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

of learning about our own history and the equality of learning in a University setting.
Discussing the idea of discrimination against race, especially toward African Americans, was a dangerous risk for those involved.

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

rent.
Another reason Woodson calls for a separate African Studies discipline is because he says “When a Negro finished his education in our schools, the, he has been equipped to begin the life of an Americanized or Europeanized white man”(Woodson 4).

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

man.
Fast forwarding 30 years after the publication of Mis-Education of the Negro. Across the country, students on campuses around the world are in protest over equal educational rights. The riots were broadcasted and sparked national interest in students all over the nation. The Black Revolution on Campus expresses the movement to educational equality through the infamous Brown v. Board of Education case. This case sparked the revolution of integrated schools in the United States. A lot of the students, like Edgar Beckham, a student at Wesleyan University, thought “the black students would mysteriously merge into the white landscape (Biondi 1.) However, Beckham was far from the truth. Students were immediately targeted by their white peers, often forming groups or fraternities with the other African American students. This bond of brotherhood helped connect the students together through unity in the fact that they had the same skin color. One student said “Color blindness has led to blacks coming out on the short end of the academic stick.” and another declared “What the Universities fail to realize in almost every case, is that the American educational experience is a white experience, based on white history, white traditions, white culture...”(Biondi 2).
Once African Studies was established, there were many challenges associated with it. However, the beginning of the era sparked numerous books such as the “Journal of Black Studies” and the “Journal of Negro Education”. This expansion of knowledge is what Carter Woodson was saying when he said that there were no literature of African knowledge. Historian Vincent Harding said “No longer is the black view accepted as one which is narrow compared to the white - or universal- but is considered a view far richer and humane”(Biondi 2). This was a highlight in the struggle for racial transformation because it shows how at one point, the history of the African American was seen as debilitating and a curse to the race, but is now held at equal or even higher standards compared to the “white history”.
The rise of the Black Studies helped to establish the African American as a whole. In the 1930’s, Carter G. Woodson sparked a debate on the education of the black man. What started as equality in education in general, ended in a discipline being born over 30 years later. The riots that the students went through helped to establish the department. Martha Biondi said “The Black Studies movement forcefully pushed back...and began a process that would open up space for other marginalized experience, perspectives and identities to find their own space in higher education.”(Biondi 3). Not only did the Black studies department help to bring light to African culture, but it also paved the way for other minority disciplines as well.