I have found our more sophisticated and progressive students of today resent this thinking and their "shielding" from the true facts. They are very much aware of our past deeds and misdeeds regarding the Negro in American life. They demand that we who teach them, "*** give it to me straight." "Teach it as it was" is a frequent comment in the classroom of the 1960's. I believe, our students are entitled to get our history taught to them as it actually happened, good, bad, or indifferent. May I add, I find this not too difficult. For the past few years, I have included in my teaching, the role of the Negro, from slavery to the present. It requires some research and supplementary materials, but it can be done; it must be done! In summation, I would not support the idea of any special commission or history course for any particular ethnic group. I consider such a move discriminatory against all other ethnic groups. I strongly recommend, however, speedy revision of our American history courses and text books, to include in full detailed accounts, the plight, condition and participation by the American Negro to the making of our proud-if sometimes soiled-history. PREPARED STATEMENT OF BENJAMIN QUARLES, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, MORGAN STATE COLLEGE, BALTIMORE, MD. I am strongly of the belief that the establishment of a congressional commission on Negro history and culture would be a national service. Such a commission would do much to develop a richer understanding and appreciation of the American heritage, and thus help to promote better relations between individuals and groups. Until recently there has been a general unawareness of the true role of the Negro in American history, an information gap as to his substantial contribution to our country's past. A sounder appraisal of the black American's historic role will reveal the essential pluralism that characterizes our culture, the richness and variety that mark us as a civilization. A congressional commission on Negro history and culture would do much to promote national unity and to strengthen our national purpose. As one who for many years has read and taught in the field of Negro history, I know something of its transforming power and of its liberating effect on the mind and on the spirit. Those who support the establishment of such a commission would, I believe, count it one day as among the things they were pleased and proud to have done. UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND, DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, Kingston, R.I., August 15, 1968. MENATE SUBCOMMITTEE ON ARTS AND HUMANITIES, DEAR SIRN: I have long been interested in the history of the black man, and for the past two years have been teaching courses on American Negro and African history here at the University of Rhode Island. For this reason I am concerned with N 2979, a bill to establish a Commission on Negro History and Culture. The role of the Negro in American history has long been ignored and distorted. Our textbooks and our curricula are badly in need of reinterpretation and updating on this score. Unfortunately, our teachers are rarely qualified to deal with the history of the black man in a knowledgeable and objective way, so as to deepen students' understanding of the 100ts of America's present racial crisis. While I support S. 2979, I feel that certain action can and should be taken immediately to remedy a deplorable situation. Summer institutes and in-service courses for teachers are two good examples of what I have in mind. I respectfully submit that these should be funded by the federal government so that teachers can acquire the information and skills to deal effectively with the subject of the Negro in class, I know that such programs exist; however, they must be offered more often and on a regular basis throughout the nation. Furthermore, teachers should be compensated for participating in these programs. Willingness to remedy social evils is contingent upon the realization that those evils exist, and, in the case of the Negro, have existed for centuries. The responsibility of the federal government and school systems across the country should be clear. Sincerely, Enclosure. ROBERT G. WEISBORD, [From Congress Bi-Weekly, Apr. 8, 1968] NEGRO HISTORY AND WHITE AMERICA (Robert Weisbord 1) "You know what I learned in school, man? I learned about Paul Revere who was white, and Christopher Columbus who was white, and Cleopatra-they said she was white too. And oh yes. Don't forget little Black Sambo. The Irish had a culture, the Italians had a culture, everybody had a culture, but they told us the black man's culture was picking more cotton than the white man. That won't do. If it's only a jungle culture then let's have a jungle culture." Thus spoke a youngster in Detroit following that city's racial upheaval, the most destructive in American history. Equally anguished and angry sentiments about the inadequacy of school curricula have been heard in other racially-torn areas. Two Negro boys, in enumerating the manifold causes of the Buffalo riot, mentioned not only police brutality and