Newspapers / Bennett College Student Newspaper / March 5, 1969, edition 1 / Page 2
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PAGE TWO THE BENNETT BANNER WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5, 1969 LETTERS; - Your Point Of View ^ Of Words And Action By MARY F. SHANKS “Our graduates must be concerned with making a newer and better world and a more wholesome social order. New means to new ends.” This is the philosophy of an educator, a college president who rec ognizes the end result of education. What do his words mean to me? As a black woman, a victim of white racism, they mean that I must work to destroy oppression, that I must utilize new methods to im prove social existence. Uncle Tom is dead. My new end is liberation. “We may develop the technology required to place a man on the moon, but if in the process we fail to solve the human problems of living with each other on earth we shall have lost our soul while gaining the whole world.” Again, what do his words mean to me? The success of a nation cannot be measured in terms of industrial and technological advance ment. It is human relations, how well a nation promotes warm rela tionships among its people, which is the criteria for success. In view of this, America is a failure. She has exploited members of her constituency. There is no warm relationship between White America and Black America. “We shall seek not oqly to strengthen in the end a sense of personal worth and identity, but shall emphasize the important contributions which are made by all cultures to the quality of the human fabrique.” Not just \rtite culture, but our culture as well. Personal worth and identity are derivatives of culture. The important contributions of my people and my culture need to be emphasized, “Our heritage reinforces our determination to go forth in excell ence.” Our heritage is a Black heritage. Though hidden in dark corners and ignored, it exists. From the splendor of our African ancestors, to our' deposition into oppression, we have created a unique cultural heritage which demands that it be a living entity, that we perpetuate its excellence. “We serve relevant goals uniquely when the college experience inspires in our graduates a communication to men.” All knowledge may be relevant, but all knowledge is not essential to a meaningful existence. All knowledge cannot be acquired in the short space of a lifetime. Therefore, that which seeks to promote understanding of self and others is to be emphasized. I must learn how to communicate with the masses of Black people from whom I have been isolated. My college experience must inspire this in me. “I am not so much afraid of the unrest as I am of the possibility that we who are in education may not succeed in responding creative ly soon enough to the implications of this unrest,” And what does this mean? IDoes this college president recognize the dire need for educators to react with change and not against it? Does he recognize his responsibility to help channel student unrest towards constructive ends? Taken out of context, these quotations reiterate the demands of today's Black student. One marvels when one considers that they are taken from the inaugural address of Dr. Isaac H. Miller. Save The Grass By DARWIN PRIOLEAU Once upon a time there was a beautiful campus with emerald green grass upon its lawns. If you're a freshman then you are probably saying to yourself, “1 know she can't be talking about Bennett College”. But all the u{q)er classmen know that the Banner Staff Published by the students of Bennett College, Greensboro, N.C. 27420. EDITOR: Dimples Armstrong MANAGING EDITOR: Winona Griffin BUSINESS MANAGER: Hattie Carwell NEUS EDITOR; Darwin Prioleau PHOTOGRAPHER: Tullulah Du- Bose, Dwight Davis CARTOONIST: Fannie Carter REPORTERS; Myra Hedricks Myra Sampson ADVISORS: Douglas D. McAdoo, Alan Whiteleather I be. Vfe* I 9h)Wi*tKs and I M>V- . WottW W X.air\oif , la aVA Help Sh rn p Ou'f" Crue/-fy Somclis Liberation-A Black Woman’s Role once upon a time was just last year and that beautiful campus was the Bennett College campus. It's hard to believe that the hay like substance surrounding the walkways was really green grass. But if you look real close you might find a lonely blade or two peeking out here and there. Everybody is wondering why the grass isn't any greener. The answer to that is simple, if 600 girls trampled across your head all day long you wouldn’t grow either. It looks as if some girls are tryingto reconstruct the plans for the grounds of the college. The Merner Hall girls seem to have already constructed a walk way of their very own. This might have been considered an act of creativity if the walkway didn't clear a straight path across the grass from Merner Hall to the Student Union. There are several man-made walkways across Ben nett's lawn. To be perfectly frank about the matter, the whole cam pus is becoming one