PAGE FOUR
THE COMPASS
MAY. 1963
My Blackness is the
Beauty of This Land
My blackness is the beauty of this
land,
my blackness,
tender and strong, wounded and wise,
my blackness:
I, drawling black grandmother, smile
muscular and sweet,
unstraightened white hair soon in
earth to grow,
work-thickened hand thoughtful and
gentle on grandson’s head,
my heart is bloody-razored by a
million memories’ thrall:
remembering the crook-necked crack
er who on my naked body spat,
remembering the spirit splintered of
my son because he remembered
to be proud,
remembering tragic eyes in darkface
when my daughter learned her
color’s meaning,
and my own deep rage a rusty knife
with teeth to gnaw my bowels,
my agony ripped loose by anguished
My agony rainbowed to ecstasy when
my feet o’er soared Montomery’s
slime,
shouts in Sunday’s humble church,
ah, this hurt, this hate, this ecstacy
before I die,
and all my love a strong cathedral!
My blackness is the beauty of this
land!
Lay this against my whiteness, this
land!
Lay me, young Brutus stamping hard
on the cat’s tail,
gutting the Indian, gouging the nigger,
booting Little Rock’s Minniejean
Brown in the buttocks and boast,
my sharp white teeth derision-bared
as I the conqueror crush!
Skyscraper-I, white hands burying
God’s human clouds beneath the
dust!
Skyscraper-I, slim blond young em
pire
thrusting up my loveless bayonet to
rape the sky,
then shrink all my long body and in
the gutter lie
as lie I will to perfume this armpit
garbage,
While I here standing black beside
wrench tears from which the lies
would suck the salt
to make me more American than
America . . .
But yet my love and yet my hate
shall civilize this land, this land’s
salvation. —Lance Jeffers
Conflict
Fiercely flying across crimson sky
swells a bird of ebony,
swelling angrily.
Is the heart of stone?
Monument of some soul?
No! A replica of powerful resistance!
Only a mere existence to the white
bird.
Soaring preplexed and weakened over
the sea.
There darts the white bird.
The white foot-crusher.
The white hand-smasher.
Crusher of freedom.
Crusher of resistance?
No!
Fear stalks the inflated heart of the
white bird,
fear of the bird of ebony.
—Thelma Howard
Sun Glory
Sun, let the glory shine from your
face
On mortals here below.
Let every member of the world’s
race
See Heaven in your glow.
Sun, let your splended rays be our
guest.
Be luster in your eyes,
Be our power source in heart and
breast.
And rapture in our cries.
Sun, let your brillance, your golden
smile
Spread beauty o’er your land,
l.et it diffuse for many a mile
As God’s blessing to man.
—Theresa Hall
Players Convincing
And Effective In
"The Crucible"
The College Players on March 29
gave a convincing, effective, and at
times professional performance of
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.
The Crucible is an American ap
proach to past and present American
social history. It fictionalizes the
Salem witchhunt, an outgrowth of
the malignant Puritan mentality and
an outgrowth as well, this reviewer
believes, of a struggle between the
powers-that-were and the small land
owners in colonial New England. The
Salem witchhunt was an attempt, in
probability, to break the small land
holder who aspired to political power,
and to enlarge the holdings of the
big landowners. (This, incidentally,
was the approach of the French
movie based on Miller’s play.) But
though a political-economic struggle
was unquestionably the rootsource
of the witchhunt, Miller chose to ex
clude this aspect of reality from his
drama and in so doing he crippled
his play’s dramatic possibilities. He
chose to let the drama stand as an
implicit condemnation of McCarthy-
ism, the searching-under-the-bed-for-
Reds of a decade ago. His play is
a solid contribution to freedom of
speech and conscience in America,
a thrust against those who would
terrorize man, make him afraid to
examine ideas, afraid to choose ideas
that the McCarthyites condemned.
But Miller’s refusal to portray the
political and economic reahty be
hind the Salem witchhunt inevitably
weakens the analogy between Salem
and the midtwentieth century, in
evitably weakens his characterization.
Though Miller in The Crucible con
demned political witchhunts, he him
self flinched a bit in the face of that
terror and thus weakened an other
wise strong play.
