What Role for Black Intellectuals?

More than 40 students last night participated in an unusual student symposium on the role of Black intellectuals and the need to find new ways to fight the problems of poverty and discrimination.

"The students need to get together, because ultimately there must be another wave of activists, well-informed Black students to deal with these problems," said Kenneth E. Johnson '85, vice-president of the William J. Seymour Society, a Christian group concerned with the Black poor.

Faults and Successes

Using as a model the works of Afro-American studies scholar Harold Cruse, panelists critiqued the faults and successes of Black intellectuals.

Five panelist--Jackie Cooke, a graduate student in government; Jeffrey Ferguson '85 of Leverett House, Ronald Roach '85 of Quincy House, Johnson and government graduate student Sheree Queen-Bryant-presented their views of what the Black intellectual could glean from Cruse.

In his book, "The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual," "Cruse says the job of the intellectual is to shape the people's perception. That is what the Black intellectuals have failed to do. Our responsibility is to know our history inside out, to study not merely towards a degree or towards an exam, but to study so that we can define the complex problem of being Black people," Cooke said.

Saying that Cruse feels that Black leaders have rejected their foundations in pursuing the goals of other people, Roach said that there are three ways in which Blacks can remedy this problem:

"First, you have to come to grips with your own identity--who you are and why you are at Harvard. Second, you have to embrace the reality of a national Black community as a viable base group. Third, you also have to understand the larger society and where it's going."