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THE STUDENT MOVEMENT AT SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY

TIM THOMAS

For the past several years a recurring struggle has been taking place among Black students. This has been the struggle to transform predominantly Black universities into institutions that perform a service to the Black community rather than to those who control this country. However, most attempts towards transforming these institutions have been conducted without a real understanding of the relationship between the educational system, a part of the superstructure, and its base, the capitalistic economic system. The recent murder of Brothers Leonard Brown and Denver Smith by sheriff's deputies at Southern University has given a new thrust to the "Save Black Schools" struggle. Therefore, it is very important that Black people see this struggle at Black schools as reflecting the fundamental contradictions of blacks in the United States. That is, that the objective reality of Blacks in America is that they live in a colonial-type reality, where the forces of capitalism and racism along with their hirelings in the Black community control politically, economically, and socially.

Thus, when Black students are murdered or expelled, we have to understand that we have no control over the mechanism of force and violence or over the educational institutions in our communities. Consequently, whenever we move to transform fundamentally any sector of the superstructure, all of the forces of state power (the police, the army, the national Guard) will be used to suppress our efforts immediately. To struggle to transform Black institutions is part and parcel of the struggle of Black people against national and class oppression.

Most Black private colleges were started with the aid of the Freedmen's Bureau and Northern philanthropists. Controlled by white trustees, administrators and faculty members, these schools were set up to train Black preachers and teachers. Although close to two hundred schools were opened during Reconstruction, there were less than half that number by 1900. Thereafter most Black students have


Tim Thomas is youth coordinator of Student Organization for Black Unity (SOBU). His work is mainly on campuses in the South.

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