despite your behaviour

the pool still stands,

the pool my catering mother

built with her hands.

Won't I stand too?

Even a helpless moth
in its deaththroes
will still hover about
a flickering white candle.

Assistant Lecturer in the Rain
Staff catering flats stood
like concentration camps;
behind them, at a distance
were single stables
which reminded him
of Eichmann's gas chambers.

With his hair wet,

his eyes sodden with tears

he crawled on all fours

dragging a blue plastic bucket

down a well-known campus street.

But only yesterday

the rain's dismal descent

had left him arrogant;

arrogant as the phagocytically

turgid phallus,

sometimes unintentionally

callous.

Are These Ideas Right or Wrong

Spiders, antagonistic and invisible
quietly weaving cobwebs
in staff catering offices
imagining themselves and wives
absolutely invincible.

The roaches at noon
making for the moon
on a ladder of ice
darting like sodium

We abuse

you (plural) abuse.

on motorbikes

in city-streets,

walking and hunting in the sun

claiming they are sole

children of the light.

The vultures in yachts
yachting in salt water,
demanding their natural rights
though bowing several times
like ugly obsequious lizards.

The roaches in parliament
casting night over day,
inventing permanent eclipses
calling every disillusionment
a strictly English blessing.

The House Is Building

This building was the gift of the British

People to this University

abu . . . se (itself)
abused (itself)

I abuse
you abuse

Non sequitur ....
how daft you are!

The roaches in concert
older superior roaches,
wearing Khaki clothes,
riding in funeral limousiness
trafficking in funereal limousiness.

SALE! SALE! SALE! SALE!

Mercedes Benz, 220
in perfect condition
home delivery,
body as new
colour: light black
body and white top
plus many extras
including metal
registration numbers
leather seat covers
new tyres, SPARE tyres
owner DRIVEN!

At a give away price of £ 2,800. Please contact
the Secretary: HUMAN RELATIONS, DEPART-
MENT, Main Campus.

The vultures in suspense

as poor as churchmice

in a graveyard where

nothing stirs but a roach,

superior vultures nail their coffins

happily admiring funeral limousiness.

The vultures at cocktails
chatting with promiscuous ducks;
the vultures after a carrion feed
strutting to the pool
like Irish peacocks.

Are these ideas indeed right or wrong?

Ray Miles on Art

Ray Miles is currently teaching a course in the techniques of welding as art
at the Black Cultural Center in the ff.E.B. DuBois Department of Afro-Ameri-
can Studies at the L'niversity of Massachusetts.

The following is an excerpt of an interview with Brother Mites taken by
Sister Debbe Holford.

On African A rt and so-called Experts on African A rt:

Africa for years was called the Dark Continent
because of the many things above w/iifey's head, ''''what
he doesnH understand he calls primitive." This in-
cludes many anthropologists both white and black,
because the blacks are taught in a ivhite manner. But
even now the racists are beginning to ^''admit if's not
so damn dark after all." They're beginning to see
classical work from the so-called primitive age.

On teaching art:

Brother Miles stated that art as a technique may
be taught, but not art, it must be free flowing. Art is
looking for truth, whether it be realism, abstract or
whatever school one may come from. If an artist is
moved by his ivork then he can shoiv it and let the
world judge. Teaching art is just a form of teaching
technique. If a student feels he understands the tech-
nique then he can let it fall any way he feels. W hatever
he comes up with is his.

Most people go to Africa, they see a few things,
a few tribal dances and they come back experts. Femi
Richards is now writing a book on African art. This
will be the truth. So far everything else that everyone
else has written has been totally subjective and wrong.
"Until I get to Africa myself, maybe then I might be
able to say, now I know."

African Art has been the forerunner of all art. Picasso
uses African art, yet he is not called primitive.

".Wos/ Black artists are taught by trends and
follow like trends. Nothing that ivhitey does relates
to black but everything that blacks do relate to ivhitey
because everything we've got they want to steal. "

On teaching his course. ". . . show them how to
operate a torch, safety factors, how to keep from burn-
ing themselves up and how to weld. Then they're on
their own." Brother Miles never comments on his
students' work, he feels he has not the right.

When asked to describe his style:

"/ can '(, / have to leave that to some white critic.

Black artists not finding themselves in a white
bag get nowhere until they go to the galleries and to
those who own them, and are told who to go to bed
with, what parties to go to; and that's worse than hold-
ing a job.

"/ stay away from that. I'd rather be poor all my
life as long as I can show my technique and let the
young improve on it. "

ATTICA:

MIENTRAS LA SANGRE CORRE

ATTICA:

WHILE THE BLOOD IS RUNNING

Hoy vi los bosques ensangrentados
azotados por todos los tiempos,
por jirones de nubes prostitutas.

Neron,
todos los tiempos armagos
destilando sus gritos
sobre la cara de un Cielo Blanco.

Sobre una rama, quizas

una chispa de luz

encendio las protestas

del ghetto agonizante-devorando la pobreza

con sus manos tremulas.
Los campos labrados destilan hombres explotados
explotados en el amor libre
de su sudor trigueno
prenando la tierra
Y la sangre de Attica,
ofreciendo el drama
"La Masacre de Viet Nam en casa'
salpicando las calles
para remendar
las grietas del Cielo Blanco.
Esta Tierra Negra

no quiere cubrir su dolor con manto bianco,
hasta que el Silencio
la ensordezca de gritos.