unemployment but the fact that the school system had ignored their Negro heritage. In November, 1967 Negro student unrest in Philadelphia was accompanied by a demand that Afro-American history be taught. The same demand was made recently in racially tense Mount Vernon and in Plainfield, New Jersey where there has already been rioting. Agitators at Harlem schools, including the widely publicized I.S. 201, have called for curriculum changes which would reflect the contributions of the Negro to American and world civilization. After the disturbance at the predominantly black Fisk University in Nashville the president of the student council succinctly summarized the Negroes' grievance. "Carl Sandburg, Bach, and Beethoven are closed subjects among students now. *** We recognize that perhaps you ought to study them, but we don't really relate to them. * * * There's no blackness." Familiarity with social studies curricula and textbooks leads to the inescapable conclusion that the grievance is a legitimate one. Textbooks have long mirrored publishers' fears of alienating the sensitive Southern market. Those fears, coupled with educators' apathetic conservatism about curriculum matters, have resulted, by and large, in an educational system that is run by white in the interest of whites. The Negro in many American history books used on the high-school level is "the invisible man," to use Ralph Ellison's apt phrase. And the situation is much worse on the junior-high and elementary levels. Negro history, more often than not, is bypassed or distorted. Objective treatment of the Negro's African background is rarely encountered. The traditional and largely prejudiced version of African history is that Africa had no history worth studying before the European arrived. Prior to that time Africa was allegedly a continent of shrieking cannibalistic savages bent on devouring one another. Only occasionally have the accomplishments of Kush and Axum and the medieval Sudanic Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay found their way into the lesson plans of social-studies teachers in high schools. It is little wonder that even Negroes themselves long accepted the white man's ethnocentric view of "primitive” Africa. History teachers have habitually glossed over the horrors of the Atlantic slave trade and has presented a romanticized "moonlight and mint julep" version of ante-bellum slavery. Discussions of the anti-slavery crusade have focused on white abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison. Consequently, Negro abolutionists, Frederick Douglass and the unsung militant David Walker, for example, are unfamiliar to most Americans. Even university students have the erroneous impression that before the Civil War Negroes outside the South enjoyed complete equality with white. In his North of Slavery, Leon Litwack has shown quite clearly that the quasi-free Northern black was ordinarily denied the franchise and was usually ineligible for jury service. Separate facilities were commonplace and "free" Negroes were actually excluded from many States. Revisionist historiography in the Reconstruction period is not always reflected in texts or teaching. Unfortunately, misleading emphasis has traditionally been placed on the inefficiency and corruption of the "illiterate Negro buffoons" who supposedly controlled all of the Southern legislatures. Inadequate Coverage Incredibly, the Negro disappears almost entirely from American history at the end of Reconstruction not to emerge again until the post-World War II period. 1 Robert Weisbord teaches in the department of history at the University of Rhode Island. The text or the teacher who cites the more than 3,400 lynchings that took place between 1889 and 1922 is a rarity. Similarly, clashes such as the 1908 Springfield, Illinois riot near Lincoln's final resting place or the racial eruptions during the summer of 1919 in which some of the victims were returning Negro servicemen are not discussed. Four years ago a panel of six highly respected historians at the University of California (Berkeley) wrote a scathing report on the treatment of Negroes in American-history textbooks. The report was particularly critical of this tendency to play down "the long history of violence between Negroes and white, suggesting in different ways that racial contacts have been distinguished by a progressive harmony." "In their blandness and amoral optimism," the report continued, "these books implicitly deny the obvious deprivations suffered by Negroes." Furthermore, because Jim Crowism is inadequately covered, students cannot begin to appreciate the indignities to which black Americans have been subjected. It can be said without fear of contradiction that in 1968 most social-studies teachers still choose compliant Negroes, Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver, for instance, to represent the black race in American history. If our generation cannot understand, much less accept, Negro militancy, it is partly due to unfamiliarity with a tradition exemplified by Nat Turner's slave insurrection of 1831. Following World War I, Marcus Garvey led what the