The April 5, 2023 edition of Black Agenda Report features an open letter by my father first published in 1969 in “Negro Digest” — a monthly magazine of Black literature and scholarship published by Johnson Publications (home of “Ebony” and “Jet” as well). The essay, called “New Creation or Familiar Death: An Open Letter to Black students in the North” was a call to African American students and scholars in northern (predominantly white institutions) in which my dad reflected on how (and where) to build the kind of transformative/revolutionary/community-based education system that could speak to the deepest needs and concerns of a Black community in the midst of redefining itself and its relationship to the larger nation/the world. In the letter, he mentions the beginnings of an institute for African American studies that would soon become the Institute of the Black World. And, written more than 50 years ago, the essay addresses ironies, contradictions and machinations we recognize today. Read it here: https://www.blackagendareport.com/essay-new-creation-or-familiar-death-open-letter-black-students-north-vincent-harding-1969
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