PAGE TWO
THE NEWS ARGUS
MARCH, 1969
No More Inferior Education
Brothers and sisters let me pull you closer to reality because many
of us have been on that cloud too long; and it is time for us to get off
and take care of business, that is, black business.
The twenty-first century is fast approaching and we are still
getting inferior education. Not only in elementary and junior and
senior high school, but above all, we are geeting it in college. This
college is supposed to be educating blacks to produce for blacks, but
instead it is continuing the same old pig (white) system, that is a
continuation of physical and mental castration of black students. This
college is supposed to meet the needs of black students because it
produces teachers who are going into the black community to teach
black children, but instead it produces black bodies with white minds.
W.S.S.C. is attempting to integrate its faculty to a potential black
student body. The racist governor, general assembly and board of
trustees dictates to W.S.S.C. officials, including the President, how this
college should be run. Therefore, the officials are more concerned
to please the PIGS than they are about education. There has been solid
evidence against several instructors who have been proved to be
inferior, but nothing has been done because W.S.S.C. officials are not
concerned about the students; but they are concerned about the
number of PIGS and the number of no-talking foreigners they have on
the faculty. The PIG faculty members only react as a pig would react
in a pig school; that is, they are going to continue to tell only the pig
(white) side of the story and will not be concerned with the course
revelance to us as blacks. The no-talking foreigners aren’t concerned
because they have been through the pig’s system, which is a system
of degradation and mental castration; and therefore their minds are
no longer their own because their intelligence has been confined to
the pig’s books, and outside the pig’s books they have no intelligence.
Therefore, they can’t possibly meet our needs as black students be
cause they have an inferior interpretation of us which was supplied
by the pigs.
In order to have our needs met today, in these times when black
people are beginning to wake up and realize they are not inferior as
the pigs would have us believe, we need competent black instructors
who can and who are willing to meet the needs of black students. And
we need a black curriculum instead of the pig’s curriculum.
Brothers and sisters, we are not inferior, but the so-called educa
tion which we are attempting to get is inferior. Why? Because it was
developed on racism; that is, it was developed for whites by whites.
When the system of education was in its organizing stages, blacks were
labeled as three-fifths of a human. The education which we are at
tempting is based on pig values and not on black values.
Let’s take a look at the pig’s educational system which we are
under at this moment and which is supposed to make us free. First
of all, we are going to take a tour of the pig (white) orientated physical
education department. We don’t have any culture, so therefore the
P.E. department is not designed to improve our black culture because
it is savage and vulgar, so says the pigs and the administration. There
fore, they have to culturize us and give us a culture that is of taste.
European style, such as the fox-trot and all those other European
dances. The pigs believe that if your culture relates back to the
European’s culture, then you are highly cultured because the pigs
say that Europe is the center of culture. We are forced to take pigs
culture while we have to get and maintain ours as best as we can.
But to hell with Europe and the fox-trot and all those other dances,
including the square dance; we have a culture of our own and it didn’t
begin in Europe, it began in Africa, the very beginning of culture and
civilization. And the only reasons the pigs and the administration do
not want us to do our culture thing is because they don’t have any
rhythm to do the funky-four corners or the pop corn and also because
if you learn about your culture you will not have any room to even
think about their culture because our culture is what’s happening.
Have you seen any brothers and sisters on T.V. trying to do the fox
trot? No. Let’s make our P.E. department black. The pig’s P.E.
department is pigish.
In the music department we are still fooling around with Bach and
the rest of those pigs when we have soul musicians such as Louis
Armstrong, Marian Makeba (sister Carmacheal), Earl Grant, Ramsey
Louis, Hugh Masekela, Amanda Ambrose, Olunlitenga, Duke Ellington,
William C. Handys, and the brothers and sisters who were great
musicians before our time and before the time of many of the pigs
that some of us are studying in the music department. We can study
these brothers and sisters and get high by just listening to them. Let’s
make our music department black. The pigs music department is
pigish, so why not make ours black and relevant to us. Now truth
fully, you don’t give a curse about those honkies.
The social science department is pig too; it just has a few black
courses. We mentally migrate to Europe again to study the pigs there.
Once again we are told that we are refined if we have European culture.
We are forced again to study the pigs past but not ours, because the
pigs and the Uncle Tom administration are telling us through their
pig history and education that we don’t have a past because our history
began in America, and because blacks have not yet contributed to
history That is a lie, and I don’t give a curse who says it is true. If
we didn’t have a history, a culture and a heritage, then, why, my
brothers and sisters, are they trying to put theirs on us; they are
doing so because they know that the most rewarding subject of all
the subjects that we study is history. History is the best because
through history you can relate to your past and find out who your
enemy is and how to deal with him. Also because they have been tell
ing us a bunch of lies, and they don’t want to see the truth come
through, because they know that we can study history and find out
what others have done who were in the same situation that we are in
today and what these did to free themselves, and we can use the
same things to liberate ourselves from oppression. Also because it is
a dangerous thing to let us learn about our true past, because it may
and will cause some of us to blow our minds after reading about the
great achievements that our foreparents have contributed to civiliza
tion. And this will cause many of us to separate some of the Toms
and pigs souls from their bodies.