Mas, para amplificar los sepulcros amerikkkanos,
han narcotizado los ojos del pueblo
con napalm
y carcel.
Y cosechan en los altares de las iglesias-un Dios

racista

asesino.
Feretros vivientes
de Nixon
y Rockefeller,

Today, I saw the bloody woods

beaten for all time

by patches of prostitute clouds

Nero,
all the bitter times,
distilling cries
over the face of a white sky.
A light spark over a branch, maybe,
starts the protest
of the dying ghetto— with trembling hands

eating poverty.
The working fields are distilling exploited men
exploited by free love

of swarthy perspiration

that impregnates the land.
And the blood of Attica
Showing the play
"Viet Nam's Massacre at home"
spraying the streets
to mend
the White sky's fissures.
This Black Earth

"don't" want white cover, it hurts;
until the Silence
deafens their cries.

But to amplify the Amerikkkan's sepulchers
they drug the People's eyes
with napalm

And jail
And they reap

in the churches' altars

a God
Racist

and murderous;
Nixon's
and Rockefeller's
living coffins.

comtaminando al mundo
con su peste de muerte,

con ardores de muerte
en la sonrisa,

y las rodillas hinchadas
de aviones supersonicos.

Y otra vez-El Absurdo vence la Justicia-

La sangre de Attica,

senalando el Via Crucis

del Cristo crucificado, millones de veces

por las computadoras electronicas.

Pobre Estatua de la Libertad

encadenada a la cola

de un perro de callejuelas sucias.

Y el Poder Blanco

lava las lagrimas del Cristo

con gas lacrimogeno
crucificandolo
con ametralladoras

a la Cruz de Attica,
mientras
la sangre
que
corre,
libra
ensu
obscuridad,
va gritando,
! Rockefeller
Hijo
deputa!

polluting the world

with their Death foul odors.

In their smile
they carry

ardent Death
and supersonic planes
in their swollen knees.

In another time-the Absurdity will win the Justice-
Attica's blood
showing the"Via Crucis";
Jesucristo crucified, millions of times
by the electronic computers

Poor Statue of Liberty
was chained

to the tail of a dirty street dog
And the White Power
washes the Jesucristo tears, again
with the tear gas.

And the machine guns
crucify him

to the Attica Cross ;
while
the
running
blood,
freedom
in
the
darkness
cries
Rockefeller
Mother
Fucker!

Luisin M. Medina

CCEBS-

El autor escribe en espanol.

Luego traduce al ingles.

Luisin M. Medina

CCEBS student

The author writes in Spanish,

and then he translates to English.

Cultural Response to Education

If a "minority" culture does not adapt to its new and ever-
changing environment, for all practical purposes, it will cease to
exist. Undeniably, there are many ethnic cultures in America. Many
of these, such as the Irish, the German, or the Italian, have become
attuned to the demands of industrial society and are keeping pace
with the changing times. On the other hand, there are a few cultures,
such as the Puerto Rican, the Black, the Chicano, or the American
Indian, that find attunement more difficult for a myriad of reasons,
among them are: geographical isolation, discrimination, unique
idiosyncracies in the beliefs and customs of the culture, and a failure
to benefit from the general economic growth of the nation. The major
obstacle to cultural assimilation common to the "third-world"
cultures is the maladjustment of their institutions. Their institutions
are attuned to an agrahan traditional society of yesterday, diametrical
to the prevalent industrial society of today.

If relevance is to be attained, if productivity and efficiency are to be
consummated, a culture must respond to societal demands of
growth and awareness. Within any culture, the institution of
education must be in the avant-garde, striking some balance
between the culture and the greater society, acting as a buffer
between the traditions of history and the exploration of science, in
order to insure the preservation and continuance of civilization. The
cultural response to education could very well be cultural disavowal
or cultural genocide. However, this need not be so. The sociological
study of cultures and the relationships between cultures seems to
proport interaction on a universal level. Too much is at stake for
national and regional prejudices to hinder interaction of world
citizens. Our day is characterized by international travel and
communication. It is little wonder that the peoples of the world must
learn to peacefully co-exist, to live and learn, to share a world with
the potential beauty of a universal culture. It is intriguing to think
about the possibilities.

Acknowledging the existence of sub-cultures, a universal culture
seeks a common ground, presenting a conglomeration of ideas and
energies. Education, as a universal cultural response, advocating
cultural appreciation, offers an unfathomable reservoir of knowledge
and potential.

Earl Strickland

Gateways To. . .

Our Black Kings & Queens
lay helpless, as pawns
at the fingertips of Master-Fate.

like spiral junkies laying twisted in the stairwell,
on (who's gonna take the weight)

on black & white checkerboards,

or Squares, sitting ducks
LAME; and hurtin more & more all the time.

all the time. . . & another unwanted
mother miscarriages on the back porch trying
to find her legitimacy.

-"Your Move, King" Brother, blackman-(god)

while the man is dropping tears on us,
(yeah, it's a GAS, ain't it?) - pick them up
and cry niggerboy; cuz you sure
A-L-L the time.

and our Black Kings continue
(retreat) one-space-at-a-time. wishing
they could become
Knights in Shining armour.

-"Hey Man, It's Your Move" Blood, warrior-(god)

& Black Queens profile, looking fine,

showing their behinds
not realizing the Time, -or that-
it is just a matter of time

-but it dont matter-

cuz we go on being took, taken, had and mislead,
til suddenly you're Dead. . .

look stupid smiling,
to move backwards

Checkmate (nigger).

John E. Davis '71

THE POTENTIAL OF MASS COMMUNICATIONS

FOR BLACKS

The field of Mass Communications offers significant guide-
lines necessary to understand messages in relation to a large
mass of people. This pertains to the theories of message process
and message acceptancy of the mass. An insight to character-
istic and attitudinal behavioral patterns of the mass is available
so that one may realize the basic obstacles involved in message
formulation, transmission, and finally reception. It is important
to grasp the theories of mass communications because their
role in society is much too formidable to be overlooked. These
theories have bearings on all phases of life, and our attention
and energy must be directed towards this field in order to de-
fine, establish, and assert our black culture.

We depend upon messages in our daily routine-messages
of entertainment, direction, and most important, information —
a vital tool for black unity. Information concerning what course
of action blacks may take and also how and when to act must be
available in order to motivate and solidify black united aggres-
sion. These theories of messages are too fundamental to be with-
out.

Unfortunately, the opportunity to grasp the theories is
greater than the opportunity to apply them to the black situa-
tion. This is especially true in commercial television, entertain-
ment radio, and countless print materials, all of which are sup-
posedly designed to satisfy the total black audience. Whites at-
tempt to reach the black audience but the cultural and beha-
vioral differences that exist between whites and blacks verifies
the need for blacks to project their own messages and images.
As a result, our needs will be more adequately fulfilled because
the messages will originate from blacks who know the relevant
needs of blacks from media. Yet the facilities that would allow us
to become involved more actively is highly regulated by gov-
ernmental agencies and therefore accessibility is lessened.

At the start, the industry was inexcusably inadvertent
towards blacks because of our low consumer potential, mar-
ginal power structure, and mostly our low market value in pre-
dominantly white areas. Now after twenty years, the system re-
tains its attitudes for the black mass regardless of the progres-
siveness of black potential, ability, and socio-political value.
Proportionally our needs from media increase, thus establishing
basic criteria for justifying the application of mass communica-
tion theories to the total black experience. But mass media real-
ly hasn't attempted to offer relevancy for blacks except in mar-
ginal aspects. It is at this point that we must take the necessary
steps to achieve a greater awareness in the fundamental theo-
ries and processes of mass communications in order to get the
real message to the people. I feel that becoming more know-
ledgeable of communications can possibly lead to a basic nec-
essity for black unity:

a black universal language and message.

Burvell L. Williams

The Worth ofAfro-Amer/can Studies

The normal process for education in this country always leads, or at
least is supposed to lead, to the realization of the Great Amencan Dream.
Anyone, from any walk of life can pull himself up by his boot straps and
become a millionaire; anyone within the system. This excludes Blacks,
Chicanes, Puerto Ricans, and Indians.

In order for these groups to gain any type of pride and power without
the system (from within they lose identity) they must have some type of
education that destroys the myths promoted by the system and that builds a
system related to the needs of these groups.

This is how I view the Black Studies Department on this campus, but
not without observing the many problems that it faces as it builds a
foundation in this new and controversial area. I view the department not
with praise and not with condemnation. I am in Black Studies for what it
can give me and not to talk about who's dynamite and who's not. Black
Studies is not (and should not be) a vehicle to give you political or social
direction (the propaganda of the existent education system), but rather a
vehicle to help one establish his program so that he might take what he has
learned back to the "streets" and be able to help without losing identity
with his people.

However, Black Studies is influenced by the people, but if we don't
support and build it up we will lose a vehicle which, I feel, will aid us in our
continuous struggle. Students seem, to me, to fall into the habit of
condemning folks within the Department, but refuse to do anything to right
the wrongs or to help make this experience work.

You see, too long have we been hidden away in our ghettoes waiting
for some representative of the Great White Father to come and tell us a
bunch of lies about programs that are set up not to help us because they
don't understand us. Too long have we told these representatives to tell it to
their mothers and too long have we been without the help of our brothers
and sisters who were lucky enough to get out. Now we have the chance to
escape from the physical realities, but we have learned that mentally there
is not escape unless we help raise the situation of all our people. To do this
we must go "back home" and we must have some vehicle to aid our people
without bullshitting them. I feel that Black Studies is one way of aiding us in
this undertaking.

Herman L. Davenport, Jr.

Education

INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL THELWELL: CHAIRMAN, AFRO-
AMERICAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS

Our chairman of the Black Studies Department, Michael Thelwell, has
got to be one of the busiest persons around. I say this because it was very dif-
ficult to, get an interview with him, but when he was finally able to avail him-
self, I realized that my wait was not in vain.

