Page 4 Portland Observer, October 29, 1981
EDITORIAL/OPINION
*
— —-
I
Destroying Black education
by by
Manning
Marobie
Manning
Marable
Dtiri
n t o ~ f a two-part
_
Par! Two
series.
who
were
college
students
within
(he the o f o the
desegregati
f the
desegregation piocess would
who
were
college
students
within
an 18-24 _ age group declined
-1 from
— 22.0
A
J — . L . l .
in
their
view
sim ply
have
transformed traditionally Black col
to 20.2 per cent. Despite the deseg
The historically Black college is
regation o f white universities, tradi
leges in to m a jo rity w h ite in s titu
largely the direct product o f racial
tionally Black institutions continue
tions. The N o rth C a ro lin a agree
segregation. Ninety-one o f the 107
to serve the majority o f Blacks seek
ment, and others like it, promised to
Black colleges were established be
ing college or professional training.
halt the growing numbers o f white
fore ,910. Generally underfinanced
25 per cent o f all Blacks in higher ed
faculty, administrators and students
dress the area o f student achievement. Dr. Pro and in adeq u ately s ta ffe d . Black
ucation attend the 35 state-support
o f Black campuses, while providing
phet has more than met these requirements—he higher education was perm itted to
ed Black colleges. Over 60 per cent of
millions o f dollars for sorely-needed
physical plant expansion and re
is the clear choice o f all o f the committees the exist only in skeletal form during the
all Black students attend all Black
search.
colleges. 62 per cent o f all Black
Board asked for input and advice. There is no long night o f W hite Supremacy. As
late as 1946, only four Black c o l
The first real effects o f the North
M .D .s and 73 per cent o f all Black
reason to scrounge around for someone else— leges, Howard University, Fisk U ni
Carolina agreement were a shock to
Ph.D.s are products o f these institu
there especially is no reason to scrounge around versity, Taladega College and North
Black college teachers. O n August
tions.
to get someone white.
C arolina State, were accredited by
24-25, between 70 to 90 instructors
Desegregation proved to be both
In our opinion the candidates rated: 1) Proph the Association o f American U n i
and assistant professors at N orth
a blessing and a curse. It created the
et; 2) Byrd; 3) Hunter; 4) Fenwick; 5) Scamman; versities. In the school year 1945-46,
C aro lin a C en tral U n iversity were
conditions for a virtual revolution in
ordered to complete their doctoral
Black educational opportunities. Si
6) Houde. Our reading o f opinion among the Black undergraduate enrollm ent
was 4 3,8 78 in the Black colleges.
degrees by November 30, 1981, Fail
multaneously, the liberalization o f
members o f the advisory committees and the Less than eighteen hundred a t
ure or inability to do so, under the
white educational institutional insti
public leads us to believe that our choices are not tended Black professional schools;
terms o f the consent decree, means
tutions permitted many o f the best
too different from theirs.
only 116 were train in g to become
that ju n io r faculty members* con
Black in tellectuals to leave the
lawyers.
South for more prestigious posts at
tracts “ would not be renewed and
The o n ly question is whether the School
that they would not be considered
N o rth e rn
and
West
Coast
Even a fte r the passage o f ex
Board is ready fo r a strong, dynamic leader
fo r re a p p o in tm e n t." T h e letter,
universities.
The
generation
o
f
panded educational legislation, the
who is Black.
signed
by Vice Chancellor Charlie
Black
m
iddle
class
professionals
num ber o f A fro -A m e ric a n s who
L
.
Patterson
at D u rh a m , was in
trained
at
H
ow
ard
and
Fisk
in
the
The Board adopted an outstanding selection were financially able to attend uni
tended " to intensify the pressure"
1940s sent their children to Harvard
versities was p itifu lly sm all. By
process that included a broad representation o f
and Berkeley. The Black Power ex
on mostly Black ju n io r faculty
1950, 41,000 “ m in o rity ” men and
community groups, parents, students, adminis 42,000 " m in o rity " women (Blacks.
plosion on white campuses from the
members to com plete their degree
work.
