In many universities today, you will find an African Studies Department. However, this has not always been the case. African Americans have fought to have equal rights when it came to education. In the early 1930’s, Carter G. Woodson challenged the idea of “Mis-Education” of the black race. Supported by prominent leaders at the time such as W. E. B. Dubois, 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, with the beginning of riots and protests on college campuses across the United States. The book The Black Revolution on Campus by
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Across the country, students on campuses around the world are in protest over equal educational rights. The difference between Carter Woodson and the black students was the time period, specifically the era of the television. The riots were broadcasted around the world. This sparked national interest in students all over the nation. In the earlier years of 1960, the students used peaceful “sit-ins” to revolutional style protests. The Black Revolution on Campus written by Martha Biondi expresses the movement of black power to educational equality through the infamous Brown v. Board of Education case. This case sparked the revolution of integrated schools in the United States. Biondi also mentions W. E. B. Dubois comment on the case saying it would take a while for the actual states to recognize this act. 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 even fraternities with the other few African American students. This bond of brotherhood helped connect the students togther through unity in the fact that they had the same skin colr. 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, white customs and white thinking”(Biondi
Across the country, students on campuses around the world are in protest over equal educational rights. The difference between Carter Woodson and the black students was the time period, specifically the era of the television. The riots were broadcasted around the world. This sparked national interest in students all over the nation. In the earlier years of 1960, the students used peaceful “sit-ins” to revolutional style protests. The Black Revolution on Campus written by Martha Biondi expresses the movement of black power to educational equality through the infamous Brown v. Board of Education case. This case sparked the revolution of integrated schools in the United States. Biondi also mentions W. E. B. Dubois comment on the case saying it would take a while for the actual states to recognize this act. 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 even fraternities with the other few African American students. This bond of brotherhood helped connect the students togther through unity in the fact that they had the same skin colr. 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, white customs and white thinking”(Biondi