University of Virginia Library

Noted Educators Discuss
Black Man In America

"The Black Man's Role in
American History and Society" will
be examined in a symposium to be
held at Sweet Briar College, March
19-21. National leaders in education
and religion and exponents
of black culture will participate in
the three-day program of lectures,
panels and group discussions.

Channing Emery Phillips will
deliver the keynote address at the
opening session Thursday evening,
Mar. 19. He will speak on "The
Political Outlook of the Blacks in
the Seventies." Mr. Phillips is
president of the Housing Development
Corp. in Washington, and
senior minister at Lincoln Temple,
United Church of Christ. He is
currently a member of the D.C.
Commissioners' Council on Human
Relations and the Board of Governors,
Black United Front.

The symposium will provide a
forum for review of the history and
accomplishments of the black race,
and for discussions relative to the
co-existence of black and white
people without regard to color.
Both the problems and the opportunities
of the Negro in today's
society will be explored.

Among the speakers and discussion
leaders will be Mr. Saunders
Redding of the National Endowment
for Arts and Humanities,
Washington, an author who will
speak on "The Negro Writer and
His Future," and Harold Cruse,
writer-in-residence at the University
of Michigan, who will discuss "The
Black Intellectual in American
Society."

Others will be Douglas E.
Stewart, Director of Community
Affairs for Planned Parenthood World
Population, to speak on
"Opportunities for Negroes in Education,
Politics, and the Economy;"
the Rev. John Walker, Canon of the
Washington Cathedral, who will
address the Sunday morning chapel
service; Prof. Eugene D. Genovese,
chairman of the history department,
University of Rochester,
whose topic will be "The Meaning
of Black History;" Mrs. Edith
Scott, principal of Hunter College
Model School, New York, to speak
on "Superior Disadvantaged Children;"
and Miss Lou Lutour, New
York representing the black press.

Artistic and literary achievements
of the Negro will be
celebrated in drama, music, and art.
Howard University will send its
drama group of 12 performers to
present "Black Voices," a college of
Negro writings in Africa and
America, read, mimed and danced
by the troupe. Ben Ward, a young
scholar and musician from Yale,
will give a piano concert, and an
exhibit of African sculpture will be
on display throughout the meetings.

Two widely disparate films on
the racial question will be screened:
D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation"
and the documentary, "Diary of a
Harlem Family," by Gordon Parks.

The symposium has been made
possible through the Sue Reid
Slaughter Fund, a bequest to the
Sweet Briar Alumnae Association
for special academic programs.
Before her death in 1962, Miss
Slaughter, a graduate of the college,
was for many years executive
secretary of the Family Welfare
Association in Norfolk, Va.