the minds of black folk


THE MINDS OF BLACK FOLK





We might not have a satisfying conversation with Dr. W. E. B. DuBois about the souls of black folk in New Orleans unless we first give some attention to their minds. "Let us now praise famous men," James Agee wrote," and our fathers that begat us.....Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore."  To push back against womanist protest, Agee's first sentence must be rewritten as "Let us now praise famous women and men, and our mothers and fathers that begat us."  The conversation can now commence.



New Orleans University was chartered on March 22, 1873, a scant eight years after the end of the Civil War, and was located in the Garden District, fronting Coliseum Square.  There is reason to believe the women and men who attended New Orleans University in 1878-79 might have been intellectually superior to many HBCU graduates of 1978-79.  They were not admitted to NOU if they lacked "testimonials of good character."  Once admitted, rigor battered them into brilliance.



Thirteen years after slavery, the student who chose the Scientific Course curriculum to earn a Bachelor of Science, for example,  had to survive the intellectual combat zones:



FRESHMAN YEAR --First Latin Book, Algebra, Ancient History, English Language, Latin Grammar and Reader, Algebra 2, Mediaeval History, English Language 2, Latin Prose Composition, Algebra 3, Modern History, Physical Geography.



SOPHOMORE YEAR --Latin Prose Composition, Natural Philosophy, Geometry, Composition and Rhetoric, Caesar, Physiology, Geometry 2, Composition and Rhetoric 2, Virgil, Natural History, Geometry 3, Book-Keeping.



JUNIOR YEAR ---Horace, Chemistry, Trigonometry, Butler's Analogy, Cecero De Senectatu et De Amicitia, Chemistry 2, Mensuration and Surveying, International Law, Livy, Botany, Analytical Geometry, Logic



SENIOR YEAR --English Literature, Geology, Mental Philosophy, Political Economy, History of the English Language, Geology 2, Moral Science, Mental Philosophy 2, Astronomy, Constitution of the United States, Evidences of Christianity, Natural Theology.



The nineteenth-century prototype of a twenty-first century STEM major had to negotiate the sciences within classical humanistic, legal, philosophical,  economic, historical and rhetorical frames.



Let us now praise, in accord with Dr. W. E. B. DuBois and the Talented Tenth,  the minds of black folk in New Orleans who did not text, selfie, consume or squander,  and whitebottom  their souls away. Their legacy lives forevermore.



Jerry W. Ward, Jr.            September 15, 2017




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