The Negro heritage in American history; New directions in the social studies.

The California Council for the social studies held an annual conference with the theme new directions in the social studies. The conference is important to the teaching of the social studies because the initial effects of the amending of the National Defense Education Act to include the social sciences is now becoming evident. Additionally the passage of last year's Elementary and Secondary Education Act or even CA provides funds for curriculum innovation and classroom hardware. Teachers of the social sciences are in the midst of a revolution in the social studies. One important change in curriculum is the long neglected contribution of the Negro in American life. The negro heritage in American history is the subject of the following speech. Here to introduce this speaker is the historian of the California Council for the social studies Janet Ross. It's my very great pleasure this morning to introduce to our show itself. Dr. Paul F. Lawrence. The

associate superintendent of education the State Department. He is chief of the division of higher education. He received his Ph.D. at Stanford and prior to the he was a supervisor of art in the Princeton schools. He received his master's degree in geography. So he's one of us. He is associate professor was associate professor of education at Howard University of Washington DC. He was dean of counseling at California State College in Hayward. He has received an honorary doctorate from Jersey State College and Herb Glynn who has been the consultant for secondary education the state Department of Education and a great health in our council says he is a real good guy.

Dr. Barnes had. Barack thank you very much Mrs. Ross. And it's still morning and I will say good morning to all of my friends and colleagues out there who may wonder at the rather slow tread that I have today. Knowing me generally has a very vile facial and exuberant creature but this week I have joined the in crowd those who are in bed because of the flu bug. And so I may be a little less exuberant than usual but I will try to get a message across to you in keeping with your thing. New Directions in the social studies. I'd like to be just a little bit personal and start off by telling you a story that has made your thing important in my conscience n'est for many many years. It

was many years ago that one of my daughters was in I think it was the third grade and they were discussing the history of the United States and her teacher asked each member of the class to go home and for homework bring in the picture of someone who had been a hero in one of the wars in which our nation had participated. Well long before Catherine was born I had been fortunate to become a second lieutenant in the infantry. And you know when you first get your bars you go out and take a picture and send it home and the wife dutifully puts it on the bureau. And there it stays. But this next morning it was missing and the story came out that Katherine wanted to have her class know that someone like her and not necessarily her dad but someone like her had been participating in this action in which this

nation had given its best. And she thought well the nearest that she could get was a brown picture of her dead. Now you might wonder about the personal. Relationship to what I'm supposed to talk about. But let me tell you this. There are countless thousands of Negro students and I suppose I would be right in saying Mexican students Oriental students in this nation who when they sit in history classes and listen to all of the exploits all of the adventures in which this nation has participated must wonder as. Like Catherine did. Was there anybody like me involved in any of these activities and it's about that that the subject has been selected the Negril heritage in American life. On the 4th of June last year President Johnson speaking at Howard University in Washington had

this to say and I'm quoting now our earth is the home of revolution in every college corner of every continent men charged with hope contend with the ancient ways in the pursuit of justice. They reach for the newest of weapons to realize the oldest of dreams that each may walk in freedom and pride stretching his talents enjoying the fruits of the earth. Our enemies may occasionally seize the day of change but it is the banner of our revolution that they take and our own future is linked to this process of swift and turbulent change in many lands in the world. But nothing in any country touches us more profoundly Nothing is more freighted with meaning for our own destiny than the revolution of the Negro American in far too many ways American Negroes have been another nation deprived of freedom crippled by hatred. The

doors of opportunity closed to hope in our time change has come to this nation to the American Negro acting with impressive restraint as peacefully marched and protested as entered the court rooms in the seats of government demanding a justice that has long been denied the voice of the negro was the call to action unquote. 103 years after the Emancipation Proclamation and 11 years after the Supreme Court decision on integration and Negro baby regardless of where he was born has about one half as much chance of completing high school as a white baby born in the same place than on the same day one third as much chance of becoming a professional. Twice as much chance of being unemployed one seventh as much of earning $10000 a year and life expectancy seven years

less and the prospects of earning only half as much in a total lifetime. These obvious inequities spring from many sources. Today more than 73 percent of negroes live in urban areas compared with less than 70 percent of the white population. Most of these Negroes live in slums most of them live together as separated people separated by divisive customs divisive social customs. Men are in every sense at least largely shaped by the world in which they live. When it is a world of decay ringed by an invisible wall when escape from the world is arduous and uncertain and when the saving pressures of a more hopeful society are unknown these things cripple the youth and they desolate the man. In a society where the white skin is a badge of right