The agreement which prom
mid-60s
to
early
1970s
accelerated
trators, teachers, and other staff. Those repre A sians, e tc .) ages 18-24 attended
the
crisis
as
the
most
m
ilitant
and
ised
to
defend the legal and political
sentatives came in with a unanimous recommen colleges, about 4.5 per cent o f their
stability o f Black colleges quickly
progressive Black scholar/activists
total
age
grouping.
That
same
year,
dation for a Black man. The Board w ill, and
left traditionally Black institutions
promised to ra d ica lly tran sfo rm
by the way o f contrast, 1,025,000
should, lose credibility with citizens and staff if
them. As history professor Sylvia
to work in A fro -A m erica n studies
white males between 18-24 years old
it rejects their recommendations.
departments in white campuses.
M . Jacobs com plained, ” 1 had no
attended college, 15 per cent o f the
idea whatsoever that the results o f a
total white age group. The function
W ith the rapid growth o f stale-
consent degree would be so extreme.
o f the Black college was, at least
supported two-year colleges and vo
It is feasible that under this policy,
from the view o f white society, to
c atio n al schools in the 1960s and
in the next two years we could have a
train the N egro to accept a
1970s, the m ostly p riv ate Black
p redo m inan tly w h ile fa c u lty ” at
"sep arate and unequal” position
institutions found themselves in se
North Carolina Central.
within American life.
vere financial straits. By 1978 41.8
The only possibility to save the
per cent o f all Blacs were enrolled in
The Civil Rights and Black Power
traditionally Black institutions with
two-year degree program s, vs. 34
Movements, combined with a politi
out another " A t la n ta C o m p ro
per cent for whites. The number o f
cal shift o f the U .S . governm ent
mise” would be to reject both the
white students transferring or apply
under the Johnson Adm inistration
liberal integrationist approach and
ing to Black campuses jum ped
toward implementation o f some a f
the neo-segregationist N o rth C ar
sharply. For example, by 1981 the
firm ative action guidelines, trans
olin a agreem ent. I l is im p erative
white
enrollment
at
the
engineering
formed Black education. By 1970,
that white higher educational sys
school at previously all-Black North
192,000 Black men and 2 25,000
tems be forced to accept strict quo
Carolina Agricultural and Technical
Black women between ages 18-24 at
tas in h irin g Black fa c u lty and
State U n ive rs ity in Greensboro
tended college. The overall percent
adm inistrators, and that duplicate
reached 40 per cent. First generation
age o f Black youth enrolled in col
programs offered at various schools
college students from low-to-middle
lege. 15.5 per cent, contrasted with
be eliminated. At the same time, tra
income
Black
families
could
not
a
f
the while attendance figures o f 34
ditionally Black public instituions
ford to pay higher tuitions at private
per cent for males and 21 per cent
should not be forced to integrate
Black colleges. Private foundations
fo r fem ales. Five years later,
faculty and student bodies at a rate
cut
back sharply in their donations
2 94.000 Black men and 3 72,000
faster than white slate universities
to Black schools after the recession
Black women between ages 18-24
have done. Black private colleges
o f 1973-74. By the late 1970s, the
were in college, respectively 20 and
must
remain Black, to fu lfill their
traditionally Black colleges were fac
21 per cent o f their age group. The
historic
mandate o f providing edu
ing the mounting financial costs o f
most recent available statistics, for
cation to Black people. G iven the
even maintaining essential services
the years 1976 and 1977, reveal a
absence o f a radical Black critique
and
building without sufficient sup
slight decline in Black college enroll
in Black higher education circles,
port within the Black community as
m ent— a testament o f the political
however, the prospects for the de
a whole.
assaults against Black educational
struction o f the rem aining Black
opportunity o f the 1970s. The total
Caught in a seemingly hopeless
universities and a concom m itant
numbers o f Black college youth
d ilem m a. Black educators have
drop in the total number o f Blacks
slipped fro m 7 49 ,00 0 to 721,000,
opted for what could be termed (he
adm itted to colleges are now very
and the percentage o f Black men
lesser o f two evils. An acceleration
real.
Prophet clear choice
Four weeks ago we said that Dr. James Scam-
man was added to the list o f candidates for su
perintendent o f the Portland School District to
be the “ white hope” in case Dr. Glenn Houde,
who was favored by some board members,
could not pass public muster. We were right.
