Dr. Redding Speaks At W. S. S. U.
This past month, the university
family had the opportunity to have
one of the foremost Black men of
letters, Dr. J. Saunders Redding,
as guest lecturer. Dr. Redding was
born in Wilmington, Delaware, and
educated in the public schools
there and at Brown University,
Providence, R. I., where he holds
the Ph.D., M.A., and Litt. D., from
Hobart College, the L.H.D. (hon.)
His first book, was To Make A
Poet Black. Awarded a Rockefeller
Foundation Fellowship in 1940,
Redding spent a year traveling
through the South “to see” — in
the wording of the grant — ‘what
he could see”. The journey result
ed in the book No Day of Triumph,
which won the Mayflower Award
“for distinguished writing.” Other
of his books, are They Came In
Chains (in Lippincott’s Peoples of
American Series) Stranger and
Alone (written on a Guggenhein
Fellowship); On Being A Negro In
America: An American In India
(the result of a state department
assignment in India); and The
Lonesome Road (in Doubleday’s
Mainstream of America series).
Redding was for ten years until
1963, a member of Phi Beta Kappa,
on the Editorial Board of The
American Scholar, and in 1964-
65, a Fellow in the Cooperative
Program in the Humanities at
Duke and the University of North
Carolina. He has been visiting Pro
fessor at Brown University, the
Rosenfield Lecturer at Grinnell
College, and AMSAC Lecturer in
Africa. He has twice been awarded
a Guggenheim Fellowship.
He is currently Professor in the
American Studies Program at
George Washington University,
Special Consultant for the National
Endowment for the Humanities, a
member of the Executive Council
of AMSAC, and of the U. S. Com
mittee for the First Festival of
Negro Art. His latest book. The
Negro, was published in the fall
of 1967.
While lecturing here at Winston-
Salem State University, Dr. Red
ding read excerpts from two of
his books, with one, No Day of
Triumph, bringing him to tears in
remembrance of a bitter experi
ence suffered by he and his wife
during a southern tour.
Dr. Redding explains that while
on this tour, he visited a small
town in Tennessee, and because of
VOL. VIII, No. 3 WINSTON-SALEM STATE UNIVERSITY, WINSTON-SALEM, N. C. FEBRUARY, 1970
Iiaii
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HH si
She's Gone Forever
And the Walls Came Tumbling
Down.” Above is a picture of a
once familiar sight to us all. The
last remnants of the old Columbia
Heights Building were carried off
in a dump truck last week, mark
ing the death of the old and birth
of the new.
That barren sight located on
Wallace Street opposite the Science
Building is to be the site of our
new student union building, which
is to be built sometime in the near
future. Pending the outcome of
the approval of the plans in
Raleigh, the construction of the
new building is scheduled to take
place sometime within the six to
nine week period following approv
al.
The old Columbia Heights has a
history of its own. It is believed
that it was constructed sometime
I around the year 1915 as one of the
earliest local high schools. Mr.
S. G. Atkins (for whom the pres
ent school is named) served as
its first supervisor. During this
time, Winston-Salem State Univer
sity, then the Slater Industrial
School, had the school as part of
its educational program, serving
students throughout the commun
ity. Many students resided on this
campus and attended the Columbia
Heights High School. Dr. Kenneth
1*1! mi
ML.
15^* SBI
R. Williams, now president of this
university, was one of its earliest
graduates.
Some years later, Mr. J. D.
Jones became principal of the high
school, and was succeeded by Dr.
H. L. Trigg, a few years later.
Many of its early students ventured
on to Winston-Salem Teachers Col
lege after graduating from the
Columbia Heights High School.
In the year 1929, Atkins High
School was built, and the Columbia
Heights building became a local
elementary school, and remained
so until its abandonment by the
city of Winston-Salem in the early
part of 1968. The Columbia Heights
building housed its last class in
the Spring of 1968, after which,
the property was purchased by
Winston-Salem State University,
then Winston-Salem State College.
The first brick in the destruction
of the old Columbia Heights build
ing was removed in November of
1969. Later, bulldozers, tractors,
and dump trucks appeared on the
scene, carrying the old girl to her
final resting place.
Many students stopped and
watched her go, some standing for
hours gazing in disbelief. But for
her lifetime, the Old Columbia
Heights building had served her
purpose, and it was time for her
departure for a new and more
modernized predecessor.
—Terry Howard, Co-Editor
Trustee Purchases
Property
For W. S. S. U.
President K. R. Williams has an
nounced that one of the trustees of
WSSU has purchased four tracts
of land west of the campus. The
land is located in the area the
university is attempting to pur
chase for its expansion program.
The properties included are two
tracts on Cromartie, one tract on
Atkins, and one tract on Wallace.
Williams said that the expansion
program could not have started
without t h e trustee’s assistance.
The trustee who purchased the
land for the university prefers to
remain anonymous.
his Black oriented lectures, drew
the immediate attention and dis
dain of anti-Negro elements. Dr.
Redding learned from an anony
mous telephone call, that his life
was in jeopardy with the threat of
a possible lynching. With his wife,
Dr. Redding, under the cover of
night, slipped to his car and drove
aimlessly through a dark wooded
area without lights. Redding ex
plains that somehow, he and his
wife made it safely to a highway
and freedom.
