Temple Professor to teach about black education

By Olivia Biagi
Collegian Editor
October 17, 2007

The African American Students League is hosting a lecture and discussion titled “Black Does Not Equal Education: Is Education Failing the Black Community?” Oct. 17. The lecture will be given by Temple University professor Dr. Nathanial Norment. According to sophomore communication major Alicia Dodd, the event was a “collective idea throughout AASL.”

Courtesy of AASL - Dr. Nathanial Norment will lecture about the difficulties facing
African-Americans trying to recieve an education.

Dodd, who is the director of promotions for AASL, described the content of the lecture as “education in regards to the black community, how more and more people in the black community aren’t getting the proper education that they need.”

Norment is the chair of the African American Studies department at Temple University. He teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in Introduction to African American Studies and The African American Novel. He also taught an interdisciplinary course at La Salle in the spring 2007 semester in Introduction to African American Studies. Members of the AASL had taken this course, and it was why they asked him to speak at this program.

“I enjoyed teaching the class last semester at La Salle,” said Norment. “It was a positive experience. The students in the classes were quite aware and interested in the subject.”

Norment’s lecture will discuss the history of education in the black community.

“The focus is on education of black folk historically,” said Norment. “Sort of a genealogy of education since the Reconstruction and moving into the idea of segregated education, especially as it focuses on urban education.

“It’s going to be an overview of the history, an awareness of sub-education, especially after integration…the lack of black history and African American history in school, and the achievement and self-esteem of black children,” said Norment. “It will have an overview of the education of black people in America, the types of education they have been exposed.”

The discussion will also raise awareness for students about segregation and integration in schools and will have a focus on urban education. For Norment, the concept of integration has failed in the public school system.

“In the aftermath of Brown v. the Board of Education, the concept of integration and education still hasn’t materialized,” said Norment. “95 percent of black children are going to schools that are 95 percent black. 95 percent of white children are going to schools that are 95 percent white.”

Brown v. the Board of Education is the 1954 Supreme Court case which overruled segregation in public schools. The Court ruled that separate but equal education was unconstitutional.

Dodd and the AASL are hoping, not only for a good turnout, but a diverse one.

“We want more than black students,” said Dodd, because the AASL believes that, “this is a problem that affects everyone in the La Salle community. [Students who attend will] have a better understanding of how the education system works and the importance of education.”

The event will be held in St. Basil Court’s main lounge at 7:30 p.m. Advertisements for the program urge students to not only attend, but voice opinions at the discussion.

biagio1@lasalle.edu