BLACK COLLEGIAN: A Retrospective, THE

Black Collegian, Apr 2006 by Ikeda, Stewart David

A sampling of the people and topics from these pages over the past 35 years

TBC IN THE 1970s

THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine was born in 1970 in the very humblest of circumstances. Cobbled together in a run-down New Orleans "shotgun" shack, the slim, 40-page Issue 1 Vol. 1 was produced by a tiny band of Black brothers and sisters whose devotion to the cause was hardly matched by their experience in magazine publishing. It was the vision of founder Preston J. Edwards, Sr., then an accounting professor at Southern University in Baton Rouge, to create the first substantive, accessible magazine to meet the unique needs of the nation's Black college students in an era of unrest, uncertainty, and violence.

The needs were many. Few media channels existed to connect and represent Black students after such incidents as campus demonstrations that turned deadly at Jackson State, Prairie View and Kent State. Fewer still were resources to help arm Black students with the most fundamental insights and skills necessary to making a successful transition from college to working life. With the passage of affirmative action policies early in the decade, the magazine particularly sought to aid our aspiring professionals and emerging Black leaders with concrete guidance to advance their career goals.

At the same time, it was the publishers' conviction that appreciating Black cultural and intellectual contributions was key to motivating young people to exceed those goals and continually strive for excellence in whatever activity their passions drove them towards. Monumental cultural achievements such as Alex Haley's epic Roots inspired a national reconsideration of Black people's history in the 200-year-old country, as well as renewed awareness of great African cultures. Similar milestones and "firsts" were reached by African Americans in virtually every field of American life - from politics and sports to entertainment and business.

In this sense, the first decade of THE BLACK COLLEGIAN documents both a triumphant swell of Black achievement emerging from the Movement of 50s and 60s, and also frustration at some of its promises yet to be fulfilled.

1970

R&B/Soul legend Isaac Hayes; Report on the Conference of African-American Studies; Nikki Giovanni "On Race, Age and Sex" ; Reading, writing and revolution in a year of college protests; Revolutionary poetry by Don L. Lee; Business and the Black executive; Profiles of activist Julian Bond, author Lerone Bennett and civil rights leader Floyd McKissick; Texas Southern University and Arkansas AM&N; Black World editor Hoyt Fuller

1971

Interview: historian Vincent Harding; "How to maintain your Blackness at a white institution"; Author Alice Walker on the "duties of the Black revolutionary artist"; "Black Education vs. Integration: Death by merger?"; the new Malcolm X Community College; Tuskegee Institute; Music artists The Impressions

1972

Ossie Davis on film acting; A Black re-evaluation of MLK's intellectual evolution; Photographer and filmmaker Gordon Parks interviewed; the United Negro College Fund; Black Panther leader Kathleen Cleaver; Aftermath of 1970's deadly student protests at Jackson State; literary works by poet Sonia Sanchez and Jubilee author Margaret Walker; Morehouse College, Federal City College, Southern University, Xavier profiles; Bill Coshy interview; tribute to gospel great Mahalia Jackson; Interviews: Civil rights spokesman Julian Bond and playwright Imamu Amiri Baraka

1973

Tribute to baseball hero Jackie Robinson; "Swahili Lesson (Number One)"; Musician Curtis Mayfield; Historian John Hope Franklin; Southern University one year after student shootings; liberation movement attorney Chokwe Lumumba; Dance troupe Les Ballets Africains; Scholars Hanes Wallon, Jr. & Ronald C. Clark on Black English; Jobs in nursing, engineering

1974

Interviews: Jesse Jackson, Dick Gregory, Dr. Alvin Poussaint, James Meredith; Where will tomorrow's Black lawyers come from?; Musical profiles: Kool and The Gang and Earth, Wind & Fire; The psychology of coping with racism; Julian Bond, George Johnson, and Preston Wilcox on "The Role of Black Students"; Black Students at Ole Miss; Social scientist Dr. Francis Welsing on racism and LQ. scores; Is pledging passé?

1975

Interviews: Sports greats Arthur Ashe and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; Does graduating from a white school make a difference?; author Iceberg Slim on the psychology of the pimp; Black MBAs; "Politics: Participate or Perish" by Chuck Stone; Ali-Forman fight in retrospect; Music artists Miles Davis, The Spinners, Cannonball Adderley; Suicide and Black youth; Historian Dr. Benjamin Quarles; Bias in standardized tests

1976

Roots author Alex Haley; Black faces in the Bicentennial; Actor Billy Dee Williams; Black presidential politics; Musician Herbie Hancock; Why Black women control the future; Cultural activists Tom Dent and Ray Carrington; Tennis: The next sport that Blacks will dominate; Julian Bond for President; The educational value of Black college bands; Kwaanza founder Maulana Ron Karenga; The University of Sankore at Timbuctoo: Historical analysis of a great African university; Black Panthers' Stokely Carmichael speaks: A Luta Continua; Job discrimination is alive and working against us