The English Department is in need of drastic changes. In this de
partment we are really insulted because we have so many black
authors which include the following, James Baldwin (Another Country
and (The Fire Next Time), W. E. B. DuBois (The Souls of Black
Folk), Leroy Jones (Blues People), Stokely Carmichael and Charles
Hammington (Black Power), Soul on Ice by Edlight Cleaver and the
many other Black authors in the present and the past who wrote on
subjects that are interesting and about Black people. Let’s change
our English department and find out why we can’t speak English like
the pigs and why our poetry is so much better than theirs.
Not too long ago some of us received more mental castration by
takmg the so-called junior qualification test to determine whether we
are inferiorate enough to qualify as inferior juniors. First of all, the
whole thing was totally sickening because we have already taken the
necessary hours and courses that will determine whether we are quali
fied juniors. The test was based upon whitey values and it was an
insult to our intelligence as black students. Brothers and sisters, we
are juniors and all of our courses are professional in our majors;
if you don’t believe it, flunk one. This is unjust because it also is a hin-
derance to you because it may result in your not being able to take
a few courses in order to graduate after taking all your basic courses.
We must be the source that destroys this insulting, so-called junior
qualification test which is irrelevant, unpragmatic, unconstitutional, im
material and UN-BLACK. If there should be any qualification tests
given, then let us administer some to the faculty because some of
them are caught up in the pig’s system. Can you imagine me being
tested on a tuning fork and lobsters?
Brothers and sisters, let us join together as a united Black front
for the liberation of black students for a black university, one that is
relevant to us as blacks first and Americans second, one that will
prepare us to our own needs as humans and not for the needs of
pigs (whitey).
The pigs’ colleges are whitey and they meet the needs of whitey
and not the needs of black people. So brothers and sisters let us
realize that it is not the instructors who are supposed to be getting an
education these four years, instead it is us; so therefore let us not
make the same mistake that our fore brothers and sisters made by
not doing now that which must be done to alleviate us from this pig
system of education.
The administration is just as much to blame (if not more) as the
instructors are, because the administration has the power to make this
college relevant to Black students. The administration has the power
to make our curriculum relevant to us and not to the pigs. The ad
ministration has chosen to continue the pig system, so, therefore,
brothers and sisters, it is our turn to make the necessary change, not
tomorrow but now. We are going to become fathers and mothers soon
as well as teachers and we don’t want our soulful children to grow
up as we did, believing that we are inferior and no good, and that the
only thing that we have done is picked cotton for Pig Charlie. So there
fore, let us who are here now make the necessary changes, so the
brothers and sisters who enroll in the fall will not receive any more
pig brain washed education. Let us come together and do what must
be done now. Too long have we been sitting back waiting for someone
else to make changes or saying that we will be glad when we graduate.
NOW IS THE TIME! Let us start the liberation and finish it too.
The action of the day is but the fulfillment of the prophecy of
W. E. B. DuBois who in 1903 wrote “In the soul-life of the land he is
today, and naturally will long remain, unthought of, half forgotten; and
yet when he does come to think and will do for himself; let no man
dream that day will never come, then the part he plays will not be
one of sadden learning, but words and thoughts he has been taught
to lisp in his race childhood.”
Brothers and sisters we must be part of the fulfillment of Brother
W. E. B. DuBois’ prophecy here at W.S.S.C., now and not one, two
or ten years after we graduate.
To the brothers and sisters who think that the pig’s system is
good for them, dig on this; It’s impossible for a chicken to produce
a duck eg^ even though they both belong to the same family of fowl.
A chicken just doesn’t have it within its system to produce a duck egg.
It can’t do it. It can only produce according to what that particular
system was constructed to produce. The educational system at
'5Vinston-Salem State College cannot produce freedom for Blacks. It
is impossible for this pig system, economic system, political system,
social system and educational system, as it stands, to produce freedom
right now for Blacks.
And if ever a chicken did produce a duck egg. I’m quite sure you
would say it was certainly a revolutionary chicken.
Peace, Power and Liberation
Bro. Earl Hart
We welcome student articles reflecting all shades of campus opin
ions, but we reserve the right to edit for length and according to
accepted community standards of decency. The above article has
been so edited. —News Argus adviser.