a dark skin adds a burden to the search for a productive place in society and this burden in many instances erodes hope and in turn blighted hope breeds despair and this despair brings indifference to the learning which offers a way out and despair together with indifference is often the source of destructive rebellion against the fabric of society. There is also for the negro the deep hurt of early collision with white hatred or prejudice or distaste or condescension. Now other groups have felt similar in tolerance but with many other groups. Success and achievement could wipe these things away. But these things are not wiped away as far as the Negril is concerned because the color of his skin is not wiped away easily. Three and a half centuries ago the first negroes arrived in Jamestown.

They did not arrive in Brave ships in search of a home for freedom. They did not mental fear and joy hoping in expectation that this new land would be anything for them anything that would make it possible for a man to be strong enough to reach and succeed in whatever he tried. They came in darkness and chains. They were unwilling emigrants to the shores and they had struggled against the importation. The stories of our nation and the American Negro are like two great rivers welling up from that tiny Jamestown spring. They flow through the centuries along divided channels. When pioneers subdue the continent to the need of to the need of man they didn't do it for the next they didn't tame it for him. When the liberty bell rang out in Philadelphia it did not toll for the Negra. When Andrew Jackson opened the

doors of democracy at the White House they did not open for the Negro but negroes were there each and every time these events happened for over three and a half centuries in these United States the Negro has had to plan his own destiny separate and apart from the destiny of his nation. He's had to try to make progress despite his fellow citizens despite his government. And in all too many instances against the resolute resistance of his government. But despite these handicaps the Negril has made some success. But there are those in our society who in a vain effort to escape guilt for three centuries of oppression directed against the American Negro still seek in 1966 to label him as UN courageous as being unimaginative as being

indolent as being a completely dependent human lacking initiative and direction even devoid of intellectual capacity. Accordingly these people argue that he the Negro must share the lion's blame for whatever his present plight might be. These people these detractors argue apparently to convince themselves of their basic thesis that the negro like other newcomers to the shores of the United States ought to elevate himself by his own bootstraps. But all the while they have been standing on these bootstraps. Let me just say that these arguments of total dependence are predicated on false assumptions and that they stem from ignorance of the negroes participation in the development of the land in which he was a willing and unwilling occupant. For those who would argue that courage is an attribute common only to those Americans with

European ancestry I would remind them that the first man to die on the Boston Commons for the cause of American independence was Crispus Attucks a Portuguese South African ancestry. And I would also remind them that among the first Americans to die in the Pacific or in world too was Dorie Miller the grandson of a slave. And though I would hesitate to talk about what's happening in Vietnam today. The records that we can get seem to indicate that more than a proportionate share of those fighting over there are people who themselves were descendants of African slaves. It was back in 1914 that an alert American editor who happened also to be a noted historian and who was also the author of the first volume in the Harvard historical studies

became attracted by the plans of the Louisiana Historical Society to celebrate the centennial of the Battle of New Orleans. All of the neighboring states surrounding Louisiana had been invited to celebrate. From the British consul came a war message to the people of New Orleans. The United States government sent to worship for the occasion. The president of the United States sent his representative. The ceremonies which followed were carried out by white soldiers by white orators and by white schoolchildren. Colored people had no part. And this cause that distinguished editor a historian from Harvard to wonder whether or not the members of the association which promoted the centennial were aware of the following speech which had been made by Andrew Jackson when he was general to his colored troops on the 18th of December

1848. And this is a part of his speech and I'm quoting to the men of color soldiers. From the shores of Mo below I collected you to arms. I invited you to share in the perils and to divide the glory of your white countryman. I expected much from you for I was not uninformed of those qualities most which must render you so formidable to an invading fell. I knew that you could endure hunger and thirst and all the hardships of war. I knew that you love the land of your unwanted city and that like ourselves you had to defend all that is most dear to men but you surpassed my hopes. I have found in you united into these qualities that noble enthusiasm which impels to great deeds soldiers. The president of the United States shall be informed of your conduct on the present occasion

and the voice of the representatives of the American nation shall applaud your valor as your general now praises your ardor. The enemy is near his sails cover the lakes. But the brave are united and if he finds us contending among ourselves it will be for the prize of valor and fame its noblest award unquote. That was in 1914 when the historian told us of the fact that Americans did not remember this or recognize this. If this omission was disheartening in 1014 is that it is inexcusable. A half century later much has happened to jog the memory and awaken the conscience of our nation since World War 1. Pages from the American story like that speech from Andrew Jackson once casually brushed aside are now revealed as an

