The President's Commission on Higher Education and Negro Higher Education

Abstract

It is tragic and a chronic commentary on our times that so much of the intellectual energies of the Negro are focussed on racial issues it is difficult for the educational world generally to devote proper attention to his professional problems and achievements per se. The outstanding elements of the Report of the President's Commission on Higher Education insofar as the Negro is concerned are those portions which plead with high vigor for the elimination of discrimination and segregation, and for the immediate improvement of the generally inadequate facilities for Negro higher education. It is well to remember, however, that the entire Report has pertinence for Negro education. For the present the issues of segregation and discrimination are paramount, but we can hopefully anticipate the time when the examination of curricula content, the organizational patterns of higher education, the preparation of faculty personnel, and the financing of higher education will be the primary agenda upon which white and Negro educators can find their common interests. For those readers of the JOURNAL who may not have had the opportunity to read all or part of the Commission's Report, it should be mentioned that the six volumes were issued by the United States Government Printing Office under the general title, Higher Education for American Democracy. The first of these volumes was issued in December, 1947, and the last one made its appearance in March, 1948. The titles of the six volumes are as follows: