Black Colleges are Not Just for Blacks Anymore

Abstract

Benjamin Mays often said it is not enough to know what is right; we must have the courage to do what is right. This dualism represents the analysis and action components of education, both of which are essential. Black colleges and universities are the repositories of this tradition and its duality. Historically, the duality was represented by W.E.B. DuBois, on the one hand, who devoted his life to the development of knowledge; and Booker T. Washington, on the other, who devoted his life to its application. These complementary functions are manifested in the that Black colleges provide.One of my former students, Gregory Kannerstein (1978), who is now an administrator at Haverford College, conducted a study of the self-concept of Black colleges based on what they say about themselves in their catalogues. After analyzing mission statements in several college catalogues, he concluded that Black colleges have grappled with the demands of inculcating academic values while not neglecting ethical and moral values, of serving educational goals while serving the community, of being open to all while remaining committed to a specific constituency, of combating social injustice while never swerving in allegiance to American democracy.To celebrate the bicentennial anniversary of this nation, I organized a Black College Conference at Harvard. My Morehouse College classmate, Samuel DuBois Cook, president of Dillard University, was one of the speakers. He told that conference that it is hardly an accident that Martin Luther King, Jr., was an alumnus of Morehouse College rather than of Harvard. Cook's conclusion was not intended as a put-down of Harvard. He was trying to say that one who characterized himself as a drum major for love and justice as King did, and who believed that unearned suffering is redemptive as King believed, and who wanted to be remembered as someone who gave up his life to help others had to have been educated in a school that emphasized the themes of love and justice, courage and compassion, heedom and responsibility. This has been the calling of Black colleges. They have taught these themes as well as courses in the sciences, arts, and humanities.Beyond contributing to a sense of dignity and self-worth of their students, Black colleges have made major contributions to the civic development of our They have taught their students that should have a two-fold goal of individual enhancement and community advancement, not one or the other but both. Black colleges have always urged their students to be politically active and participating citizens. They have taught their students to resist an oppressive social system rather than conform to it. As Gregory Kannerstein writes, perhaps the greatest and most distinctive contribution of Black colleges to the American philosophy of higher has been to emphasize and legitimate public and community service as a major objective of a college education (p. 31). U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (1973), a Black college graduate, has commented on the civic contributions of Blacks. He said, oppressed had sufficient faith in the Constitution to confront the anomalies in society and insist that they conform with the basic principles upon which this nation was founded (p. xii).If, therefore, one wishes to understand the heart and soul of American higher education, one should examine Black colleges. The following statements by two Black college presidents are representative of others. One said, We take the time necessary and provide the faculty required to reach students where they are when they come to college and help prepare them for successful productive participation in an expanding American society. Another said, [This] school has always used its resources to get an for every student that could be reasonably brought into its fold (Willie & MacLeish, 1978, pp. 138-140). I would advise Black colleges to continue to hold fast to this mission of providing educational opportunities for all, including underachievers. …