great man- made walkway. There is one con solation, there is still hope for the trees (onlybecause we haven’t found a way to get to them yet). Seriously, this is your campus and it is up to you as students of Bennett College to keep it looking beautiful. By LINDA SILVER A woman--some call her a member of the weaker sex and make exaggerated allowances for her frailty. They also sing songs to her fair beauty. Like a price less vase, this gentle creature, so pure, so sweet, so untouch able, was created to be wor shipped from afar. This is one definition of a woman but has any one ever defined the black woman? There is no general def inition for this woman. She is too complex for words. The role of the black woman in our struggle for liberation is not a new thing. It dates back past the days of Har riet Tubman and her underground railroad. It surpasses the day when the black mother of the South bore children not only for her slave mate but for the white slave owners and young whites feeling the need for a woman. It trans- cends beyond the mothers of our brothers in Orangeburg; even beyond the- black sisters of this institution and maybe even beyond those black sisters that aren’t born into this world. It is written that the black woman didn’t arrive on the May flower. To her Plymouth rock is more likely to be the name of a breed of chicken rather than the landing spot of the famed Pilgrim fathers.She didn’t first set foot on American soil in August, 1620-- by the time the pilgrim mothers began cooking their porridge in Massachusetts, the black woman had already lived a year in James town, Va. She arrived on the Dutch man-of-war as a part of a parcel of African slaves which the captain of the man-of-war obvi ously had taken from a Spanish slave ship headed for the West Indies. And it is r^orted that of the 20 Africans who stepped a- shore in Jamestown in August, 1619, at least two, Antony and Isabella, were later married in 1624. Isabella gave birth to the first black child born in one of the Eng lish colonies. The black woman, thus, has a long history in the land that has become the U.S. and the begin, nings were prophetic of the path her life in America was destined to take. Living in slavery for some 244 years, the black wom an became the dominant family figure in a slave culture that was designed to eliminate all vestiges of family life for our people. No one will ever be able to assess the value of the good done or the extent of the pain suffered by the black woman during the years of slavery. And no one seems truly to appreciate the tremendous task she has accomplished in bringing the black people to the position we are in today-- minorities on the threshold of finally becoming full and equal citizens of these U.S. Because of her history, tragic thou^ it has been, the black woman is the most fascinating in the world today. She still cleans the houses and cooks the food for others but she also computes the figures for planned space shots and does cancer research in hos pital laboratories. She is still the “auntie” to a wealthy white woman’s child but she has also seen her own son graduated mag- na cum laude from ivy league colleges. Have you ever taken time out of your busy schedule to ask your self just what you can do for your people? Not only what you can do but what you will do? Jennifer Lawson, a 23 year old former student from Birmingham who now works on special educa tional projects for SNCC, pointed out in the August 1966 edition of Ebony that “often women might prefer not to lead, but there's a responsibility to the black people at this time that must be met, and it overshadows this business of being a man or woman.” Anyone who feels the responsibility should assume it. One of the best roles the black woman can play in our struggle is as a moral boos- ter to our men and a stimulator to our families. We can't all be in politics as Atty. Constance B. Motley, who was named to the U.S. District Court for Southern New York by former president Johnson; or a Grace Hamilton, the deep south's first black wom an state legislator. But what part will we play? All of us can't be a Marion Anderson, a Janet Collins, or a Barbara McNair, chosen to show the glory, the beauty, and the talent of our race. All of us can't be Mary McLeod Bethune, or an Althea Gibbson, or a So journer Truth, or a Selma Burke (one of the U.S.'s most distin guished sculptresses). But I can be Linda--BLACK LINDA and you can be you--BLACK YOU. We can aU develop our potentials to help in our struggle for lib eration. We can help ourselves, we can help our sisters and our brothers. We can take little black boys and little black girls by the hand and lead them into the truth about themselves. THE BLACK AND BEAUTIFUL TRUTH!!!!
Bennett College Student Newspaper
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March 5, 1969, edition 1
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