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The Panther
November 3, 1978
Clark Provides Real
World For Students
By A. Lineve Wead
Co-Editor
“My principal sent me to college ... I did not even want to go.
My grandmother filled out the application and I signed it,” our
newly inaugurated president admitted. As Dr. Elias Blake. Jr.
uttered those words, it took me back a few years to when I came to
Clark.
If students attending Clark really listened to Blake’s
inauguration address, we should have felt something deep down
inside. We can identify with our president from Brunswick. Ga.,
we can relate to his lifestyle, and we can look up to him and see a
future for ourselves. These qualities of our leader at Clark cannot
be found at any other institution other than black schools
How many students get the chance to complain verbally to
their college president about conditions at school? Not manv at
white schools. Can we call our instructors at home and find that
personalized attention waiting on the other end of the line?
Many times, yes. Yes, we can laugh, and joke about situations
that many of us have lived, because we are a family, and easily
identifiable; yes, we can relate to one another’s experience.
Some will argue that in the “real world” we will have to work
more with whites, and therefore, black education is restrictive. It
is only restrictive for those who make it that way. Our educators
at Clark make us aware of the world facing us and better preoare
us to work effectively.
Graduates will argue they did not learn anything from Clark.
It is up to us as students to make more use of our resources, and
seek answers to questions that are not found in the classroom
alone. Nothing comes easy, but most things are worth working
for.
Thank you Blake for making me realize once again that I made
the right decision by choosing a black school.
Dr. Elias Blake, Jr. is applauded after investiture by E.L.
Simon, chairman, Board of Trustees, Clark College,
(Photo by Jerome Gwinn)
The PANTHER is published twice monthly by the
students at Clark College.
Editors Suleiman Abdul-Azeez
Ann L. Wead
News Editor Marcia Jones
Feature Editor Denise Green
Sports Editor Charles Anderson
Photography Editor ... .Tyraun Patterson
Business Manager Jack Jenkins
Faculty Advisors Denise Johnson
Osker Spicer
All articles, poetry, photographs and other con
tributions to the newspaper may be dropped off at our of
fices in Thayer Hall.
Address all correspondence to: PANTHER Newspaper,
Box 154 Clark College, Atlanta, Ga. 30314.
Guest Editorial:
Fuller Encourages
Black Writers
By Suleiman Abdul-Azeez
PANTHER Co-Editor
The editor-publisher of a
national magazine of black
thought said there is no
separation between the writer
and the world in which he
lives.
Hoyt W. Fuller, editor-
publisher of First World, was
delivering the keynote address
at the first annual Writers
Conference sponsored by the
Southern Collective of
African-American Writers
(SCAAW) in Atlanta. He spoke
at the opening session held at
the Neighborhood Arts Center
Oct. 20. The three-day
conference had as its theme,
“Developing the Writer:
Maximizing Resources.”
“Don’t be swayed by the
universality argument which
encourages that black people
not be focused upon,” Fuller
advised his audience of 150.
Fuller also said black people
themselves are primarily to
blame for not achieving their
drive toward autonomy in
their literature. He said during
the 50’s and 60’s when black
literature was experiencing a
renaissance, a substantial
number of highly influential
black leaders did not wholly
embrace black artistry. Some
leaders even criticized Black
Renaissance writings.
The noted black editor as
sured the audience, “the black
aesthetic does exist.” He said
Europeans have said aes
thetics are neutral and
universal, that the beautiful,
graceful and tasteful retain
their quality everywhere.
“If the dimensions are
universal, then Europeans
have not believed in them,”
Fuller said. “They have
always projected Africans as
ugly, lazy and graceless.”
According to Fuller,
however, there is a white,
European aesthetic; and if
there is a white aesthetic, then
there has to be a black aes
thetic, “for our sense of what is
beautiful, graceful, etc. does
not agree with theirs.”
Fuller advised black writers
to write to expose the black
condition; read to gain in
formation about who they are;
and research to find out where
they fit in the world.
A native Atlantan, Fuller
was educated in the public
schools of Detroit, Mich.,
where he also received a B.A.
degree in literature and
journalism from Wayne State
University. Besides his
editorial functions he has
taught courses in writing and
Afro-American literature and
conducted seminars at Colum
bia College (Chicago) and the
U. of Wisconsin (Madison), In
diana U. (Bloomington),
Northwestern and Wayne
State U.
Georgia
Colleges
Possible
Black
Face
Merger
By Michael Cottman
The Georgia State Board of Regents has developed a tentative
five year desegregation proposal, that will force three of
Georgia’s historically black colleges into a struggle to preserve
their black heritage.
In March of 1973, U.S. District Court Judge Wilbur Owens,
ordered the Georgia Board of Regents to desegregate three
traditionally Black colleges in order to upgrade the academic
standards of the colleges. The three schools selected for the plan
were, Savannah State, Albany State, and Fort Valley State
College.
The proposal reads as follows:
“Black Savannah State College would receive major campus
landscape improvements, and a heavy emphasis would be
placed on undergraduate business administration programs.
New education programs would also be included in the package.
Black Savannah State would then be united with predominantly
white Armstrong State College.
Black Albany State will receive state and federal funds, which
would be used to renovate the college, and to enhance the college
academically. At the close of the 1981-82 school year, Albany
State is expected to attract a 25 to 30 percent White enrollment.
Failure to reach this mark, will result in the merger of
predominantly black Albany State with predominantly white
Albany Junior College, under the supervision of a black
president, and two white vice-presidents.
*Black Fort Valley State will also be alloted state funding
which will be used for the development of landscape and to im
prove their agricultural programs. The proposal would then call
for the merger of black Fort Valley State with predominantly
white Macon Junior College.
Predictions for the project’s major landscape developments,
for all three Black colleges could reach an estimated high of $50
million.
The proposal to merge whites into Black colleges is again
another attempt by whites to destroy our Black institutions. This
desegregation proposal must be stopped before it starts. Allow
ing whites to infiltrate our Black colleges will deprive us of the
right to fully identify with our Black heritage. “Blacks are asked
to accept white values, and give up their own black identity,”
says Dr. Donnie Belamy, Fort Valley’s Social Science Division
Chairman. “When we lose touch with our heritage, we lose touch
with ourselves and our self identity.”
Students must be aware of this problem, and be prepared to
take a stand on the issue. If you are not part of the solution, you’re
part of the problem.
“Race is a definite factor in this proposal,” says Fort Valley’s
president, Cleveland W. Pettigrew. “As blacks we must develop
our knowledge, strengthen ourselves, and make a committment
to save our black institutions.”
It is indeed obvious, that whites are attempting to stagnate the
progression of blacks, by tactfully trying to penetrate our Black
colleges. We as black students need black institutions for the
further development of black awareness. Without black colleges
there would no longer be a link between black heritage and self
idenity. “The key question here is this,” says Atlanta Regent
Elridge McMillan, “How does a state system in which all
institutions already desegregated, move forward to achieve a
greater degree of racial balance. Federal government says you’re
got to achieve that greater degree of racial balance while still
maintaining the historically black institutions.”
It is time for Black students to realize that this proposal of
merger effects us all in the long run. What kind of impact will this
have on younger blacks who are now considering attending
black state schools. “This is indeed a serious attempt to
overthrow our black institutions,” says Floyd Donald, Clark’s
SGA . president. “The merger of whites into black colleges will
deny blacks the opportunity to obtain leadership roles.”
This highly controversial issue has succeeded in capturing the
attention of many interested black around the state, who feel a
need to participate in the move to save our black institutions. If
black students are not concerned enough to support this issue,
this may eventually lead to the downfall of black colleges.