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Page 4 - SPELMAN SPOTLIGHT - November, 1975
Transition
Changes...
Speiman in
Them
Speiman College is in tran
sition. To a lesser extent that
transition is dependent upon the
oil embargoes imposed by the
Middle East. To a larger extent, it
is dictated by the foundation
grants and the endowments the
college receives. Undoubtedly
however, that transition is in
fluenced also by the character of
the students of the college. For it
is with the students in mind that
the college life flourishes, And
ideally, the college life flourishes
in part because of the minds of
the sudents.
BEGINNINGS
Speiman College was
established in 1881 immediately
following the demise of the War
Between the States. It was
founded by two New England
women, Sophia B. Packard and
Harriet E. Giles. Speiman College
was born out of an effort to
redirect the backward experience
country. It was born out of an
effort to redirect the backward
experience of young Negro
women just out of slavery in the
south.
When Miss Packard and Miss
Giles arrived in Atlanta in the
spring of 1881 there had been no
formal provisions made for the
beginnings of the institute of
higher learning they had en
visioned. And were it not for
Reverend Frank Quarles, pastor
of the Friendship Baptist Church,
Spelman;s search for a new
beginning would have at best
continued.
Although Speiman had as it’s
beginnings a small and dank dark
church basement, it grew at an
early age to encourage it’s
daughters to travel beyond the
needs of American society. For as
early as 1889, Speiman graduate
Nora Gordon traveled, to'thfe'
Congo as a missionary. And as
early as 1884, Speiman had in
spired the first contribution ever
to Negro education from the
renowned Rockefeller Family.
BECOMING ESTABLISHED
Owing to the peculiar situation
from which Speiman emerged,
there had been nothing what
soever in her past to insure the
spiritual and intellectual
development of her students. The
curriculum and college
regulations would therefore aid
that develpment. For although
blacks were not allowed to attend
movie houses, theatres, and
various other sources of reper
toire, Speiman women had access
to many national and in
ternational personalities that
visited the city of Atlanta. Tom
Mboya, Ralph Bunch, Marian
Anderson, and Langston Hughes
are but a few of the distinguished
guest signatures appearing in the
Continued from Page 5
A Discussion On The Bicentennial
Editor’s Note:
The following is a bicentennial
discussion between Dr. Lois
Moreland and Margaret Lee. Dr.
Moreland is chairperson of the
political science department at
Speiman. She received her A.B.
degree from Sarah Lawrence
College, M.A. from Howard
University and Ph.D. from The
American University. Margaret ;
Lee is a senior political science
major and the political editor of
the Spotlight.
Question: Do you feel that 31acks
should celebrate the bicen
tennial?
Moreland: When I am posed with
such a question, I ask myself a
series of questions to find out how
much I know about the issue at
hand before I reach a conclusion.
The first thing that I want to know
is, what is the bicentennial? It is
divided into three basic areas,
which are first heritage or
historical; second, festival or
celebration; and third, horizons-
the challenge, according to the
Bicentennial Commission, to
every American acting in
dividually or with others to select
and act on goals to make America
a more perfect union and improve
the quality of life in the twenty-
first century. Celebration is the
aspect that I had heard most
about. To tell the truth, I hadn’t
given much thought to par
ticipation or nonparticipation. I
took it for granted that we would
participate.
I bad heard comething about the
horizons as I had been talking to
people in the community about
black participation. There
seemed to be a consensus that
there wasn’t very much for us to
celebrate, which was the festival
aspect of the bicentennial.
The next question for us to ask
is, what is there to gain if we do
participate and what is there to
lose if we don’t? My response to
what there is to lose is that
number one, that question is
predicated on the assumption that
there must be massive non
participation of blacks if there is
to be meaningful non
participation. The question that
flows from that is whether or not
there will be that kind of unified
action on the part of blacks not to
participate. My feel of the
community is that the issue of
participation or nonparticipation
is not a salient issue to the black
community. If there is to be
effective nonparticipation, it has
to be massive. The next question
is, what do we have to gain? It
Margaret Lee, Political Editor for the Speiman Spotlight, ponders the
extent to which blacks should participate in the Bicentennial.
[Photography by Debbi Newton].
would provide an opportunity if
we don’t participate for some
persons to have an emotional
catharsis, a feeling of saying, I
am not a part of the system and
this is my mode of expressing my
antagonism toward the system.
That kind of feeling does not have
a significant impact because a
significant number of people
don’t want us to be part of the
celebration. It seems like we
would be playing into their hands
to say all right we don’t want to
be part of it. Much of our history
has been separate as if we were
not part of the system. Any
response generally to what it is
we would gain by not par
ticipating would be negative
responses. An emotional
catharsis is not in fact very
productive. There would not be a
kind of massive boycott because
the issue is not that meaningful to
most Black people.
A further question is what would
we gain if we would participate? I
see it not in terms of celebration
or necessarily that aspect of
heritage but in terms of horizons.