Mike is a well read, well versed, articulate person, who seems to be so
bogged down with his busy schedule as to be impersonal. This is not really
the case, for indeed if you have been around Mike long enough you would
know that he does project an air of seriousness and responsibility as well as
a friendly attitude. If you haven V seen him when he was lecturing and/ or
listening to a speaker, you have indeed missed a treat, for it seems that he is
engrossed in another world by the way he closes his eyes and places his hands
on the sides of his head.

Following, are a number of responses to a question that I asked. At the
end of the interview I felt that there were some points that he clarified quite
well and others that he left open for conjecture.

Q. Since this issue of the Drum deals with education, can you
give us your ideas concerning the educational system here and
the experiences that you have had elsewhere?

A. The educational system here isn't something that we can
talk about particularly because it's really not different from
any other place I've been to except qualitatively. The system
here, as close as I can tell, is very similar to the system at Howard;
it's very similar to the system at Cornell University. It's very
similar to the system of any number of universities we have
been to and spent differing lengths of time talking with the
students and lecturing and that kind of stuff. So that finally
what can be said about the system here is that it is a tradi-
tional American system, which is the same as a traditional
white system.

An educational system which is a product of Western cul-
ture in a certain sense as that is reflected in American society,
no different. The only difference that one can talk about isn't
a systematic difference, it is a qualitative one. That is to say
that the reputation or the quality of teaching at this univer-
sity is demonstratively better than at most state universities.
That the level of professional competence and reputation of at
least a great number of the faculty here is qualitatively higher
than at most state universities. That the imagination and am-
bition of the administration at this school is qualitatively higher
than at state universities, but one can't really get into a dis-
cussion of what the educational system is like here because we
are not really that different.

After we have said all of that we are still talking about white
systems. This is even true about Howard University. Howard
University is an American university not a Black university,
not even a university of colored people, it's a white university.

It's curriculum will show that, with one or two concessions,
which brings us into the question of black studies and the real
question is: "Is there a different educational need for black
people than for white people; and the answer to that is yes and
no.

On one level, anybody who lives in the twentieth century,
and the seventies particularly, is going to have to cope with, es-
pecially living in this country, an increasingly industrial, in-
creasingly complex and increasingly technological society, and
what you learn in universities. It's interesting that people are
spending more and more time learning the general facts of so-
cial life. Americans are spending more and more time in uni-
versities or institutions of higher learning simply because one
needs more training to adjust to the technically oriented so-
ciety, and to that extent, among black people and white people
living in this country, their educational needs are the same. Now,
in a very important respect, their needs are not the same, their
needs are not at all compatible. That is to say, in the realm of
politics and in the realm of those disciplines which define how
people are to perceive the world, perceive the political realities
of the world, perceive their own relationship to it. In the realm
of values, it seems very clear that if the black community is to
progress, is to liberate itself, is to get out from under the bur-
den of oppression which historically has been perceived, black
people can't be educated into a value system which is the same
as white society, which is the same as capitalist individualism,
a whole host of attitudes which have to do with the way one
identifies oneself.

If one identifies oneself as an American, it means you iden-
tify yourself with the dominant culture, you identify yourself
with the Western culture, you identify yourself with the "civil-
ization" that destroyed the Indian, took over the country and

enslaved Black people, which is a very hard kind of identifi-
cation for black people* to make, but it is what American edu-
cation is really getting at. On the other hand, if you identify
yourself not with the dominant culture and the dominant tech-
nological force which has conquered and shaped this country,
but as a victim of it and in a certain realistic political way as
an enemy of that system, that force and that movement, then
your educational system has to reflect and has to be very dif-
ferent. Then the question of identification becomes very im-
portant.

How does one, for example, identify with the struggle in
South Africa.'' If you identify with the Boers, the Africans, the
people who have perpetuated apartheid and a form of slavery
on the native Black populations, then you identify with Amer-
ican Big business interest. You identify with having the dia-
monds available for industrial purposes and for purposes of
jewelry. You identify with having the incredible mineral wealth
of South Africa, the gold, for example, exploited in the interest
of Western society. That's what it means to be an American.

So it becomes very difficult when one is black; to know what
is going to happen when liberation in that country intensifies
as it is almost bound to intensify and the vast majority of black
people, who are presently being oppressed under that system, de-
cide to move against it. That is gomg to involve the interests of
the American Corporations in a very real way and it seems to me
that black people in this country are going to have to identify
with one side or another of that conflict. Black people in this
country are going to have to identify their own situation as a
colonial one, and the struggles of other non-white people in the
third world against western capitalism and against western in-
dustrialists. Black people are going to have identify with that
or identify with the system. That's the crucial area where the
question of education becomes important. The question of what
are people educated for, is not a question that black people
should not produce engineers, should not produce doctors,
should not produce professional people whose training is in the
natural sciences and in technology. The question is how do they
understand that rule once they receive their training in techno-
logy? How do they understand their commitments, how do they
understand their necessities.'' 'What kinds of liability do they see
themselves having, what kinds of responsibility do they see
themselves having to the masses of black people who are not
educated and are becoming obsolete in this country.-' By which
I mean, they can't get jobs, there is nothing for them that they
are trained to do. I mean, what relationship do they have with
those people.'' What relationship do they have with the masses
of Black people in the Carribean and in the Third World, the
resources of whose countries are not available to them, whose
country is being developed in such a way that they are being
excluded from any part of that development.

