Toward a New Role and Function of Black Studies in White and Historically Black Institutions

Abstract

The task of researching the number of Black Studies programs existent in colleges, together with the curricular characteristics of each of these programs, yields a distribution of numbers and a variety of curricula. Both task and task outcome are of interest to the scholar of Black Studies if only to gain an understanding of what has happened since the inception of this area of study in American institutions of higher education. One would suggest, however, an equally if not more important task-that of extending the Black Studies curriculum into a wider arena of concern, one that moves from the individual to the macro-systemic level. Such a curriculum reach includes all that is now considered relevant within the various social systems of Black people within this country. But such a curriculum also involves the extending of scholarly concern toward human systems external to this country but which are affected by and are affecting the lives of Black Americans.