Newspapers / Bennett College Student Newspaper / Dec. 1, 1943, edition 1 / Page 2
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Page Two \ THE BENNETT BANNER December, 1943 THE BENNETT BANNER “Anything Worth Heading, We Wi ite” TKN CENTS A COrY •1!.75 A I*ER SI BSCRIPTION EDITORIAL BOARD Chairman MARGUERITE POPE Feature Editor VASHTI WARREN News Editor LULA TILLETT Business Manager __ HELEN HORTON REPORTERS AND CONTRIBUTORS HILDA AMAKER ANNA ATKINS EDITH BISHOP MYRTLE BROWN MARGARET CALDWELL ELEANOR CHIPPEY PRECIOUS COPENING KATHRYN DAVENPORT MARIE DAVIS OBERA DAWSON DOROTHY DEVAUGHN GLORIA DIX MARY ELLA DRAKE ROBERTA FAVORS MAMIE HARRIS MARGARET HILL WILHELMINA HOFFLER ALICE HOLLOWAY RUTH S. HYATT FREDERICA JONES THORA KELLY CYNTHIA McCOTTRY JOHNNYE PENDERGRASS MARION PEYTON NANCY PINKARD CAROLYN ROBERTSON BETTIE WATE MARY WAGSTAFF VERA WOODEN OLIVIA WRIGHT ADVISOR DR. FREDERIC A. JACKSON EDITORIALLY SPEAKING OPINION The Hill-Thomas Bill, a proposal to allot S300,(K)0,00() of federal funds for the various states to use in their respective school systems, was pigon-hoied indefinitely and sent back to the Committee on Education and Labor. DO YOU FAVOR PASSING THE FEDERAL AID TO EDUCATION BILL? YES! A HINT TO THE WISE. Hats off to the mmbers of the Alpha Epsilon Society. Surely you have noticed the lovely federated keys which these girls are proudly displaying. However, they can tell you that this honor came from concerted, continuous effort. You have just completed the first nine weeks of the semester. Are you proud of your efforts as you reflect? Or, can you see too much room for improvement? There are a varied inumber of helpful activities in which one can engage in here on the campus. Volunteer work at the hospital, knitting for the Red Cross and planning special activities for the soldiers are just a few of them. Do your part but do not allow these activities to crowd out your scholastic achievements. In or der to effect your share in the rehabilitation which will come when the war is won, you will need everything which the college has to offer. So do not let opportunity pass you by. RESPONSIBILITY. How do you react to responsibility ? Can you be assigned to a task to perform with the assurance that it is going to be done? Do you have to be chased and cajoieu into uoiiig ytfaf part committee V you always plead more important business when approached for ass>tance? Everyone likes to jee her name in a position of responsibility but everyone is not willing to accept that responsibility. Conse quently, duties given to one person fall on the shoulders of an other equally as busy, programs are held up, activities have to be emitted, and one loses the respect and confidence of those with whom she associates. Your opportunities to serve here are but steping stones. If you do these well now, you will emerge with more strength and vigor for the days ahead. One only learns to do by doing. Reader's Retreat By ROBEKTA FAVORS, ’45. No Negro can have any doui)t as to the benefits that were to lie derived from the passing of the Federal Edu cation Appropriation Bill of two months ago. We are clamoring now, more than ever before for equal oppor tunities and one of the first places to which we could look is our educational ■systems. Any aid at all to the schools of the south would provide better equipment, would set higher standards, attract better teachers for our schools. The bill provided for aid vary ing with the size and the condition of the existing school system of the state. There was then the a.ssurance that the Southern states would have received the greatest benefit. 'J’he pic ture of the one-room scliool house with pupils from the first to the seventh grades is out-datel though still to be found in oiu- Southern states. Tlie l)ill was in favor of the Negro cause—a step toward equalization of oppoi'tu- nity. We, as a group, as well as edu cation have suffered as a i-esidt of petty politics in Wasiiington. There is a definite need for feleral aid. Througiiout the country course curtailments, overcrowding are domi nant problems which have arisen out of teaciier shortages. I’oor states such as Mississippi have not been able to raise their teaching standards and pay their teachers better salaries, conse quently, would-be teachers seek other aeiSk ,iMi>,re NO! PARODY. By PRKCIOUS COPENING. 'Twas night l^efore Xmas And all over B. C. Every creature was stii'ring -\s busy as a bee. Stockings were hung from the wall with care Hoping that roommate would Place something there. I, in pajamas, niy roommate in a gown lliid tiappily laid the last gift down. When suddenly there came a knock at the door. Just three loud knocks and then no more. My roommate looked at me and I looked away Neither of us bad a word to say. The door suddenly opened and there in the hall .Stood old Santa Olaus, I'eindeer and all. There, in his hand, an empty sack, had he No lovely presents for roommate and me? lie ipened his mouth and began to say : “Did you send a gift to the family to day ? Did you send a card to a soldier you knew? Or send a gift to a dear friend too?" He look(‘d at the beds, He lookwl to see if we hung our heads. I was not guilty, my roonunate? Not she! For all had done tliese things you see. Santa was pleiised with the wliole campus And promised to leave gifts for each of us. Then—with a big friendly slap He said, “Girls, save all your scrap So I will be able to come again next year And find B. C. in happiness and cheer.” And with a great calamity of noise, my roonunate shook with fright, He yellei as he left: “ilerry Xmas to all And to all a good night.” BENNETT OBSERVES TOTH ANNIVERSARY (Continued From Page One) '38, Alumni President; Rev. S. A. Peeler, '89, Trustee Board, and Rev. .1. E. Brower, ’17, Pastor, St. ^lat- thews Church—expressed the same, and pledged their loyalty to tiie future gro\\ tli and welfare of Beimett. Because of that spirit, we feel con fident that “There Will Always Be a Bennett"—our Alma ilater to whom ;ifts there on the I we shall always raise our voices in I grateful praise. money. The school property of a pupil in Tennessee is valued at .$80.00 jier year, on tlie other hand, the school property of a pupil in New York is valued at !i;r)26.0(). That is the NEED .—this is where the student and the student and the teacher would have been benefitted. Then, too, not only the student and the teacher would have been benefitted by such an api>ropria- tiO'n but also the entire population— for an increase in the amount of the poorer states for educaticjn would he a tremendous help in decreasing the high illiteracy rate in our country. It is difficult to understand how anyone, white or Negro, living in the southern states, could object to a bill whose purposes were so obviously beneficial. Pjspecially is this true, where the case is so plain that the South and the Negro would have been the chief beneficiary. .\nd the repeated references to the discrepancy in ratios of expenditures for education in the South as being indicative of an at tempt to cumulate already existing in equalities, are not founded on premise of fact. Moreover, the NAACP, an organiza tion with long years of experience in fighting the cause of the Negro with success, assisted in drafting the origi nal bill. Could it be expected that this organization would have supported a bill which wotdd omit the necessary safeguards against discriminatory ap portionment of federal funds, on the basis of race? Hardly. The bill was a victim of politics and politicians. Northern politicians made southern politicians believe that the bill was in the direction of federal control of elucation. To the average southerner federal control suggests so cial equality, a thing which threatens to disturb the “status quo” of the pattern of race relations in the South. One might think that such an appro priation would mean federal control. Not necessarily. As it is today, federal aid amounts to .$5(K),0()0,()00 yearly and there has beeij no moi-e on the part of the federal government to control education or talce away any rights of MARY WAGSTAFF, ’45. No one can deny that benefits will be derived from a Federal Emergency appropriation for education, ilore can always be done with a supplementary sum of money regardless of its size. But there is room to doubt tliat the .i!300,000,000 federal appropriation would alleviate greatly the conditions which exist today in the educational system of the T'nited States and esi)e- cially in the Southern States. This is particularly true because of the discre pancies in proportional amounts pro vided for Negro and white students. The past policy of the Southern States in the administration of Federal funds for Negroes and wiiites is too clear and too recent for any reasonable assump tion that this policy will be different in the administration of federal funds for education. The school systems of the southern states, by comparison, are poorer than those in many othei' sections of the country. Separate schools are main tained for white and Negro students at all times. Moi-e money is required to be spent to maintain a dual system of education when one school system would be adequate. A federal appro- liriation would contribute to the perjie- tuation of “.Tim Crowism” in Southern schools and the maintenance of the needless “dual” school system on an unequal basis. Can it be expected that a federal appropriation would mean the equal ization of the existing wniie anu J^egro school systems of the South? HARD ILY. In southern areas where the re sults in primary elections are tanta mount to general election results and where Negro participation in primary elections is barred by laws upheld by the Supreme Court, will those persons charged with the responsibility of ap portioning the amounts of funds for Negro and white education seek to equalize eiiucational monetary expen ditures for Negroes when they owe no political allegiance to the Negro vot er? Inquiring Reporter “If I talked to one of the girls with out knowing it before hand, I am al most sure that 1 could say definitely she is a Bennett girl. I have found that Bennett girls pos.sess a nameless quality which often distinguishes them. I have seen this quality in the Bennett graduates I have met, as well as in the present students.” Sucli high compli ments were paid to us by Miss Thursa Davis, of the Chemistry and Physics Department. iliss Davis comes to Bennett after having taught eight years at Spellman College, Atlanta, Ga. She is a graduate of Virginia State College, studied fur ther at the University of Chicago, Uni versity of Michigan and at Colum bia University, receiving her Master’s degree from the latter. All her study has leaned to the field of the Natural Sciences, with Chemistry receiving the major interest. Miss Davis firmly believes that women do have great opportimities in the fields of the natural sciences, in spite of the seeming hesitancy on the part of woiuen to enter. The advent of War has made the world more con scious of women in scientific work. Women are qualifying and rapidly fill ing the places on the home front left vacant by the men. They are not only showing their ability in science but in all fields. When askel what she thought of women doctors. Miss Davis replied that she feels that they are just as capable as any person of opposite sex, and there surely is a great need for them today (if only to handle the delicate women patients). Miss Davis comments on our science department and says that Bennett should be proud of its department for it is as well equipped as any in Negro Colleges. She enjoys, working among us, and we enjoy hav ing her. We thank her for letting us peer into her thoughts and extend to her a hearty welcome to the Bennett FamiU-. In order to equalize the educational opportunities for white and Negro stu dents in the South, a much larger per centage of the appropriation must of necessity be used for Negroes than for whites. For example, in Mississippi where the white school population is 315,()(K) or 50.2 per cent of the total and the Negro school popvilation is 313,000 or 49.8 per cent of the total, the excess of salaries of white person nel over that of Negroes is 217 per cent. In South Carolina where the white population represents 51.5 per cent of the total and the Negro, 48.5%, the excess of salaries of white person nel over that of Negroes is 173%. Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, and North Caroliiui present similar discrepancies. How can we believe that Negroes will get a greater share of these particular funds than the whites the states in this respect. Funds have been given to tiie states for the estab lishment of vocational courses in home economics, agriculture, etc., but no state has complained of imdemo- cratic principles or moves whicii have arisen from such grants. Therefore we can conclude that the Federal Educational Appropriation Bill would have greatly benefitted our educational systems throughout the Country and that we have suffered be cause of its defeat. Equalization of educational opportunity is a step fur ther in the direction of a democracy which we hear so nuich about. If we are to ever reach it, we must first make the steps. THE ambassadors t RETURN AND REPORT (Continued From Page One) University, Virginia State College, Vir ginia I'nion, Jlorgan State College, Cheyney State Teachers College, Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr, Lincoln University and Bordentown Institute attest this fact. So, it’s orchids to our ambassadors of good-will—not because of silly con ventional decorum, but in tribute to the fine job they did on the trip and the reports reflecting co-operative spirit and real ability. The students on the campuses visited were most co-opera tive. Perhaps they will visit us soon. when the records of the past show that the greater amount has always gone to the white group regardless of the very low' social and economic status of the Negro? There is no guarantee that such an appropriation will remedy the so-called teacher shortage existing ^'oday. Teach-, ers did not leave the profession purely for financial reasons and purely finan cial means will not lure them back. Furthermore, the increase in salaries is no guarantee for the increase in the quality of available teachers. It might be fair in a democracy to expect the richer sections of the coun try to share the educational burden of the country as a whole. But before southern states can ask such a favor from their more prosperous northern neighbors they must equalize the dis tribution of their own present school funs, however small they may be. Any federal funds which may be made available for public education should be so distributed as to guarantee equal ity and correct the present inequalities in the distribution and use of school funds betwt>en the children and differ ent races. In the light of the past, there is little reason to believe that Southern States will expend a federal appropriation for education any more wisely and more equitably than other funds entrusted to them in the past
Bennett College Student Newspaper
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Dec. 1, 1943, edition 1
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