Civilized men are thankful, never
theless, that it was whitten, and we
here can be thankful to Mr. Peter
son’s breadth of spirit in bringing to
STC this dramatic indictment of the
kind of narrowness that would keep
the human spirit in a straightjacket.
The cast did splendidly under Mr.
Peterson’s strongly skillful and cer
tain direction. The players acted
their roles with vigor and conviction.
Mr. Peterson was of course excellent
as Deputy Governor Danforth, power
ful and professionally subtle. This
was expected. Unexpected was the
extraordinary empathy and polish
that Van Lee James gave the role
of Mary Proctor. Tony Ricks, as Rev-
erand Hale, sometimes achieved her
level of empathy, and so, at times,
did Charles Cherry, who was Proctor.
And if empathy was missing at times
with regard to many of the cast, the
players’ vigor and conviction time
after time surged over the barrier
of inexperience and wrought for the
audience the illusion of reality.
The set and costumes were excel
lent, a testimony to initiative and im
agination. In fine, it was a strong
and skillful piece of work that the
Players brought to us. But theirs
was more than good technique alone;
theirs was good technique applied
to a deeply thoughtful product of a
conscience goaded to concern for the
suffering and the future of mankind.
—Lance Jeffers
One Side of Life
A torrent sea. Twirling and twisting
at rock bottom.
A pine tree. Pines falling and falling
in boredom.
A bee. constantly moving from sun to
A rugged mountain. Climbing and
climbing in strain,
flowing fountain. Running and
running in vain.
An endless counting. Many and many
a pain.
—Thelma Horward
The 1963 ... Summer Session
ELIZABETH CITY STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE
SIX-WEEK SESSION ■ June 9 to July 19
THREE-WEEK SESSION - July 22 to Aug. 9
WORKSHOPS FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS
A Full Complement of Courses for Regular Students
Apply: DIRECTOR OF SUMMER SESSION
Elizabeth City State College, Elizabeth City, N. C.
WORKSHOPS
for Teachers and Prospective
Teachers
Art In The Public School
June 10 - July 19
This is a workshop designed to acquaint the public
school teachers with methods and techniques of teach
ing art, art education and the crafts on the elementary
and secondary levels. The course embraces the
fundamental techniques, basic elements and principles
of design as well as actual participation in creating
and designing craft projects.
Credit: Six (6) semester hours.
Workshop In Elementary Science
June 10 - July 19
Objective: To introduce to both teacher and pro
spective teacher some of the most recent techniques
and developments in science. To realize this objec
tive, the following types of activities will be presented:
(1) Lecture and discussion period, one hour; (2) Lab
oratory activities, two hours; (3) Audio-visual aids
followed by discussions, one hour; (4) Individual stu
dent projects, one hour. This is to be the daily sched
ule except day of field trip. Various members of the
Department of Science will be on hand to take part
in the program which will contain aspects of biology,
geology, chemistry and physics. The whole program
will be of the informal type. At least one field trip
per week will be provided. Credit: Six (6) semester
hours.
Secondary Science Workshop
June 10 - July 19
Objectives: To enhance and strengthen the sub
ject matter area of General Science, Biology Physics,
Chemistry, and Earth Science for the teacher of the
secondary school science curriculm.
To realize these objectives the following activities
will be presented: (1) lecture-demonstration of prin
ciples of Physics and Chemistry as related to the
other areas in secondary science; (2) to use laboratory
activities consisting of experimentations and research;
(3) individual or group student projects; (4) instruction
both real and vicarious in the use of standard and new
equipment.
DAILY SCHEDULE will include three hours
(including laboratory) for five days a week. This
course will contain basic principles as they are inter
related and intrarelated to each of the secondary
school science curricula. Namely: Biology, Chem
istry, Physics and Earth Science in addition to History
of Science as it affects these curricula. Credit: Six (6)
semester hours.