The Black minority in this country has a very important
question to decide for itself; one which I'm afraid it hasn't yet
decided, and one which, I think, is the job of Black Studies
to help them decide. That is, how they are going to identify
in this polarization that has taken place. Which side are they
finally going to come down on.^ Are they going to end up work-
ing for General Motors, working for the large American corp-
orations, which will reward you materially, with a good life,
or are you going to be dedicating your life to a vision of the
historical struggle of Black people to liberate themselves from
this system, to liberate the continent of Africa from this system:
a struggle of Black people to take their place in the world as i
group of nations, of black nations among other nations. And
this would include the Black people of this country.

Those are very important kinds of considerations which, in
the absence of anyone else doing it, becomes the responsibility
of the educational institutions. The whole impetus of the society,
the T. V. (which is white controlled), the whole media of com-
munications, and most of the publishing industry meditates
towards pushing Black people into support and identification
with the system. The only thing that makes this very difficult
is the real political and economic situations of the masses of
the Black community. It is madness now to go into most Black
communities and talk about let us separate, since they haven't
got an industrial base, they haven't got an economic base and
they're totally dependent on the man. In many communities a
lot of the people are dependent on welfare, which is very sin-
ister because that means that they have no economic role to
play in the society anymore and they are just being tolerated
and kept alive by the society. This is a very dangerous position
for Black people to be in. So when you talk to them with a vul-
gar type of nationalism, they may listen, they may say right on,
but they know that they don't have the resources to do that.

It seems to me that we have to control the institutions that
educate young Black children and educate them realistically
to the conditions of Black people not only in this country but
in the world, then try to build in them the conscienceness of
the need for Black people to struggle, and to struggle in cer-
tain ways to understand what we are struggling for; to under-
stand that it is going to be a very long struggle, to understand
that the result is not a foregone conclusion; it can go any number
of ways because it is full of surprises, but can begin the pro-
cess of preparing Black people to understand in a more realis-
tic way than the educational system has allowed before.

ROBERT J. PADGETT

TRUE GRIT OF IT ALL

Nothing but pure Soft poly unsaturated

Hitting hard and heavy from the

Insides

Tangibles of smelly rotten-
Waste products of time that once was good.

Jeanais Brodie
71.

Words came out to play

Stumbled over wounds

And then some smartass brought along

his pal called pain,
Who ached the whole situation with his

laughter . . .

Jeanais Brodie
71.

lfrry\

Have I ever taken the time to really say HELLO?
I've walked past you a million times or more,
I may have nodded my head, smiled, or raised a brovt^

But have I ever taken the time to really say HELLO?
I mean like we may have exchanged a few words;
You know like. Hey, what's happenin', or shit it's cold,
or do you know where so & so is

It's funny, but you may be ail the people I've ever met
And I've walked past you a million times or more
I may have nodded my head, smiled, or raised a brow

BUT have I ever taken the time to really say H E L L 0 ?

Jeanais Brodie
71

Swing lo' Sweet Chariot. . .

madness; utter & complete

driven by an insane headless horseman.

Rain.

it's raining. . . , Storm

Drive on your path of vengence; bloody/blackness

in the storm of Shango.

Raining black thunder clouds,

on the unsuspecting. . .

It's raining Black man, raining.

Down Rain.

can you take the reins

from this half /sick madman

and lead us out of ruin ? (utter & complete)

John E. Davis '71

DRUMS

D rums of Black impressions

R hythm for Black spirits

U nderstanding one's Black self

M usic of Black people

S ounds of Black vibrations

D
R
U
M
S

raqim el-shabazz

BLUEPRINT FOR CHANGE

The decade of the seventies demands that Black
educators begin to exan^ine seriously the future of
Higher Education for Black people, especially in in-
stitutions like Howard University, Fisk University,
Atlanta University, Southern University, Morgan
State College, Hampton Institute, North Carolina A &
T etc. which must serve the interest of our commu-
nity. In the sixties, critical questions were raised about
the organization, form and content of Black educa-
tion as students, faculty and administrators embarked
on a search for relevancy. Earlier in the decade. Black
students became engaged in a serious political strug-
gle of dramatizing the social inconsistencies of the
American nation state and of attempting to raise the
level of consciousness among Black people in the
rural south and the urban north and west. In every
instance. Black students were in the vanguard of the
struggle and many endured the pain and anxiety of
this liberating experience. At every level of confron-
tation the involved students were criticized severely,
but today we have dramatic changes in the American
social order, which resulted from the courage and in-
domitable will of these Black warriors who held their
ground and boldly heralded a new day dawning.

Black Colleges and Universities must now come to
grips with the serious questions posed in the last de-
cade. They must begin to provide the leadership in
Black education that their students have demanded
and it is in this vein that I am suggesting a total re-
organization of the academic life, so that they might
be structured to face the challenge of the future. We,
Black educators must be bold and daring in recom-
mending and effecting change. This change should
provide us with a philosophical direction which moves
us to redirect our creative energies in the building of
our communities, people, and our nation.

