The Cavalier daily. :: Tuesday, April 1, 1969 :: University of Virginia Library

Educators are moving into the
field of Negro cultural studies with
a haste traditionally foreign to the
academic world, because of the
gusto and sometimes disruptive
tactics of Negro students pressuring
for the studies.

The field is virtually unexplored
and opinions as to how to approach
it vary from school to school and
administrator to administrator
within a school.

The result is that educators at
many colleges are unsure what form
their programs will ultimately take.

But they realize tardiness in
developing the programs could
bring more trouble from the students.

Qualified Instructors

One of the problems is finding
qualified instructors for the programs.

There are many competent people
in this field," said Dr. Louis
Budd, chairman of a committee
which hopes to establish a Negro
studies program at Duke University
by next September. "But they are
suddenly in tremendous demand.

"We think we have a pretty
good school at Duke and we want
to make sure we get people of
academic integrity."

Budd said some Negro militants
see this only as an excuse to hold
up progress. They argue that a
person does not need the traditional
credentials to teach Negro
studies, that the chief qualification
is to be a Negro.

"The militants say you don't
need a Ph.D. to tell how it feels to
be a black man in front of a pool
hall with no money in your
pockets," Budd said.

Study Definitions

Another problem of the colleges
is defining Negro studies.

Some educators believe the
programs should emphasize African
culture and history. Several universities,
such as Northwestern and the
University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, have offered courses in
African studies for years.

Other scholars, including some
in North Carolina, believe the
African experience is too distant
for American Negroes and that the
study of Africa, with its hundreds
of cultures, would be too massive
an undertaking.

Instead, they say, the emphasis
should be on Negro life in America.
This includes not only history, but
the sociological and psychological
peculiarities of Negro life.

The University of North Carolina
at Charlotte, for example, plans
a course in the psychology of
minorities next year. Dr. W.H.
McEniry, academic dean of the
school, says he hopes to find a
Negro psychologist and a white
psychologist to teach the class
jointly.

Some critics of the program say
Negroes have not contributed
enough to society to justify Negro
studies. Some educators believe,
however, Negro life is worth studying
no matter how significant past
accomplishments have been.

"However important contributions
may be," Budd said, "the
simple fact is that here is a truly
unique segment of American
society who have had an experience
unique to them."

The University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill plans to offer
courses in both African affairs and
American Negro experiences. Dr.
Raymond Dawson of UNC says the
program will use some existing
courses - such as African anthropology
and sociology - and add
others, although specific details
have not yet been worked out.

Faculty-Student Committee

"We have a faculty-student committee
at work now," he said, "and
they should be submitting their
recommendations within a very
short time. We will probably have
one interdisciplinary curriculum
with two tracks of study (African
and American Negro studies)."

In traditional courses such as
history and literature, educators say
Negro studies programs will stress
Negro accomplishments in these
subjects.

An English class, for instance,
might study the writings of Negro
poet Langston Hughes or author
James Baldwin along with other
American writers.

Militants at some colleges have
demanded exclusion of white students
from Negro studies classes.
Opponents of this idea argue that
exclusion violates the antidiscrimination
laws for which Negro
leaders have fought.

Others feel such courses provide
a psychological therapy for Negroes
that might not be effective if whites
are present.

People can go there (to the
classes) and pour it out," said Prof.
F.C. Campbell of Morehouse College,
a predominantly Negro college
in Atlanta.

"It's very painful," he added,
"but the blacks can talk to each
other about what they've seen and
experienced. They wouldn't be so
free if white people were there."

Integrated Course

Dr. Vaud Travis, dean of liberal
arts at Central Piedmont Community
College in Charlotte, feels
the courses should be integrated.

"Our concern is to teach our
Negro students something of their
heritage, and our white students
something of the people they are
living with," he said.

UNC-Charlotte's Dean McEniry
says the Negroes "have some justice
for saying that black culture has
been ignored."

For generations, he noted, most
college students were white and it
was natural that scholarship be
centered on the dominant culture.

The future of the academic
programs, educators say, may well
depend on the competence of
instructors. Some fear the programs
might face pressure to cover up
unflattering aspects of Negro history.

Although there will be some
growing pains, several educators
said they are excited about the
courses and happy that a new field
is being explored.

"I think as we work at it,"
McEniry said, "We are going to find
a great deal in the Afro-American
culture."