Education Hustlers
There is a phrase making the rounds in education circles these
days. It is “teaching the whole student.” I have a phrase I want to in
troduce: learning from the whole teacher.
I point this out to tell you about a problem we have in our college
family — the problem of now-you-see-them-now-you-don’t teachers.
It seems that the teachers put in the minimum amount of time
necessary to remain on the payroll.
Education is a process of motivation. Students have to be moti
vated to learn. What is motivation? Seeing students only during class
time or between classes? Having one or two hours actual office time
per week? Is this motivation?
The faculty needs to become aware that students are aware. Never
leaving Buena Vista, Ardmore, and, yes, even East Winston to come
back to the college sponsored functions on the campus is one indication
of the apathy of the teachers. There are teachers here who have
never been to a lyceum program. Maybe they feel only the Black
students need enrichment. They probably think that since they are
not students they have no obligation to the rest of us.
The faculty is in an airplane far above the terra of reality. They
see themselves as being above the clouds of care. They view the
student body from the lofty position of heavenly academia; leaving
those of us still on the ground to wander around uninspired.
Teachers have to give up their other world attitudes and join us
in making this a better institution and in producing better students.
By depriving the student of the direction of their guidance, the fruit
of their leadership and the result of their experience, they have com
mitted a serious crime and made the students the victims.
A prime example of this is the fact that the last six lyceum pro
grams were attended by the President, the chairman of the lyceum
committee and nine faculty members. That is less than ten per cent.
Where were the other 90 per cent? Are Black students not important
to them? This is indeed a crune.
It is time for the faculty to stop its criminal ways and try to
rectify its misdeeds. The faculty must stop living only for the first
of the month and start giving the students a portion of their time. You
faculty must be concerned with our problems and use your skills to
alleviate them.
—Albert E. McDaniel
On Negro
History Week
by Terry Howard
Recently some of you celebrated
Negro History Week without really
evaluating history as it is meant
to be. This week comes around
once a year and we are drowned
by propaganda and facts concern
ing Negro history in Georgia,
Mississippi, and Alabama. When
talking about history, we are deal
ing with the past and the origin of
events. We must realize that our
history did not originate here in
America, but across the Atlantic
in Africa. Our history is the his
tory of the ancients; Cleopatra,
Hammurabi, and the Ethiopians.
Our history had its beginnings in
the times of the advent of Homo
Sapiens, and includes the emerg
ence of black Egyptians who built
the pyramids. Our history is the
history of the Far East and of
Africa, and later of America.
Today we celebrate Negro His
tory week as if it began when
slaves were first dragged off ships
from Africa. We tend to think that
we arrived here with no culture
and no language, but this is far
from true. If we delve deep enough
into the past, we will find out
where we once were, that we made
great contributions in science and
civilization. These contributions ar**
a reality and I will not waste time
discussing irrelevant contributions
as those in Negro share-cropping,
cotton-picking and slaving.
Negro history as we celebrate it
today is the history of the “Pea
nut.” Dr. George Washington Car
ver did much in science by pro
ducing many products from the
peanut, but what about the history
of those who built this country,
and those who plotted the reality
of the inhumane institution of slav
ery. True history includes all as
pects of the past, good and bad.
“Negro History” should be re
named, “Afro-American History”
or better still, “Black History.”
When one calls himself a “Negro”
he does not know much about him
self. He does not know what is
rightfully his. As long as he calls
himself a “Negro”, he is admitting
that is nothing. How can a “Negro”
lay claim to a culture or to a
language when he doesn’t really
exist? A “Black man” will readily
stand up and say, “This is my
language, my culture, and I will
not be denied.” In essence, “Negro
History” is a dead history, an
alienating history and finally, an
irrelevant history. If you are Black
and think Black, you will not
identify yourself with a so-called
“Negro History,” but proudly, with
a “Black History.”
Journalism
Scholarships
Beginning next fall WSSC stu
dents interested in a journalism
career will be eligible for scholar
ships established by the Piedmont
Publishing Company, publishers of
the Winston-Salem Journal and the
Twin City Sentinel.
The Journal-Sentinel scholarship
grant will be $1,000 for each of the
next two school years. The grant
may be given to one student or
divided among several.
Acceptance of a scholarship does
not require that the student ac
tually go into journalism after
graduation, but applicants must be
seriously considering that occupa
tion.
Other requirements for the schol
arship are a high verbal aptitude
and proficiency in English.
For information on application
procedures and other details see
Mrs. Lassiter, chairman of the
English department.
The Journal and Sentinel also
have openings in their summer in
ternship program for students in
terested m a journalism career.
Necessary qualifications are skill
in English and an ability to type.
See Mr. Weber in Room 22, Caro
lina Hall, for details.