It presents us with an opportunity
to effectively communicate to the
white community the significant
and productive role that blacks
have played in this country.
Much of our history needs to be
told in such a way that others can
understand and oe told by us. It
could also present the challenge
which is is suggested by the
horizons by the Bicentennial
Commission. A challenge that
America has not lived up to those
traditions embodied in the
Declaration of Independence
which is what is being celebrated.
We were excluded from the
Declaration of Independence.
Barbara Jordan said so
beautifully in her first statement.
(Incidentally, Ms. Jordan will be
a keynote speaker at the National
Democratic Convention.) She
said we were excluded but by
judicial interpretation, by
congressional elaboration, by
informal amendment of the
Constitution and by formal
amendment of the Constitution
we have been incorporated.
While we nave not yet reached
the pinnacles that we would like
to reach in this society, it presents
us with an opportunity to show
why we should and why this
nation could have never survived
without our blood, sweat and
tears. To present the challenge to
that white community to do what
it says it was going to do in that
Declaration, that all men are in
fact created equal.
Tee: 1 feel that Blacks should
definitely not celebrate the
bicentennial. In terms of looking
historically at our existence in
America, we t>«ve exoerienced
200 years of racism. Even prior to
the writing of the Declaration of
Independence, which in
corporates about 200 years,
blacks were experiencing racism.
Which means that we have been
experiencing about 400 years of
racism in America. Many Blacks
feel that we have made a great
contribution to this country. In
light of the fact that white
America has stripped us of a lot of
things in terms of inventions
| blacks have created and were not
I given credit for them. Our labor
| that was put in America was
I forced on us. If one looks at the
! movements that occurred in
America they will find that these
| movements were done out of
hostility, bitterness and anger to
America, means that if we
celebrate our history in terms of
the bicentennial that we will be
celebrating a myth, something
that doesn’t exist. We should be
about evaluating our past, to try
to see where we are headed. The
whole connotation of celebration
is festivals and a joyous occasion.
Moreland: That’s exactly why I
looked at the bicentennial to find
out exactly what it is because all
that I had heard about was
festival and celebration. I cer
tainly agree with Margaret in that
aspect. We certainly have had a
dismal history in this country. It
has been filled with racism, but I
didn’t suggest that we celebrate.
I suggested that we challenge the
white community to live up to the
very things you’re suggesting.
We have done great things for
this country. It would be
anomalous for us to celebrate and
be frivolous. There is no in
consistency in our points of view
in that sense. Do I infer that in
your suggestions that we should
not celebrate at all?
Lee: I feel that we should not be a
part of it at all. All of the
legislation passed for black
equality was forced on white
America. If you look back to
when the Declaration of
Independence was written, blacks
were considered to be three-fifths
of a human being.
Moreland: I agree with that also,
but the point remains that they
were forced to change or
amendments were added to che
Constitution. We have more
freedom only because of our own
pressures, not because it was
given. That remains that we do
have more freedom. Now that we
have more freedom, what are we
going to do with it? I think it
would be playing into the hands
of the segregationists and those
who don’t profess to be
segregationists, but who in fact
wish we were not part of the
system for us not to participate at
all. It would be simply
coroborating their own point of
view. Even though we may want
to opt out of the system, we can’t.
Although we are right here in
this office, holding this interview
isolated from the larger com
munity, in the confines of
Speiman, we are part of the
community. First because the
federal government plays a
significant role in supporting this
college. Every time I draw salary
or your parents draw salary or
when you sleep in the dormitory,
that represents the intrusion of
the federal government over our
lives. There is no way to opt out
of the system. From a practical
point of view, if we were not to
celebrate, unless it’s on a massive
scale, it won’t be of any impact
whatsoever. It would not just be
that emotional catharsis for a few
individuals that I mentioned
earlier. It would not be
significant unless it was a nation
wide boycott of everything upon
which the bicentennial stands. In
participating we challenge the
white community as to what we
want and are supposed to have
under the authority of the laws of
this land.
Lee: Any type of agreement in
celebration of blacks would be
saying to white America that we
are indebted to you for all that
you have done for us. That we
have come a long way and we
thank you. Aligning ourselves in
any way with the bicentennial
would be like saying we are for
America. Also, that we agree
with the kinds of things that
America has done by celebrating.
Moreland: I did not say
celebrate. I say that we tell white
America that you haven’t lived up
to your ideals for blacks or even
all whites. We can define the
questions that we will pose and
illustrate the direction that
America should take.
Lee:You are not saying then, thr.t
we should project what America
says is the bicentennial waving
red, white, and blue flags.
Moreland: Absolutely. We can’t
afford to be frivolous. We have
important questions to answer. If
we should participate, we should
do it from the horizons aspect.
We can decide what we will do in
our own terms. We can decide
what to do about economic
freedom, affirmative action,
integration and all other phases of
life. This is a good opportunity to
get some of our views aired. This
gives us an opportunity to teach
our history and document our
history.