Malcolm X Liberation University - Empowerment Through History and Learning

balau — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 19:58:27 +0000

Malcolm X Liberation University - Empowerment Through History and Learning balau Tue, 04/19/2016 - 15:58

In 1969 local activist Howard Fuller along with a group of Duke students founded Malcolm X Liberation University in an old hosiery mill in downtown Durham. Fuller and the students were unhappy with Duke's progress toward equal resources for black students and the formation of a black studies department, common concerns at the time in universities across the US.

The stated mission of the radical new university was to provide an ideological and practical methodology for meeting the physical, social, psychological, economical and culture needs of black people as well as to provide an alternate to institutionalized racism in education.

Separating itself from typical universities in many ways, the school did not aspire to traditional accreditation but sought validation only through the black community. Perspective university students submitted applications and completed an interview. However, they were not required to have a high school diploma and were eligible for enrollment as a black individual who supported the stated mission of MXLU.

This new university and its founders had turned toward the separatist ideals of the black power movement, an effort to promote black consciousness and to create institutions controlled by black individuals. Malcolm X Liberation University was open in Durham for only a single year before moving to Greensboro where it remained open only until 1973.

The school did not exist long enough to graduate students and its short tenure was attributed to financial issues, strained relations with the white press and civil rights organizations as well as with North Carolina's historically black colleges and universities. While Malcolm X Liberation University did not succeed as an institution of higher learning, it was a powerful example of black power ideas and the role of race in the education system.

For more information: http://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/ir/handle/1840.16/563

https://nchistorytoday.wordpress.com/2013/10/25/durhams-malcolm-x-university-and-howard-fuller/

Date

Sat, 10/25/1969 - 12:00

Fri, 06/01/1973 - 12:00

Location Coordinates

POINT (-78.89769 35.98988)

Tags:

Civil Rights

Higher Education

Black Power Movement

East Pettigrew Street, Durham, NC 27701

Hannah Scott

Before Brown v. Board – Conrad Pearson Fights for Desegregating Higher Education

balau — Tue, 19 Apr 2016 17:12:07 +0000

Before Brown v. Board – Conrad Pearson Fights for Desegregating Higher Education balau Tue, 04/19/2016 - 13:12

Thomas Hocutt, a Black student from Durham, wanted to become a pharmacist. But in 1933, the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill denied his application to their Pharmacy school on the basis of race. Attorneys Conrad Pearson and Cecil McCoy took up his case and with the support of the NAACP, filed a suit against the University. This was one the first attempts to integrate higher education in the United States. Despite their best efforts, the case known as Hocutt v Wilson was dismissed because Durham officials withheld Mr. Hocutt’s undergraduate transcript, making it impossible for him to meet the requirements for admission to the Pharmacy school. The separate but equal doctrine in education stood for another 20 years.

This result was no surprise to Pearson, but that didn't make it any less heartbreaking. Durham residents were split on Hocutt: some preferred working to add a Pharmacy school at North Carolina Central, and others were supporters of integrating the all white UNC-Chapel Hill. The case inspired other Durham lawyers to initiate civil rights actions of their own and paved the way for one of the most influential civil rights cases, Brown v Board of Education. In 1954, this case rendered the concept of separate but equal unconstitutional and consequently desegregated schools across the country.

Pearson, a Howard Law grad, and McCoy, a Brooklyn Law grad, were vital activists in the movement for Black liberation in their native Durham. They employed their knowledge of constitutional law to combat racial segregation in their home state by taking on civil rights cases that challenged racial oppression. In addition to the Hocutt case, they joined a group of lawyers to file a Durham desegregation case in 1955 called Wheeler v. Durham which led to the integration of Durham public schools.

Sources:

Gershenhorn, Jerry. "Hocutt v. Wilson and Race Relations in Durham, North Carolina, during the 1930s." The North Carolina Historical Review 78, no. 3 (July 2001): 275-308. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23522330.

Date

Wed, 02/01/1933 - 12:00

Location Coordinates

POINT (-78.89884 35.98553)

Tags:

Conrad O. Pearson
Attorney and Counsellor at Law
Rooms 8-10 Royal Knights of King David Bldg.
809 Fayetteville St. Durham, N. C. Phone L-1061

Amiya Mehrotra and Jillian M. Williams