My principal recommendation will be the elimina-
tion of the College of Liberal Arts which is now a mori-
bund institution and an environment which encour-
ages frustration and disillusionment. Liberal Arts Col-Sl^^j^
lege might have been valid up through the decade of

\f0

the fifties, but the imperatives of contemporary tech-
nology compel us to question its usefulness and the
viability of its educational potential. Liberal Arts grad-
uates are lost in a sea of uncertainty, for they are not
equipped with specific skills that are useful to con-
temporary society. They know too little about any-
thing to be functional or productive, and very often
the graduates of our Liberal Arts Colleges feel estran-
ged from the Black communities which they should
serve. They are then compelled either to go on to pro-
fessional (or graduate) school or endure a life of con-
tinued mediocrity. In fact, they are nothing but func-
tional illiterates, stripped of any ideological direction
or positive commitment and constrained by their lack
of deeper understanding of the essence of Black cul-
ture.

It is already evident that we are facing major changes
in the world's economy. The graduates of Black Col-
leges and Universities have a mandate to shape the new
economies of the Black poor in America and in the
Third World, where the majority of their foreign stu-
dents come from. The political matrix of social and
economic life is changing fast in a global context, and
knowledge has become the central capital, the cost
center and the crucial resource of existing economies.
At Black Colleges and Universities, we are still training
Black students for old technologies shaped by out-
dated assumptions of liberal arts education. Our stu-
dents are not prepared to be hooked into the lead sec-
tors and productive processes of the national and glo-
bal economy. Therefore, it is urgent that we re-examine
our educational resources and our educational direc-
tion, for our failure to produce the new Black men of
power, the men of knowledge, will add further to the
effective domination of the Black World. We cannot
bequeath this legacy to the future, especially since
the forecast of confrontation remains a reality of the
struggle for independence.

All educational practice implies a theoretical stance
on the part of the educator. This stance in turn im-
plies an interpretation of man and the world. The as-
sumptions of our Liberal Arts College are primarily
European (Greek philosophical principles conjoined
with Judeo-Christian social ethic) and the shaping of
this cultural imperative to the American socius.
Through this educational experience, we have been

locked into a dehumanizing structure which shapes
our dependency and alienates us from our true nature.
Therefore, as we confront reality in our search for
freedom and independence, we must recognize that
there is no other road to our humanization but an auth-
entic transformation of the existing dehumanizing
structure. In order for us to move out of this level of
intransitive consciousness (dehumanization) to the
level of critical consciousness (humanization), we will
have to inform our analysis with a careful examina-
tion of our historical condition, taking advantage of
the real and unique possibilities which exist in our cul-
tural experience useful to the transformation of social
reality.

We shall deal with the transformation process by
attempting to take the best of our African heritage in
terms of the essence of life. But this will be basic to the
ethos of Black people in America. The retention of
Africanisms will be understood as it undergirds our
peculiar collective ethos and provides us with histor-
ical continuity. However, we will not become rooted in
the past, for our pressing concern is the ordering of
the present and the shaping of the future. The past
will inform us historically of our spiritual experience
in the struggle for freedom in the face of unparalleled
adversity. We will capture the strength of that exper-
ience and walk boldly on the stage of history as de-
fiant black creators. We cannot take lightly the legacy
that has been handed down to us or the untold suf-
fering of our foreparents who were ripped off from
Africa, who suffered the horrors of the Middle Passage,
who endured the bestiality of slavery, and who have
continuously fought valiantly for freedom and inde-
pendence. This is a rich legacy of pain and triumph,
and it urges the present to carry the banner forward
to a resolution of problems posed as a result of this
Black experience. We, Black educators, have a respon-
sibility to unfold this legacy in the tradition of W.E.B.
DuBois, Carter Woodson, E. Franklin Frazier, Ravford
Logan, Richard Wright, Sterling Brown, Martin Luther
King, Malcolm X, George Padmore, C.L.R. James, Aime
Cesaire, Frantz Fanon, Kwame Nkrumah, Julius
Nyerere and Sekou Toure. But we also have the deep-
er responsibility to provide answers for our people to
the perplexing problems which these men have en-
countered in their struggle for freedom and indepen-
dence.

My determination, therefore, is that we reorganize
the educational structure of Black Colleges and Uni-
versities into arenas of study that will be useful to
nation-building. I am proposing a six year educational
program with a terminal degree— M.N. B.— Master Na-
tion Builder instead of Master of Arts or Bachelor of
Arts. The first two years will be spent in a School for
Black Culture, and the next four years will be spent in
a Technical Institute.

The School of Black Culture will be involved in shap-
ing the attitude, involvement, discipline, commitment
and perspective of the student with a consistent ideo-
logical direction. Students will participate in learning
centers engaged in the study of art, architecture, edu-
cation, religion, history, science, mathematics and
Black family life, while appreciating the multi-faceted
aspects of each problem in our historical evolution
and the many ways that our people have attempted to
resolve these problems. In addition, the students will
develop concrete skills in mathematics, science, ver-
bal and non-verbal communication, symbolic logic
and analysis. There will be established an effective dia-
logue between students and faculty in the galaxy (sat-
ellite) learning centers, as emphasis will be on ideolo-
gical commitment, discovery and creativity. The stu-
dent will be involved in discovering that which he al-
ready knows, ordering, storing and synthesizing this
knowledge with new knowledge in an integrative pro-
cess, and then using it creatively for understanding and
shaping reality. In the galaxies (satellite learning cen-
ters) the faculty members (or faculty liberators as they
should be correctly called) will have various disciplines,
thereby allowing for a free interchange and flow of
creative thought in the work and in the cognitive di-
mensions of the learning process.