essential part of our national Sega. The denial of equal opportunity at home has never blunted the desires and hopes of the American Negro in fighting and dying for the cause of freedom abroad. Many crosses which dot Flanders Fields in France marked the graves of black Americans and many of the unmarked graves on the lonely atolls of the Pacific contain the bodies of black Americans. All are silent tributes to the negroes unswerving belief in the American dream of freedom for all people in all of America's wars way who are Negroes have fought abroad in order that we would preserve the chance to fight for freedom at home. This nation in an effort to justify human slavery and consequently escape the sanctions of its prevailing religious belief refused to see the negro slaves as human beings. It rather

preferred to categorize them as chattels occupying a position equivalent to that of horses and cattle and of other objects capable of being physically possessed and owned. It was not until the Emancipation Proclamation and the subsequent constitutional amendments that the legal support for the chattel concept was shattered. Then deprived of legal support for a fallacious concept. The white community in order to justify racial separation adopted an even more weird pop postulate. The so called superior inferior equation which said whites were inherently superior to Negroes and that because of this circumstance negroes could never be admitted to a permitted to exist on the basis of parity with respect to anything and everything. And having adopted this hypothesis it became necessary therefore to prove that it was

true. And accordingly fact gave way to myth. As if this were not enough this myth based on a fault I papa says was permitted to sell dominate the American thought that it actually became acceptable as indisputable fact. Because of this the actions of Negro Americans contributing to the good of the Republic were conveniently forgotten swept to the subconsciousness of the white mind hidden from his memory. Historians refused to chronicle the contributions made by black citizens and in fact themselves induce themselves to believe that there had been no such contributions. Even today February of 1966 there are as many followers of that myth who still delude themselves with unseeing eyes and unbelieving ears. One of the myths which has produced confusion of all sorts in contemporary America

is the mistaken idea that Negroes had inherently less intellectual capacity than their white brothers. It is argued that the reason that Negroes have not been produces in our society is that they lack the ability to be produces and on the other hand many people like you. There are more astute social scientists anxious to bind up the whims of the past and to get on with the task that we have at hand. I have devised processes which demonstrate the fallacy of the all myth and make it crystal clear the abysmal ignorance which once gave rise to its creation and long acceptance has no place in American life today. But had history properly recorded the efforts of negroes in the pursuit of his educational attainment alone large segments of America may not have stumbled and groped in the darkness of ignorance for so long a time.

From the time of the Freedman's Institute sniggers have evidence and insatiable appetite for education and all that education promises. Had it not been other wise men like Booker T Washington would never have established as he did and nurtured Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee Alabama. Women like Mary would never have taken five students and a dollar and sixty five cents and nurtured it and cultivated it into an institution which today is valued at more than a million dollars and has an enrollment of approximately eight hundred students. Nor would any of the 100 predominantly negro colleges be in existence today. There are thousands of graduates who I am sure have surpassed the fundus expectations of the founders of their schools in terms of their contributions to the making of a great nation. Seeking

and finding educational opportunities in a society which practiced racial segregation was never easy. Many of the colleges the negro colleges that I speak of were founded on a loaf and a prayer. But today they stand as symbols of the perseverance of men and women who understood the importance of an education in any society particularly a democratic society. Where I stand simply the worth of a man is predicated unfortunately sometimes too much on material achievement Nigro singly and collectively in the past have pursued the cause of education unrelentingly Sometimes it was the Negro church responding to the religious conscience of their day finding ways to establish these schools of learning. Sometimes it was a dynamic individual who just believed in education and sought it for himself and for others at any price.

