PAGE TWO
THE NEWS ARGUS
MAY, 1969
I Am Curious (Black)
I am writing this time on the black student. Since I have been
a student longer than anyone at the college, I think this gives me
the right to be an authority on the wiles and ways of black students.
The students of our times have led the way to social change.
During the struggle for civil rights, the cry was for integration and
equality. Today, the aim of the black students is black independence,
and the emphasis is on cultural pride. Black students are seeking their
identity. They want institutions that will allow them to control thsir
own destiny. They want a curriculum that is relevant to better ser
vice to their community. They have decided to use their skills for
the development of Black America. They no longer aim at being
black white people.
Students are finding that working within the system to bring
about change is fruitless. The system itself is illegitimate. It is easy
for all to see that America has been engaged in systematically enforc
ing racism, individual and institutional.
Students find the situation so hopeless they become bitter and frus
trated; they think of resigning from the system as it presently is and
starting a new system.
This does not necessarily mean the development of a separate state.
Students still want to work within the structure of the institutions of
America. They want to revise and reorient the system. It is imperative,
that the educational institutions address themselves to the needs of
the black community. The curriculum has to prepare the black mind
to deal with the system. This cannot be done with a faculty running the
gamut from those concerned about “helping our poor little colored stu
dents” to those who believe that black students do not have the
capacity to learn, so there is no need to be serious about teaching
them. How many of your instructors have had a meaningful discus
sion about W. E. B. DuBois, Stokely Carmichael, LeRoi Jones, El-
dridge Cleaver or Malcolm X? The college has got to stop imitating
middle-class white academic goals. We should decide if we really want
to be white.
I have a few comments to make about the upcoming “black stud
ies” program. I hope this is a program directed toward the aca
demic exploration of courses from a black perspective. Some college
administrators seem to think all a black studies program consists of it
a Negro professor reciting Negro subject matter. This is not the
case. Negro colleges have been doing this for years but have still
produced white copies. We must change our opinion of black studies
from the study of traditional courses of Negritude (i.e., Negro history,
art, and religion) to a more comprehensive aoproach in planning the
curriculum. Colleges in the past Have geared their programs to being
white facsimiles. A black studies program should make the student
point out the uniqueness of the black culture and not try to blot out the
aware of his blackness and make him proud. The program should
non-white character of some facets of acamedia.
I would like to see courses developed that deal with the black
perspective; education courses about the history of the education of
black Americans; sociology courses about the influence of black cul
ture on America; racism in America, sociology of the black family;
courses in economics dealing with the exploitation of the black con
sumer. These are the things one expects in a black studies program.
Another problem I am concerned about is the Ph.D. hang-up we
have here. We are so caught up in the doctorate syndrome that we
often take people here that have little to contribute jrst to showcase
their degrees. More emphasis should be placed on the acquisition of
talent rather than degrees. First-rate colleges will hire peoole without
regard to the extent of formal education if they believe it is to the
advantage of the student whom they try to serve. For examole, we
would never hire an unschooled dockworker like Eric Hoffer, but
Berkley in California did. I hope the time for a re-evaluation has come.
This is my last column for the Argus. I have enjoyed working
for the paper and getting in everybody’s way. I want to thank the
entire college family for the patience and kindness I received and
wish good luck to everybody. And that, good peoole is —30—
—Albert McDaniel
I
07
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Commencennent
Speaker
Announced
The Rev. Carl A. Hangartner,
S.J., professor of education at St.
Louis University, St. Louis, Mo.,
will deliver the principal address
at the Winston-Salem State Col
lege commencement on May 25.
Father Hangartner will speak
on “Mobility: The Educational
Challenge of the Seventies.”
The commencement program
will be at 3 p.m. in Whitaker gym
nasium.
Father Hangartner earned his
bachelors and masters degrees at
St. Louis University and received
the doctor of philosophy in educa
tion from Yale University.
He joined the St. Louis Univer
sity faculty in 1955 as assistant
dean of the college of arts and sci
ences and in 1957 was named as
sistant professor of education.
Since 1960 he has served as co
ordinator of teacher education at
the University and was named full
professor in 1966.
He has been chairman of the
editorial advisory board of the
Journal of Teacher Education and
was elected to serve as chairman
of the National Council for Ac
creditation of Teacher Education
for the 1967-69 term.
Kimbrough Elected In S.G.A. Elections
Leslie Kimbrough, a junior his
tory major from Winston-Salem,
was elected president of the Stu
dent Government Association for
1969-70 in campus elections held
May 2.
Kimbrough defeated Ronald Dy
son, a junior business major from
Washington, D. C.
Four other SGA positions were
also filled. Edward Lewis, a junior
physical education major from
Washington, D.C., will be director
of judicial affairs. Lewis is a
member of Kappa Alpha Psi.
Randolph Mills, a sophomore
business major from Jacksonville,
N. C., will be director of financial
affairs. Mills is a member of
Omega Psi Phi.
Clynethia Rodgers, sophomore
English major from Goldsboro,
N. C., will be director of secre
tarial affairs. She is a member of
Delta Sigma Theta.
Frank Foster, sophomore history
major from Tuckahoe, N. Y., will
be director of social affairs.
Each of the four was automati
cally seated since there were no
opponents.
Still to be named is a director of
student affairs. SGA president-elect
Kimbrough will name someone to
the position with approval of the
student council.
Class representatives to SGA
will be chosen next September.
The News Argus is published periodically by the students of
Winston-Salem State College with offices in Carolina Hall,
Room 22.
