Black Studies and Social Work Education

Abstract

As of 1969, there were about 1,400 four-year colleges which have traditionally enrolled a preponderance of students whose racial origins were other than Black. Virtually all offered what W. Todd Furniss (1969) of the American Council of Education calls the curriculum, devised by white scholars in the natural sciences, history, social sciences, literature, the arts and the professions. Commonly, the materials used were prepared by whites. These colleges felt that they were committed to ready their students to live and work in society as it is now. Earlier, in 1968, a Council on Social Work Education publication charged social work schools with the professional education of minority students. However, a cursory look at existing curriculum and student population in schools of social work reveal the same phenomena-a standard curriculum and few Black students. The need was (and is) for competent Black social workers, who are effective in the profession and who understand needs and strengths of the population with whom they work. Gone were the days of color blindness. In were the days of equal opportunity. Recruitment of Black students ensued at both types of institutions.