Workshop In Machine Reporting
(Stenotype)
June 10 to July 12
Description: A workshop designed to qualify cer
tified business teachers to teach the phonetics, key
board theory and practice, and transcription theory
and practice of machine (stenotype) court conference
and convention reporting. The program includes 25
four-hour-daily sessions; and 25 two-hour-daily di
rected laboratory sessions. In addition, a minimum of
50 hours individual study and practice with the ma
chines outside regular workshop sessions will be re
quired. Teachers who complete these requirements
will be certified as machine reporting teachers by the
Stenographic Machines Corporation. Credit: Six (6)
semester hours.
Objectives
(1) To have the student learn the phonetics nec
essary for writing stenograph.
(2) To have the student develop a skill in ma
chine writing that will permit him to de
monstrate finger positions accurately.
(3) To have the student attain as fast a dictation
rate as possible while in the workshop.
(4) To have the student achieve as high a tran
scribing rate as possible in order to under
stand the problems of teaching the transcrib
ing of machine notes.
(5) To have the student learn the special meth
ods necessary for teaching machine shorthand.
Institute For Public School Secretaries
June 10 to July 12
A five-week professional improvement program de
signed to develop greater on-the-job efficiency in
Public School Secretaries. The Institute includes 150
hours of instruction and supervised laboratory appli
cation in Production Typewriting and Duplication
(30 Clock-hours); Business Communications and Re
ports (30 Clock-hours); Financial Recording and Re
porting (30 Clock-hours); Office Practice and Proced
ures (30 Clock-hours). The Institute is open to high
school graduates who type 30 w.p.m. and are employ
ed as secretaries. Credit: Six (6) semester hours.
Church Music Workshop
June 10 to June 28
Organists, choirmasters and all others concerned
with problems of Church Music will have an oppor
tunity to attend a three-week Church Music Workshop
this summer at Elizabeth City State College.
June 10 to 28 will mark the period for the Col
lege’s first Workshop in this vital field.
Participants will have opp>ortun!ties to attend
lectures and engage in practical demonstrations. All
phases of problems of music in worship will be con
sidered. Credit: Three (3) semester hours.
Regular College Courses
SIX-WEEK SESSION
June 10 to July 19
Hours
Course and No. Course Tttle Credits
English
217
Advanced Composition
3
History
392
American Government
3
History
255
American History (1)
3
History
256
American History (2)
3
Art
225
Arts and Crafts
2
Math
141
Basic Mathematics
3
Biology
139
Biological Science Survey
3
English
116
Communications Skills
3
Ed.
414
Evaluation
3
Bus.
403
Intermediate Accounting
3
Ed.
200
Introduction to Education
3
Music
227
Fundamentals of Music (1) .. .
2
Math
142
General Mathematics
3
Geo.
262
Geography (1)
3
Geo.
263
Geography (2)
3
Psy.
307
Human Growth and Devel-
Ind. Arts477
Leathercraft
3 or 4
Health
137
Personal Hygiene
2
Health
369
Prin., Prac., Pro. of Health
Education
3
Phy. Ed. 363
Prin,, Prac,, Procedures
of Physical Education
2
Ed.
309
Philosophy of Education
3
Ed.
313
The Secondary School
3
History
148
Western Civilization (2)
3
English
216
World Literature (2)
3
THREE-WEEK SESSION-July 22 to Aug. 9
History
256
American History (2)
3
Ed.
414
Evaluation
3
Math
142
General Mathematics
3
Psy.
308
Human Growth and Develop
ment (2)
3
Ed.
309
Philosophy of Education
3
* Students are
^ not restricted to courses listed. Others
may be offered upon request.
* All classes offered subject to sufficient demand.
COSTS:
Tuition (per semester hour) $ 8.00
Board, Room and Laundry
a. Six Weeks 58.50
b. Three Weeks 29.25
Registration Fee 2.00
Health Fee .... . 2.00
Library Fee - 2,00
Incidental Fee (Non-Boarding Students) 6 00
Late Registration Fee - per day 2.00
Out-of-state students will pay an extra tuition fee
of $10.00. Books and equipment will cost individual
students approximately $20.00 for the six weeks
Session and $10.00 for the three weeks Session. Only
charges for board, room, and laundry are adjusted
for four or five week workshops.