Journals The Harvard Journal of Afro-American Affairs

SINCE its genesis, the black movement has been one of reconstruction. This term is not meant to connect the black movement with the nebulous politics of that period following the Civil War, for the movement has been more than just a phenomenon of political reconstitution. It has been a social, psychological, economic and cultural as well as a political effort to reconstruct the total black experience. Now, more than ever, it is, in the words of the introduction to the current issue of the Harvard Journal of Afro-American Affairs "a psychological revolution which demands the redefinition and restructuralization of fundamental premises governing our existence." As such, its sine qua non is the formation of mechanisms of communication which will "aid in formulating, articulating and implementing new concepts and programs for the liberation of our people."

The HJAA, itself a reconstruction of the Harvard Journal of Negro Affairs, is an attempt to create one of these mediums of "creative tensions" of which the movement is now in demand. Presenting itself as "a forum for Black young opinion" from all over the world the Journal hopes to publish in a manner of scholarship which is not "scholarship for the sake of scholarship" informed, "compassionate yet critical reflection" on the historical, contemporary, cultural and political dimensions of the black experience: while simultaneously solidifying the lines of communication within the international black community, particularly between students and scholars, and providing a workshop for the development of competent and committed writers and editors.

This is a substantial order, further complicated by the lack of capital available to a publication of such a purpose, and the absence of a historical or contemporary model. The faults and shortcomings of the new journal's first issue, seven of the eleven articles of which are devoted to an analysis of the black press, stem from these causes or are pitfalls intrinsic to the appearance of a new publishing force. However, the missteps of the first number of the HJAA are, in terms of its historical impact, among its strongest and most enduring assets. Being primarily editorial in nature, they illuminate the practical and theoretical problems of such an effort which should be of value to both the future editors of the HJAA and black students on other campuses who might be stimulated by the Journal's general success-and the realization that the need cannot be met by a single publication-to initiate their own journals.

The black press feature is an attempt at implementing both the forum and workshop purposes of the Journal. Thus it begins with an historical survey by Nell Painter. a Harvard graduate student, of the first 100 years of Afro American journalism and concludes with "A Walk Through the Wasteland," an analysis by Marquite Jones, assistant producer of ABC's black oriented "Like It Is," of the roles and reflections of black people in national television. Other articles in the feature include Francester F. Orme's "The Black Press, a memorandum for change" responses from black publishers to a Journal questionnaire: Charles Anderson's investigation of "Blacks in the New York News Community": "The Fictionalized Truth of the Detroit News," a report by Joseph Strickland, a former Detroit-based journalist now on the administrative staff of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, illustrating the political manipulation of news during the Detroit riots: and the text of a speech, "Subpoenas, Outtakes and Freedom of the Press," by Nicholas Johnson, an outspoken commissioner of the FCC, on the relationship between the national media and the government and its adverse affects of "the people's right to know."

The feature is an informative package, dealing with an area of vital concern to black Americans and the future of this country. Each article illuminates a facet of a hugely-dimensioned phenomenon, but simply because the phenomenon is so large and complicated, and the Journal has presented seven articles from different perspectives which bear only a loose relation to each other; the feature lacks the unity of impact a more focused analysis might have had. Nevertheless, it is a valuable document, instructive in both what it says about the black press and in the assets and liabilities of its mode of presentation.

The current issue of the HJAA also includes three other articles and a brief poetry section. The poetry in the Journal is another example of how it hopes to play the roles of both an international forum and a workshop for young local writers. Including samples of the work of Caribbean writer Orlando Patterson, whose "Trinidad" and "Sour Roses" open the section, and "Keep the Faith" and "Melting Slush" by Emory West '72, the poetry section is a well-selected representation of the current directions of black verse.

Three other articles complete the issue: "Black Woman, Black Man," by Felicia George; "The Afro-American Cultural Center," by William Bennett: and reviews by A.R., a black writer living outside of the country who requests that his name not be divulged.

"Black Woman, Black Man" surveys the treatment Jean Toomer, Richard Wright. James Baldwin and William Kelley, representatives of four generations of 20th-century black literature, have given the problems and possibilities in the interpersonal relationships of black people. A fine example of scholarship which "is not scholarship for the sake of scholarship," Miss George's analysis points to Toomer, whose Cane was "written in a time more hopeful than our own," as providing the literary model of "the union of feminine fertility and masculine virility," in an atmosphere of vitality and mutual respect. The piece suffers only from an inherent defect in the short-survey form, that it attempts to cover a great deal of ground in some detail in a rather limited space. In a longer analysis, the inclusion of the treatment of a black female writer like Dorothy West. Jessie Fawcett or Zora Neal Hurston would be of value.

William Bennett's "The Afro-American Cultural Center" creates an alphabet for the discussion of models of the black center concept: thus facilitating the evaluation of the relative success or failure of the models in vivo. A synopsis based on research done in 1969 for the planners of the Harvard Radcliffe Afro-American Cultural Center, the article will be of aid in the reconstruction of black centers in the seventies.

Closing the Journal's issue are A.R.'s reviews of African writer Avi Kwei Armah's second novel, Fragments, the poetry of Imamu Amiri Baraka's (Leroi Jones) poetry, and Amistad 1, a new journal edited by John A. Williams and Charles F. Harris. Provocative briefs on three crucial elements of contemporary black literature, marked by their intellectual toughness and conciseness, the reviews are another example of "the compassionate yet critical reflection" the Journal promises and provides.