Editor-in-Chief
Joseph M. Lightsey
Managing Editor — Gail Owens
Sports Editor Thomas Andrews
Art Editor Alex Davis
Office Manager Diane Deal
Reporters Ruby Jones,
Bessie Dove, Lillian Hoggard, Myrtle Hargrove,
Sandra Garris, William Richardson, Albert Mac-
Daniel, Warner Howard, Julian Sheppard
Typists - - Dorothy Battle,
L. Kay Pulliam, Joan Holland, Linda Roseman,
Diane Best
Photographer Arthur Blue
Society Editors Glenda Hood, Lillian Hoggard
To The Editor
I read with mixed emotions the letter of Brother Earl Hart to the
Argus. I felt for one thing that the Letters column was serving its
true purpose: to give students the opportunity to express freely their
opinions on any subject, including — in fact, especially — the way the
school is run. Progress toward anything is rarely made except in a
climate of free discussion.
On the other hand, the letter saddened me, because Brother Hart
is doing himself an injustice. Carl Sandburg said once, or maybe many
times, that the ugliest word in the language is “exclusive.” People
who have been excluded know the sting of it; but it is a two-edged
knife. It cuts both ways. When you start excluding Bach and Beethoven
because they weren’t black, you aren’t hurting Bach and Beethoven
greatly, but you are doing yourself a disservice. The upsurge of in
terest in Black Studies seems to me a great thing. It is bound to be a
source of tremendous enrichment and pride in identity; but if it is
accompanied by a refusal to consider that part of the culture which
was contributed by non-blacks, then much of the advantage has been
lost.
I am a pig; and though Plato, Bach, and Shakespeare had skin
approximately the same color as mine, they probably aren’t any more
my ancestors than they are yours. By the same token, it never oc
curred to me that the builders of the Pyramids weren’t my cultural
ancestors — they belonged to the same human race. Great men, by
their very nature, belong to all of us.
For three years I was a student on the Winston-Salem State campus
and it is difficult for me to address a letter to “you” when I am so ac
customed to thinking of the student body there as “we.” Black men
have suffered greatly at the hands of whites and perhaps repudition is
inevitable; but while you are rejecting the white man, please, please,
for your own sakes and for the sake of all those who are trying to
keep alive a spark of love and genuine brotherhood in this crazy world,
don’t embrace the worst of the white man and call it your own. Don’t
imitate his prejudice, his exclusiveness, his stupidity and racism. Black
is beautiful; but hatred, no matter who practices it, is ugly. You may
be able to recognize a skin-brother by looking at his skin. You can tell
a soul-brother only by looking at his soul.
Patricia Johnson
Class of ’68
Howard Is
Journalism Intern
Two freshmen at Winston-Salem
State College have been accepted
as summer interns by the Winston-
Salem Journal and Sentinel.
The State students — W. W.
(Terry) Howard of Staunton, Va.,
and Ronald Jordan of Winston-Sa
lem — were among 90 college and
high school students who applied
for the 13 intern positions on the
two newspaper staffs.
Terry Howard will work in the
Journal and Sentinel's sports de
partment, and Ronald Jordan will
bs on the Journal news staff. He
is already working there part-time
and, while in high school, was a
teen page correspondent for the
Twin City Sentinel.
The interns will meet weekly
with the director of the intern pro
gram, Jim Laughrun, assistant city
editor of the Sentinel, for study of
all phases of newspaper operation.
The rest of the time they will
work at their assignments as other
members of the staff do.
I’m usually a very agreeable person, but sometimes my feathers
have the tendency to be ruffled. On our campus there appear to be
a number of black advocates—young men and women who are giving
their hearts, souls, and bodies to attain a situation which we call “Black
Power.” My opinion is, and will remain, that we are too color con
scious. The best way to obtain an identity is to know thyself first.
If we can be accepted for who and what we are, race will be a secon
dary problem. We often have the tendency to sound like the KKK,
whom we despise because they stress white superiority. By observation,
it appears that we are doing the same thing—except that it’s black
superiority. I am torn in half now, because I don’t know if I’m ad
vocating racial equality or black superiority. I’m sure lots of other
people are confused also. To give an example of this, we were once
fighting for integration. Now that we have it (or at least a slight to
ken), we don’t seem to appreciate it any more. Now we want black
universities and a soul city. We want complete isolation or a chance
to return to Africa, This makes us wonder if we are progressing too
fast, or if this is what we really want. Personally, I think the Cau
casians are doing very well in their adjustment, for we gave them
very little time to accept it and become used to the idea for we
want equality and we want it now! I’m not writing this letter to the
editor to knock what has been done or to un-do it. I’m writing because
I feel that, if we know and better ourselves, as individuals, we can
accomplish far more than what we are accomplishing at the present
time. —A Concerned Student (Name withheld by request)
Popular Teachers
To Leave
Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cummings,
popular instructors at Winston-Sa
lem State College, will be enrolled
next year as graduate students at
UCLA, following a tour of Africa.
After trips to Louisiana, Florida,
and New York, Mr. and Mrs. Cum
mings will fly to Senegal, West
Africa, and then to Guinea, Ghana,
Kenya, and Tanzania, concluding
their trip by visiting Ethiopia and
Egypt.
They will then return to the
United States to resume studies in
American History and African
Studies at UCLA.
“The student body at Winston-
Salem State is one of the best in
the state of North Carolina,” says
Mr. Cummings, “but I would like
to see more responsible partici
pation in community affairs by our
students, particularly by our
Greek organizations.”
Mr. Cummings sees the more
radical students on this campus
in most cases as having better
understanding and better grades in
comparison with non-militant stu
dents.
“Radical students are not con
tent with classroom learning alone,
but are also interested in education
outside the classroom,” he says