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DILEMMA OF AFRO-AMERICAN EDUCATION | MOORE

(Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee) which first declared that "the problem is not in the black community." E. Franklin Frazier treated race prejudice as a mental illness on the part of the white population.4 Du Bois in his pioneer study The Philadelphia Negro, concludes that the source of difficulties within the black community is the political, economic and social environment of the dominant society.

The specific issues discussed by Wilcox are worthwhile but we only get a little taste of each, not a real struggle with the possibilities and plans for actualization. One reason for this superficiality may be the neglect of earlier work. So much of what Wilcox has to say has been said before, albeit, in different words. Horace Mann Bond asserted in the early thirties that the education of black students must center on the application of knowledge and skills to the implementation of the aspirations and survival requirements of black masses.5 Du Bois' brilliant plan for a cooperative effort on the part of black colleges to research and solve many of the problems in the black community has yet to be implemented. Alain Locke and others of the Harlem Renaissance eloquently stressed race pride and were the forerunners of Pan-African Negritude. It is an ego trip to think that the struggle is new. The present task consists of culminating a long proud history of protest and revolt. The humility with which the scholarship of those courageous pioneers, who fought great battles to free their minds for service to the people, is approached will be in itself an example of the standard of selfless service which will insure the survival of the dignity of black culture from generation to generation. We need not be alienated from the past; we are part of a timeless army of freedom fighters. 

The next article, "The New Black Dimension in Our Society," is filled with inconsistencies. Olivia Stokes is quite tired of controversy and yet, one wonders if she is not defining moral idealism as loving white folks rather than loving justice. Where Miss Stokes lumps black extremism, black nationalism, and black power together as "causing the white American to increase his fear and to run for repressive measures," she not only demonstrates her confusion but also her naivete. The American system has always been ready to "whip the black person into conformity" if he dare speak out against his being


4 E. Franklin Frazier, "The Pathology of Race Prejudice," Negro Caravan, eds., Brown, Davis, Lee Arno Reprint, 1970), pp. 903-9. (Forum, 1927).

5 Horace Mann Bond, "The Curriculum and the Negro Child," Journal of Negro Education, April 1935, Vol. 4, pp. 159-168

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