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July, 1976 - New National BLACK MONITOR MONTI MONITOR'S w f Garrett A. Morgan 1877-1963 Inventor Born in Paris Kentucky in 1877. He was the youngest of three children. Did well in school and was always looking for pieces of “things” from which to make something “new”, including some of his mother’s best “things.” After graduation from high school he moved to Cleveland, Ohio with his older brother, Frank. With the help of his brother and some friends, he was soon able to devote all of his time to inventing. His first invention was an im provement on the sewing machine which he sold for $l5O. He is best known and remembered for the invention of the gas mask and the automatic turn signal. On July 24, 1916, his brother and two other volunteers, all wearing Morgan’s invention, the “gas inhalator”, were the only men able to descend into the gas and smoke filled tunnel shaft beneath Lake Erie and successfully rescue the men who had been trapped. Orders for the Morgan inhalator poured into Cleveland from fire companies across the country, but when it became known that Morgan was black, many of these same orders were cancelled. How ever, this was a valuable invention and during World War I, the Morgan inhalator was trans formed into a gas mask and used by combat troops. Around 1923, Morgan invented the first automatic traffic signal. It has stop-and-go arms which were systematically raised and lowered. He sold the rights to this invention to General Electric for $40,000. Page 10 EDUCATIONAL FUTURE Continued from page 5 of these institutions may not survive to offer black students this option. There is good reason to believe that the next three to five years will see some drastic changes in the number of traditionally black institutions that survive. It would appear that those in dividuals involved in research and planning must certainly help answer the question of what will be the post secondary educational fate of black Americans. If the black college is being threatened with the possibility of dissolution, and financial resources are no longer available on the predominantly white campus to sup port larger numbers of black students, how can we be sure that black Americans will have an opportunity to get an education? What kind of planning needs to take place at the State level? Is there sufficient historical, political, social and economic justification to warrant State support of black colleges and univer sities? Are there sufficient data available to justify federal financing of higher educational enterprises for poor black youngsters? Should black scholars lead the movement to gather data on the above questions? What is being suggested here is that the educational future of black Americans looks very uncertain. It should not, nor cannot be left to chance. The contribution that Blacks have made, and can continue to make ought to preclude any likelihood that large numbers will be excluded from the educational arena. The education of the people who make up more than 12% of the population is a serious problem. It should be of concern to all who are interested in the well-being of the nation. The question is not whether black students should attend the State University of New York at Albany, or Barber-Scotia College. The question is whether the op portunity to attend a college or univer sity will be available to black students. Conclusion My suggestion for an immediate solution is a massive financial com mitment to higher educational op portunities for black Americans. This commitment would be at a higher level that the current Title 111 Basic and Advanced Programs. What lam proposing is the same kind of com mitment to black people that the federal government made following the Civil War. A Federal Bureau of Black Educational Affairs should be established in Washington. Officials Have you given to Operation PUSH, OIC, SCLC, NAACP or the local Urban League this month? would be located in each state to over see the program. The bureau would supervise the educational op portunities for blacks at the secondary and post secondary levels. Bureau aids would have civil and criminal jurisdiction over minor cases that might develop. In addition to making certain that federal funds were properly disbursed, the bureau would cooperate closely with state agencies, educational organizations, businesses, philanthropic and religious organizations, and international con cerns, to help insure the effectiveness and viability of the programs. A research and data collection com ponent would be a vital part of the bureau. Studies could be conducted to provide constant feedback to the federal government concerning new thrusts that might need to be un dertaken. This coordinated effort could replace the miltiplicity of ineffective programs that now exist, which treat higher education of black citizens as a game, something that must be requested and re-newed on a periodic basis. Our educational future cannot be left to chance. It is something that must be planned and developed in a way that will allow the contribution of black Americans to go down in history as having moved from the sweat of the backs of black slaves, to the sweat of the brow of black scholars and intellectuals. FOOTNOTES to Part II 1. Hugh W. Lane. “Where Do Black Students Go To College And Why?” Journal Os The National Association Os College Admissions Counselors 16: September 1971. 2. E. W. Gordon and D. A. Wilderson. Compensatory Education For The Disadvantaged. New York: College Entrance Examination Board, 1966. 3. Siegmar Muehl and Lois Muehl. “A College Level Compensatory Program For Educationally Disad vantaged Black Students: Interim Fin dings and Reflections." The Journal Os Negro Education XLI: Winter 1972. 4. Herman Hudson. “The Black Stud ies Program: Strategy and Struc ture.” The Journal Os Negro Education XLI: 294; Fall 1972. 5. Herman Hudson, op.cit., p. 297 6. Vivian Henderson. “Blacks and Change In Higher Education.” Daedalus 103; 72-79; Fall 1974. Lady President Continued from page 4 damanged whenever any one of its children is not educated to the fullest extent of his capacity.” Whether the person is Black, White, Brown, or Red. “He is to be educated not because he is to make shoes, nails, and pins, but because he is a MAN”—because she is a WOMAN. -Is there need for a college in Concord where the heritage and culture of the student (of all races and creeds) becomes a part of the curriculum, revered, respected, and precious to all? You and I know that the roots of each person's very being are in his heritage, and the human plant cannot grow tall and strong and secure like the mighty oak without these roots. He can become only a THING to be buffeted about by every wind of fad and creed and fanaticism that blows—a THING without a sense of direction, or purpose, or pride. Yet, it will be a place where personal, racial, ethnic identification will not deny the same privilege and need for fulfillment to others. -Could there be room for a college in which the philosophy of the institution considers academic growth as just one component of the total development of a person? One writer has so aptly said, “A man of intellect is lost unless he unites to it energy of character. When we have the lantern of Diogenes, we must have his staff.” ...A college with the characteristics here described would belong to this community--to all whose needs match its offerings, persons of varyin gage levels and occupations. Porous would be its walls in order that there would be accessible passage from the inside and from the outside. This institution can be what, together, we envision. 1 ask you to help me to provide the leadership to do the job in these days of darkness, of doubt, and of crisis which stretch beyond the horizon of today's happy and beautiful vision, and Barber-Scotia will justify its glorious past and the loyalty of those who look to it for an option in providing understanding and honest purpose. Thus, we will serve our great tradition greatly. Finally, may an all-wise father grant that the search for the kind of place this college is and can become will surface as an option in our time. Then listen (you students and staff of today and tomorrow, those of you who search) and you will hear resounding down the corridors of 109 years of history the echoes of the exuberant exclamation of Luke Dorland, I have found the place, and may the reality of your experience here move you to pick up the chant as you proclaim. Yes. 1 too, have found the place! Black College Continued from page 4 rather than recall. This is what Barber-Scotia College means by a developmental approach to education. Central to the student’s process of becoming, is the faculty. The faculty member, as he must function in the new learning style at Barber- Scotia. is not simply an expert in a discipline but a person. He shares much more than his knowledge: he shares himself. The faculty - almost a miniature United Nations are called teacher-counselors because of the dual role they play as “back-up” help in the student’s personal and professional development. The campus is beautiful. It comprises thirty six acres. The twenty-four buildings are a pleasing blend of architectural patterns from traditional structures with arched windows and cupola-topped roofs to contemporary buildings with built-in furnishings and flat-top roofs. The Health and Physical Education Building (with* an Olympic-size swimming pool and dance studio), the air-conditioned dormitories for men and women, and The College Union have been erected since 1968. The former dining hall was renovated in 1973 and is now the Library- Learning Resources Center.