Analysis Of The Black Revolution On Campus By Martha Biondi

In many universities today, you will find an African Studies Department. However, this has not always been the case. In the early 1930’s, Carter G. Woodson challenged the idea of “Mis-Education” of the black race. Woodson argues on the “education system’s failure to present present authentic Negro History in schools and the bitter knowledge that there was a scarcity of literature available for such a purpose”(Woodson 1). This idea was still an issue up until the 1960’s. The book The Black Revolution on Campus by Martha Biondi explains the origin of the African Studies department as it emerged after the uprising of black students demanding equal educational rights. The introduction of African Studies as an academic discipline came from the idea

Carter G. Woodson played double jeopardy as he was a black man challenging his superiors of being racially biased in the educational system. In the midst of Jim Crow Laws, it was widely known of the segregation between blacks and whites. One thing they had in common was the content of the classes the students were taking. They were all European. Woodson claims that African Americans are being trained to think that “his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless”(Woodson 2). He calls this “the worst sort of lynching”(Woodson 3). What he is saying is that the education system is training the African American into thinking that the color of his skin isn’t worth anything, so why waste time learning about it in the first place? Woodson also gives the example of two children learning math, one white and one black. The white children come from homes of merchants are trained better in mathematics. However, the black students that live in the homes of tenants should have been taught equally because the tenants are the ones that need to have the knowledge of counting so that they aren't swindled by the plantation owners when it come to simple calculations such as

However, here lies the problem. After finishing school, they are trained to be an “Americanized or Europeanized” but they haven't been trained to change their skin color. The first thing anyone is going to notice is the color of the skin, no matter how “Americanized” they are. Woodson highlights this point by saying “While being a good American he must above all things be a “good Negro”; and to perform this definite function he must learn to stay in a “Negro’s place.”(Woodson 5). Woodson believes that the “educated negro” under Europeanized standards begin to imitate the white man. They begin to remove themselves from the race which doesn't do much to help the race as a whole. Towards the end of Chapter 3, Wodson suggests that the only way for Negro heritage to be taught is through the help of the white man. “The “mis-educated are of no service to themselves and none to the white man.”(Woodson 6). This shows that the only way for the African Studies to be introduced to the educational system is through the help of the white