Dr. Redding responded well to
several questions raised by stu
dents and faculty members. To
one such question, “What do you
think about the young Blacks of
today?”. Dr. Redding responded
precisely.
—Bro. Terry Howard
UNICEF
Issues Appeal
For Nigerian Aid
United Nations, N. Y. — The
U. S. Committee for UNICEF has
issued a nationwide appeal for
public contributions to help sup
port a massive rehabilitation pro
gram in postwar Nigeria.
Noting that the Nigerian govern
ment has expressed its apprecia
tion of UNICEF’s “good and al-
tristic humanitarian work” over
the past two years of the tragic
war, Mrs. Guido Pantaleoni, Jr.,
president of the U. S. Committee,
said, “We are heartened by the
continuing concern expressed by
the American people over the
plight of Nigerian mothers and
children who have survived a per
iod of great suffering and hard
ship. Now we must do our part in
helping to raise the millions of
dollars needed to maintain and
expand UNICEF’s aid program in
Eastern Nigeria during the critical
months ahead.”
After a personal inspection trip
to Nigeria, Mr. H. R. Labouisse,
UNICEF’s Executive Director, con
firmed earlier reports that sever
malnutrition and the danger of
major epidemics constitute a con
tinuing threat to the existence of
millions of childreiKin the former
“MISS NEWS ARGUS”
February 1970
Sister Bessie Dove, A Senior Eng
lish Major from Richmond, Va.
WHITE UNIVERSITY
GETS BLACK STUDIES
PROGRAM
The University of Wisconsin at
Madison, Wis., has joined H^ir-
vard in being one of the first
schools to develop a major in Afro-
American studies. Letters and Sci
ence Dean Stephen Kleene’s pro
posal includes a model curriculum,
though actual courses and content
will be determined by the depart
ment and go through the usual col
lege curriculum channels.
General requirements for ma
jors in the new department will
be the same as for other majors in
the College of Letters and Science.
A student would take between 30
and 40 credits of Afro-American
studies, with at least one course
in each of the areas of concentra
tion (history, culture and litera
ture, and society). He would need
at least 15 credits in one of the
areas and at least 15 in advanced
courses.
The model curriculum lists 32
courses plus opportunities for ad
vanced study. Included in the pro
gram are:
Introduction to Afro - American
History, History of Racial Protest
Movements in America, Afro-Am
erican Cultural and Intellectual
Tradition, The Black Man in Am
erican Fiction, Afro-American Mu
sic, Afro-American Art, Discrim
ination and Prejudice in American
Society, The Legal System and
Afro-Americans, and Strategies of
Economic Development.
All courses offered by the de
partment would be open to any
student with the proper academic
prerequisites. The proposal indi
cates an expected enrollment in all
courses of between 1,200 and 1,500
the first year. This is expected
to rise to between 2,100 and 2,400
by 1973-74.
civU war zone. Despite the amnes
ty and the best efforts of the
Nigerian Government and Red
Cross to bring food and medical
supplies, many thousands of
thousands of refugees have fled
beyond reach of relief sources.
Through last December, the
United Nations Children’s Fund
has shipped over 100 million
pounds of food, drugs, medicines,
and other supplies to Nigerian war
victims. During the latter stages
of the war, it sharply increased the
flow of medical supplies and food
stuffs to hospitals, sick bays, and
refugee feeding centers. As a re
sult, UNICEF’s Nigerian emerg
ency relief funds have been vir
tually exhausted.
Since the collapse of the re
bellion, the governments of the
United States, Canada, France,
Norway, and Ireland have an
nounced s pe e c i a 1 contributions
totaling $2,404,000 to the Children’s
Fund.
“Much more will be needed to
close the aid gap resulting from
the departure of many relief dis
pensing agencies from the former
area of Biafra,” said Mrs. Pantal
eoni. “We are asking our millions
of UNICEF volunteers and sup
porters in this country to respond
again with the same generosity
they showed to our first call for
emergency aid in 1968.
Contributions may be sent to
UNICEF Nigerian Relief, P. 0.
Box 1618, Church Street Station,
New York, N. Y. 10008.
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
AND FACILITIES
WSSU is presently undergoing
physical changes. Work is already
under way on the new Student
Union and parking facility. The
new Student Union structure is on
display in color in the lobby of
Blair Hall. The plans for the build
ing can be seen on display in the
Trophy Room of the Alumni Build
ing. For those of you who have not
had the opportunity to examine
the plans, the Student Union will
be composed of the following:
In the basement of the building
there will be a bookstore, novelty
shop, game room, meeting room,
beauty parlor and barber shop, of
fice space, storage space, and a
chapel. On the first floor there
will be a lobby with information
desk, study, reading rooms, sev
eral private lounges, and a large
student lounge. Also included on
the first floor will be a canteen
and snack bar, patio porch, post
office, and receiving area.
Plans for the second floor in
clude a ballroom, large and pri
vate music listening rooms, ofhce
space for SGA officers, the year
book staff, the student newspaper
staff, and the SGA president. A
meeting room will also be on the
second floor.
Further development plans on
the campus are for a parking lot
located beyond the presidents
house and behind Coltrane Hall.
A FOOL
DESPISES WISDOM