At the end of two years, a review board will examine
the student's projected area of technical concentration.
There should be a matching up of the student's choice
of study with his demonstrated potential and with a
curriculum design that would provide him with the
necessary expertise. The decision making process of
the Review Board and the planning of the student's
career should be carefully organized with the final de-
termination of technical concentration made within
three months of the student's appearance before the
Board. At the end of this three month period, the

student will join an Institute, where he will parti-
cipate in a four year program designed to prepare
and sharpen his technical proficiency.

The following Institutes will represent our advanced
level learning centers.

1. Institute of Mathematics and Natural Sciences

2. Institute of Creative Expression-Black Art

3. Institute of Communications and Information
Systems

4. Institute of Education

5. Institute of Social Engineering and Systems
Managers

6. Institute of Global (Multi-national) Studies
and Revolutionary Processes

7. Institute of Geopolitics, Military Science and
Armaments Technology

8. Institute of Engineering and Computer Tech-
nology

9. Institute of Oceanography and Marine Science

10. Institute of Transportation and Delivery Sys-
tems

11. Institute of Materials Technology

12. Institute of Agronomy, Agricultural Science
and Technology

13. Institute of Urban Planning and Environmen-
tal Systems

14. Institute of Health Sciences

15. Institute of Business and Economics

16. Institute of Law, Public Administration, and
Policy Planning

These Institutes will be designed in concentric cir-
cles which will overlap and provide for a free flow of
knowledge through the cross-fertilization of ideas,
interdisciplinary research, and joint project and pro-
gram planning. The Institutes will not function as
isolated, compartmentalized units of knowledge, work
and instruction, even though they will be administered
separately by their respective governing boards.

In addition to the above institutes, there should be
a Center for Black Thought and Creative Expression,
and a Center for Research in applied Science and Tech-
nology, as well as a Center for Social and Economic
Research. The work of these Research Centers will
undergird and often sharpen the intellectual life of
the Institutes. The research centers will attempt to
deal with concrete problems confronting contempor-

ary Black society, performing three distinct but in-
terrelated functions. The work will be a) diagnostic,
b) evaluative, c) explanatory. The centers should be
engaged in short term research projects which will be
service oriented: in long term research which will at-
tempt to tackle substantive issues relating to Black
life and problems in Black intellectual thought; and
in original research in science and technology which
will be useful to the Black world. Black people must
invent and build new gadgets and techniques as the
innovators of tomorrow.

The technological input of the last century coupled
with the need of Black people for rapid industrializa-
tion for increased productivity and improved living
conditions demands that our educational planning
focus on technological institutes. Technology brings
about a systematically applied approach to how we
organize knowledge about physical relationships for
useful purposes. There can be no economic growth in
Black communities and nations without the applica-
tion of technology to land, labor, capital and educa-
tion, now or in the future. ("Images of the 21st Cen-
tury . . . Blackness.") It is necessary, therefore, for us
to train people as quickly as possible to reproduce
systematically, through established and creative log-
ical processes, man-made hardware useful to the im-
provement of the quality of life in Black communities.

At all levels of work in the Institutes, students will
be aware that every measure of education and science
will relate to public service values and therefore will
move away from productivity for profit and indivi-
dual gain to productivity for the enrichment of the flow
of life for Black people. The student will also under-
stand the direct relationship between theory and prac-
tice, that is work and study will be merged. Emphasis
will be on extending the humanistic values developed,
examined and reexamined in the School of Black Cul-
ture. Members of the Institutes will be engaged ac-
tively in the liberating processes as they represent the
catalyzing agents of social change.

In the Institutes, we will be concerned not only with
the technological expertise acquired, but the develop-
ment of the whole man consciously participating in
the collective life of his community as this reflects
his social function. In this educational experience,
the chains of oppression and alienation will be broken.

as the student regains his true nature and manhood
through liberated work and study, and the expression
of his proper human condition through Black culture
and art.

Students will engage in a four year study program
in the respective Institutes. On successful comple-
tion of the program, the student will be awarded a
Master Nation Builder (MNB) Certificate. Third year
students from various Institutes will be organized in
specific project teams to design, build and adminis-
ter a concrete and identifiable service to the need of a
Black community whether it is in Mississippi, Newark,
Guyana or Nigeria. For example, the students will work
on the construction of an irrigation system, health sys-
tem or communication system as a specific community
might request resulting from discussions between the
community and the University officials. This speci-
fic aspect of the student's training will be narrowly
focused and professionally designed so that the stu-
dents could come to grips with team work and the ex-
ecution of a project design outside of the university
community, but integrated with his theoretical train-
ing. This third year program will extend from six
months to one year. On the student's return to the
university, the team will be responsible for providing
a documented report of its work and its progress. This
report will be discussed, analyzed and concretized for
its theoretical and practical implications. It can become
the basis for a thesis paper presented to a governing
board of the Institute as one of the requirements for
graduation. This will necessitate that each member of
the team reporting to respective Institute will use some
aspect of the project design for his thesis work.

