Reflections On Black Colleges The Historical Perspective of

FROM 1928 WHEN HE moved from the National Urban League to Fisk University until his untimely death in 1956, Charles S. Johnson was a major spokesman for black higher education in general and private, black southern colleges in particular. During that almost thirty year period he defended the uniqueness of their role in American higher education, while persistently urging them to elevate their academic quality to a level equal to that of mainstream colleges and universities. An analysis of Johnson's perceptions of the role of black colleges in American higher education reveals insights into a debate that remains lively in the 1980s. In some instances that debate is whether black institutions should be permitted, or encouraged, to survive, while in others it revolves around the question of whether historically black public and private colleges should continue their identity as black colleges. The issues of survival and identity include, of necessity, consideration of their missions. Black and white Americans have debated the missions of black institutions since they first appeared in the mid-nineteenth century. Until recent decades, however, the key issue was what should be taught, for what personal and career goals should black colleges prepare students. Operating in an openly racist society, there was little or no question about their continued existence as long as education was governed by the "separate but equal" doctrine. Earlier court decision had undermined segregation in a number of areas of higher education, but it was the Brown verdict that raised the issue of the continued existence of black colleges to the level of a national debate. Historians have written extensively on the motivations of the good white New England missionaries who led in the founding of black colleges throughout the South after the Civil War. They have examined in depth, as well, the debate at the beginning of the twentieth century between DuBois and Washington over the pedagogical methods and goals of higher education for blacks. It is the contention of this paper that Charles Johnson advocated a role