And negroes were not always together in this search for education or in this acceptance of a single belief for the goals of education. This is clearly reflected in the historical debates that went on between William DuBois and Booker T Washington. These two men were negro educators but very very different in their approach. Although their views differed as to the proper course to pursue all who know their efforts saying that both were right. Even though one felt that his American dream was shattered and he eventually sought consolation in another illogical dream. The important thing is that each one of these men brought a new sense of well-being to the negro group from which they sprang. And they provided the motivation for Nigro you to go on and to develop his end skills whatever they might have been. Until recently

history books with one notable exception and that one is Carter G Woodson's history of the American Negro written when I was a little boy and before some of you were born almost all of the other nic all of the other history books have failed to record negro efforts to improve negro circumstances. But Carter G Woodson knew the psychological vacuum that engulfs the men and gulfs of people who have no history in his writings he said this and again I quote those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished. Lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history. Whether intentional or unintentional Incidentally that's the end of the quote. Whether intentional or unintentional The result for the United States has been the same. A nation that has been permitted to live with a myth

because no one dared or cared to tell the story that Negroes helped build America. Because of the myth America will never know of the wonders which might have been hers had negro's been recognized as full citizens. Even though the annals of science list Negroes like the little frail scientist and chemistry genius George Washington Carver who gave new life to the clay hills of Alabama or Percy Julian whose research in the wonder drugs have given us new weapons against rheumatic fever and arthritis or Joseph Blair who was still in his 20s was called by the United States Navy to Washington to help them and they all some of the mysteries of their naval rocket failures. How many thousand more potentially able negro scientists wasted their talents in

racial isolation like those lines which come from the poem which I'm sure most of you have heard for many a flower is born to blush unseen and waste its fragrance on a desert air. What our cities have been better places in which to live. Had this nation cast aside the myth and opened its eyes to all the Benjamin bank Banneker's who must have passed this way in the decade since 1791 when the city of Washington D.C. was laid out how many young people today know that Banneker a negro planter and incidentally the inventor of the alarm clock helped to survey and lay out our capital city but seldom do you see a place where he's been given a niche in history. Would not the agony of today's racial conflict be a great deal less if the warnings of men

like Frederick Douglass Robert Abbott and Franklin Frazier were the exploitations of women like Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman but he did. In the decades behind us each of these and others have called upon America to chart a different course to deserve more fully her role of international leadership. And their voices have been for the most part voices in the wilderness brave. One must wonder that the bold action of men like Nat Turner leading rebellions against the institution of slavery might not have shattered the fact the myth that Nick grows were not prayed more than a century ago. But that myth was strong. It was so strong that it stunted the lives of many a person at least a tenth of the American population who were dark

skinned and who knows how much of the other portion of the American nation whose skin was not dark. This myth not only induced hopelessness and disappointment it meant sometimes the killing of a dream as well as a dream or the myth played favorites. The same nation that pays tribute to a doctor saw for his discovery of the Salk vaccine a preventative for polio. That same nation refused to give proper recognition to an equally remounted medical man who uncovered a process of equal importance. I think you know the story of Charles Drew a pioneer in developing the blood plasma bank which was first unveiled doing World War 2. This man who was later to die because he was denied the service of the very idea he fostered he fathered is on his way to North

Carolina to attend a medical meeting and his car went off the road and he was finally picked up by an ambulance which could not take him to a hospital. So some say because they had no negro blood for him. His fatal mistake perhaps was in failing to realize that the existence of the mist states that there are whites and Bloods to Charles Drew there was just blood. This study of Negro history it's not just another subject for superficial academic cerebration it is rather a story that all need to know to bridge the cultural gap which separates some of our citizens from the rest of our citizens. It is a story which demonstrates that strength which exists in a pluralistic society. That's the only justification for studying Negro history. To let people

know that the cloth that is the United States has in its warp and will the strengths the contributions the glories the tears the weaknesses the everything that has come from all kinds of people. The knowledge of the negroes part in American history helps to destroy that myth. And when it is known it also helps to close the gap between fellow Americans. Negro history. Its study and it should be studied as a part of the total history. And I look forward to the day when the history of the United States will be studied as the history of the United States and not with little segments here and there and in other places. But for the time being sense we do feel that it is necessary to stress the study of Negra history. Let us be aware that this study

injects understanding awareness and appreciation into the life blood of the American social order. When these things are present in the life blood and nation becomes great. Without these things without understanding without awareness without appreciation. Any nation like the flower I mentioned earlier will eventually waste its treasures on desert air and children like yours and mine. In future years will never have to wonder Did anybody like him take any part in the making of this great nation. Thank you. I. Thank you all you have been listening to Dr. Paul Florence associate

superintendent for higher education in the State Dept. of Education speaking on the heritage in American history. The speech was given at the annual conference of the California Council for the social studies held in late February at the conference. This was the final in a series of conference recordings dealing with the coming revolution in social studies teacher. The series recorded and produced by Eugene Bergmann. Now a.