Philander Smith College - Philanderian Yearbook (Little Rock, AR)

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AFRO-AMERICAN CENTER PHILANDER SMITH CDLLEGE The Afro-American Center has been designed to help carry out the objectives of the college. Purposes: First to build ego-identity and ethnic confidence in Black students, Second to motivate Black Students to greater involvement in the educational and civic pro- cessesg Third to introduce and expose them to the history of their heritage and the achievements of, their forefathers. At present our educational system allows only a partial education of members of some ethnic groups. The product of such systems is lacking in the basic knowledge necessary to cope with the society for which it is supposed to train. By ignoring the achievements of black people our system is saying that one must lose his identity, his individuality, and his hopes for a bet- ter life. , V Today, Black people desire to acquire social identity, pride, and self-esteem which is simi- lar to desires of all other ethnic groups. Therefore in our Center we are collecting textbooks, magazines, recordings, manuscripts, rec- ords, art, sculpture and pictures that depict a true and complete picture of Black people every- where. The materials are built around what the group' has done to make the country great. Young people need to know that as the pilgrims and Puritans protested religious persecu- tion in Europe and came to America to establish religious freedom, that Black men such as Richard Allen protested religious persecution in America and established Negro Churches so they too could have religious freedom. That while Benjamin Franklin was discovering and inventing electricity, Benjamin Banneker was inventing the first striking clock in America. That as Susan B. Anthony was leading a protest for woman suffrage, Harriat Tubman and Sojourner Truth were leading slaves to Freedom through the Underground Railroad and Pro- test speeches. That john Brown and Willizrm Lloyd Garrison were helping black men like Nat Turner, DenMark Veasy and David Walker fight for emancipation. That james Weldon johnson, W.E.B. Du Bois, Carter G. XVoodson and Mary McLeod Bethune and many others in the Twentieth Century by their writings, organizations and educational institutions were pro- testing inequalities and fighting for equal opportunities. They will learn about Dr. Daniel Hale Wiiliams a Negro who performed the first successful human heart operation in the world in 1893, 75 years before the first successful human heart transplant in Africa by Dr. Christian Bernard. The Negro has arrived at the point where he realizes that he, too, has a heritage, that he, too, has played an important role in our American history. The role of the Afro-American Center then is to provide the information and the inspira- tion that he needs at this point.

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PRESIDENT DR. WALTER R. HAZZARD E RRERa f ,ww -f nw ., xi ,111 , f-f,k, I f -.,-b Wfff M .E fm' E R E