The educational experience that I am recommending
will be concerned with developing leaders, innovators,
discoverers, creators and liberators. Our students will
become the architects of change and the engineers of
growth and development. I firmly believe that educa-
tion involves discovery and creativity. The Black stu-
dent must discover:

1. himself and those societal factors which influ-

behavior,

2. his creative potential and the cognitive processes
which influence his intellectual development, and

3. his cultural autonomy and the correct response

to its constituent demands.

This discovery on the part of the Black student will
then lead him to the maximum use of his creative ener-
gies in the service of his people. It should also allow
him to explode his creative potential and explore new
arenas of thought and analysis in order that he will
be better prepared to meet his future responsibilities.
Finally, in our immediate educational experience, the
Black student in the learning centers and Institutes
will be prepared to serve our communities not in a
sentimental petit-bourgeois fashion, but rather as a
scientist, technician or administrator, whose political
commitment, and positive attitude will focus on the
determination to eliminate the critical problems of
hunger, disease, poverty, illiteracy, drug addiction and
political powerlessness, which affect Black people.

This reorganization of Black Colleges and Univer-
sities represents a program of action. We must liberate
ourselves from the stultifying aspects of liberal arts
education. Even when we try to impose a sugar-coating
of blackness on white education we are still trapped in
the cobwebs of the assumptions on which American
education have been built, and which the cultural
apparatus manipulates to colonize and mystify our
minds. In the liberal arts college our students simply
glide into classrooms of despair and walk on the en-
chanted quagmires (quicksands) of frustration and
irrelevancy. The constructs of thought and the mes-
sages of the classroom are essentially informed by Eu-
ropean intellection and historiography. We must lib-
erate ourselves from the corruptive chains of Western
Imperialistic society which infuse our present educa-
tional experience. We must cut the umbilical cord
which ties us subjugatingly to White European, Judeo-
Christian society and its philosophical and cultural
imperatives.

Finally, we must liberate ourselves from the sorcery
(magic) and phantoms (ghosts) of underdevelopment
which is the immediate expression of neo-colonialism.

Black Colleges and Universities are not organized
for or around work. They are organized around play
and the broadening of the cultural orientation and
social exposure of the individual student. This is the
reason for party life, Greek fraternities and sororities
and narcotics addiction in an education process crust-
ed over with a smattering of knowledge in the liberal

democratic tradition with emphasis on social sciences,
humanities and fine arts. Furthermore, there is a spill
over from undergraduate life and the morass of its
make-believe superficial world to our professional
schools where students engage in the same functions
and life styles.

This reorganization structure will compel us to
look closely at inept administrators, non-progressive
faculty and trifling students. If there is a thorough
shake-up in our university and college communities,
a serious ideological perspective and commitment de-
monstrated, and a marked increase in the level of pro-
ductivity, serious Black faculty, administrators and
students will come to Black Universities and Colleges,
for they would quickly recognize Black education on
the march. We must seize the time and realize that
many potential nation-builders are frustrated in white
institutions and they will come to black institutions if
there is a modicum of seriousness projected. Unfor-
tunately, today, we in Black Colleges and Universities
are our worst public relations people for one can of-
ten hear frustrations expressed by different segments
of our university communities. The Towards a Black
University Conference which was held at Howard
University in the Fall of 1968 graphically taught me
this sad lesson. Black people came to Howard Uni-
versity with hope and left in despair. Black educa-
tors wake up— a new day is dawning.

We must begin to develop a new frame of refer-
ence which projects our Africanity (Blackness) shaped
by new guidelines, new values, new goals, new struc-
tures, new thoughts, new forms and new images. We
must turn over a new leaf; we must work out new con-
cepts; we must try to set afoot a new man. There must
be an ingression of the future into the present. The
present is a time for struggle. The future is ours. A
liberated people, a liberated man, a liberated mind re-
main in our educational experience a fundamental
necessity.

Acklyn R. Lynch

March 4, 1971

3900 -16th St., No. 304

Northwest

Washington, D. C. 20011

A CKNO WLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank

Professors Chester Davis and

Acklyn Lynch of the Afro-American Studies Depart-
ment for their contributions to this issue of the DRUM.

Also we would like to thank for their articles

A I Keys,

Bill Hasson,

Earl Strickland and,

Burvell Williams.

For poetry:

Joseph Boykins

A. Jackson Linebarger

Emmanuel Asibong

Luisin M. Medina

Raqim el-Shabazz

John E. Davis and

Jeanais Brodie, a student at Hampshire College.

We would like to offer special thanks to: Bette Ames
for Interviewing Lillian Anthony of the Center for
leadership and administration in the School of Edu-
cation. Also, Lillian Anthony, Mike Thelwell, Chair-
man of the Department of Afro-American Studies
and Ray Miles of Afro-Am, for the use of their inter-
views, and Nat Rutstein of the School of Education
for his confidence and academic support.

^^/oo//C77

71=155,

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