Houde bombed and Scamman rose to a position
we fed is unwarranted based on his interviews.
When it began deliberation toward the selec
tion o f a new superintendent, the Board ex
pressed the intent to pare the list to one candi
date. Board members would then visit the city o f
that candidate and, i f satisfied, would offer the
position.
Now that Dr. Matthew Prophet, a Black, is
the clear choice o f the Superintendent Search
Citizens’ Advisory Committee, the Superinten
dent Search Internal Staff Advisory Committee,
and the City Club, the Board has decided that it
must have two candidates and must visit two
cities. Had Scamman been the clear choice we
don’t believe this would be the case.
The Board has expressed the desire fo r a
strong leader, one who inspires confidence in the
staff, parents and students, and one who can ad
NEWS ITEM.' PORTLAND’S SCHOOL BOARD
TRAVELS TO THE HOMETOWNS OF SUPERIN
TENDENT CANDIDATES TO CARRY OUT
INTENSIVE BACKGROUND INVESTIGATIONS.
LANSING, M ICH. homc of MATTHEW PROPHET®
SOUTH BEND, IND. home of
JAIMES SCAfflfflAN
Portland Observer
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T he C o nferen ce in S o lid a rity
W ith the Liberation Struggles o f the
Peoples o f Southern A fric a , held
this month at New Y ork’s Riverside
C h u rch , unanim ously adopted a
“ New Y o rk D e c la ra tio n ” in its
closing
p lenary
session.
C o in c id e n ta lly , the D e c la ra tio n ,
which challenges a m ajor aspect o f
US foreign policy, came out o f an
event located at the same site —
Riverside C hurch - fro m which
Reverend M a rtin Luther K ing, Jr.
renounced US policy in Vietnam in
1967. The conference was attended
by 1,000 delegates fro m 30 states
and 20 foreign countries, with US
delegates representing lab or, civil
rights, relig io u s, e n te rta in m e n t,
youth and other constituents.
In the New York Declaration, the
conferees
condem n
Regan
A dm inistration policy in Southern
Arica, stating “ It is . . . with anger
and deep concern that we witness
our own governm ent forging a
deepening alliance with the criminal
apartheid regime (o f South A frica)
em bracing P re to ria 's cold war
argum ents, cooperating w ith its
secret plans, backing it in the United
Nations . . . in short, collaborating
on every level w ith a regime and
system that have been declared
international outlaws by the people
o f the w orld."
The D ec la ratio n accuses the
Reagan
A d m in is tra tio n
of
distorting the conflict in Southern
A fric a through the p ro m o tio n o f
myths
about
cold
war
c o n fro n ta tio n s with the Soviet
U nion and an alleged threat from
‘terrorism’ " so as to rationalize its
e ffo rts to defeat the lib e ra tio n
movements in the area. States the
docum ent, " . . .
the true
confrontation in the region is with
apartheid and colonialism."
The D eclaration also assails US
corpo rate involvem ent in the
economies o f South A fric a and
N a m ib ia as u ndergirding Reagan
foreign policy and as depriving US
w orkers o f jo b s. F o rd , G eneral
Motors, M obil, IB M , Goodyear and
Union Carbide are cited as examples
o f the hundreds o f US companies
which
enjoy
“ e x tra o rd in a ry
p ro fits ” from “ the slave labor
conditions that a p a rth eid en
forces.”
7 he New Y o rk D e c la ra tio n ,
placed in the context o f statements
issued by the Paris and Berlin anti
apartheid conferences this year in
M ay and September, respectively,
signals the fo rm a l entry o f a US
constituency into the international
a n ti-a p a rth e id m ain stream . The
D e c la r a tio n
s p e c ific a lly
recommends that U S people
m obilize around the demands for
m andatory
sanctions
against
P r e to r ia ,
“ u n c o n d itio n a l
recognition o f the People's Republic
o f A n g o la ” and re ten tion o f the
< lark A m endm ent. The document
pledges to “ end our governm ent’s
pact w ith racism , which i f not
obliterated, will destroy us a ll."
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