distinguished Negro historian, John Hope Franklin, has described as "the first and only real mass movement among Negroes in the history of the United States." To this day the charismatic Garvey remains the patron saint of black nationalism and yet, exceptional indeed, is the social-studies teacher or text that chronicles his fascinating career. In the main, the curricula in our schools have not been revised and updated to make it meaningful. The currency dispute of the 1890's is not a burning issue in the 1960's. It cannot be expected to fire the imaginations of either ghettodwelling Negro children or middle-class white youngsters. Calvin Coolidge, although he occupied the White House from 1923 to 1929, is not especially relevant today. (One is tempted to observe that he wasn't especially relevant in his own day.) Free silver and Coolidge as President should not be omitted altogether, but manifestly substantial curriculum changes are essential. I submit that Negro history should be given priority. If whole courses cannot be given on the Negro, then units in this vital subject should be incorporated in American history. History as Corrective Some have argued that such an ethnic or racial approach would have a divisive effect. Divisiveness along racial lines has existed since the Colonial period. Acknowledgement of that fact in order to set the historical record straight may, in the long run, help to promote true integration. If Afro-American history is to be taught, why not Italian-American or Irish-American history? Why not Jewish history? Undoubtedly, the historical treatment of Jews has left a good deal to be desired. However, without minimizing the ever-present latent anti-Semitism, it can be asserted that there is no Jewish problem comparable to the Negro problem. After a couple of generations the children and grandchildren of the swarms of East European Jews who sought refuge in this country are secure and prosperous. The Jews have "made it" in America. We are privileged, not underprivileged. Rioting is engendered by the despair of Negroes in a white society, not by that of Jews in a Gentile society. Disparaging stereotypes of Jews persist, but there is widespread recognition of Jewish achievements and contributions. By comparison, the names of the Negro, Benjamin Banneker, an 18-century mathematician and astronomer; Charles Drew, a Negro physician in the Second World War, who devised the process for storing blood plasma ; and J. E. Matzeliger, a Negro who invented the shoe lasting machine, are known only to a few scholars. Admittedly, as the California historians previously cited have warned, there is some danger in "exaggerating Negro contributions and the heroic qualities of Negro figures." But, given the racial climate, there is much greater danger in not fully and accurately portraying the Negro's role. Black Americans in this decade are seeking identity as well as power. Determination to reconstruct a seriously eroded self-image has led CORE to press publicly financed educational institutions for material regarding "their true history, cultural origins and contributions to literature and the arts." These are required by Negroes who have no alternative to public education to bolster their self-esteem and to develop pride and dignity. Of course, it is not only Negroes who should be exposed to Negro history. If whites were taught the whole melancholy truth they would not ask, "Why can't the Negro do what other immigrant groups have done to achieve equality?" They would then truly understand what the late Malcolm X meant when he commented bitterly, "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock. It landed on us." Willingness to remedy social evils is contingent upon the realization that those evils exist and, in the case of the Negro, have existed for nearly three and a half centuries. So long as white America is allowed by its educational system to delude itself into believing that the black man's problems are of his own making, are ascribable to laziness and innate incapacity rather than to enslavement and oppression, remedies will be slow in coming. Over the long haul, education can and does alter values and attitudes. The inclusion of Negro history in the curriculum would give the white American greater respect for the Negro and would give the black American greater respect for himself. It would be foolhardy and unrealistic to claim that the study of Negro history in our schools will avert racial strife in the near future. At this juncture, only a miracle can do that. Nevertheless, educators, supported by a concerned public, can redress a grievance that has led to racial turmoil. A number of enlightened communities have already taken appropriate action. To paraphrase an old Chinese proverb, "It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness and Stokely Carmichael." Hon. LISTER HILL, HOWARD UNIVERSITY, Washington, D.C., July 26, 1968. Chairman, Labor and Public Welfare Committee, DEAR SIR: We, the members of the Bibliographic Workshop on Negro materials held recently at Howard University, do hereby declare our support of S. 2979, a bill to establish a Commission on Negro History and Culture. We think of this Commission as an integral part of national efforts to facilitate the study of American history. We suggest : 1. That the Commission should continue for 2 or more years after its initiation in order to implement and disseminate its reports and recommendations. 2. That monies be appropriated immediately to cope with the following problems: the cataloging, preservation and dissemination of information on existing established collections on the Negro, such as the Schomburg Collection, the Moorland Collection, and collections in college and university libraries. 3. That a clearinghouse be established for any ongoing projects in Negro studies, such as microfilming, commercial reprinting, archival inventorying, etc. to prevent duplication of effort and funds. Respectfully yours, Ad Hoc Committee of Thirteen; Mrs. Dorothy Briscoe, Texas Southern Miss Sheila R. Herstein, City College of the City University of New York; Mrs. Linda Johnson, Northern Illinois University; Mrs. Mordine Mallory, Queens College; Miss Milda Melnikas, Community College of Philadelphia; Sister Mary O'Callaghan, Maryville College of the Sacred Heart; Mrs. Angela Poulos, Bowling Green State University; Rev. Ronald Roloff, O.S.B., Saint John's University; Mrs. Lucille Sibulkin; Rhode Island College; Miss Constance R. Smith, Saint Louis University; Sister M. Liguori Tackaberry, Fontbonne College; Mr. John Thomas Tongate, Oberlin College; Mr. Emery Wimbish, Jr., Lincoln University. [From the Library Journal, Jan. 15, 1968] NEGRO HISTORY WEEK, FEBRUARY 11-17, 1968 (By Carrie C. Robinson)1 In my opinion the role of the Negro in American history, and in the history of other cultures, has been most neglected, misrepresented, and least understood. Since I encountered, as a student, a subjective treatment of the Negro in social studies material, and subsequently became disenchanted with social studies generally and with geography and history in particular, it is somewhat contrary to my most cherished desires to write on history pertaining to the American Negro. Yet history is the testimony of the past, the instructor of the present, and a warning to the future. And this is no less applicable to a race than to a country and/or to the world. If no use were made of accumulated knowledge the world would be characterized by the infancy of knowledge. For many years the American Negro knew little or nothing of his history, and if a race does not know what its former experiences have been, that race, likewise, is characterized by a state of infancy. Inconceivably, the suppression of Negro history was the plan of a people which itself, having been subjected to various forms of persecution, had severed ties with the Old World in search of freedom and a more abundant life. Carter G. Woodson, convinced that the contributions of his people-the Negroto American history were unequivocally ignored, first recognized the impact of such circumstances upon a people and the need for special research into the neglected past of the Negro. From this conviction the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History was founded on September 9, 1915. The following January, Dr. Woodson published the first issue of The Journal of Negro History. Far reaching among his many activities was the organization of Associated Publishers in 1921, insuring the publication of his journal, books, and other materials pertaining to the Negro, not then acceptable to a goodly number of American publishers. With the provisions of an Association dedicated to the task of fostering research on the Negro, a publishing establishment, and an official organ to disseminate information, consideration was focused on a more effective opportunity than voluntary reading of researched data and a large body of additional writings, to bring people, reading, and information together. The result was the establishment of Negro History Week in 1926. Dr. Woodson launched the celebration in February 1926, surmising that a short period of time devoted to public exercises, emphasizing the major events and facts of American history in which Negroes made influential contributions, could be instrumental in setting the record straight-dispelling the deeply ingrained concept held by the majority of Americans "that the Negro is nothing, has never been anything, and never will arise above the position of being a menace to civilization." This celebration, first widely supported by schools, churches, and various organizations among Negroes, gradually gained support from individuals and institutions of other races in America and foreign countries. Each year Negro History Week begins the second Sunday in February, the primary object being to choose the week in which February 12 and 14, the birth dates of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, respectively, will fall. In the event that the observance cannot include both dates, that of Douglass' is given priority. 1 Mrs. Robinson is school libraries consultant for the Alabama state department of education; her responsibilities were formerly confined to the Negro schools. |