Paul M. Smith

The Role of the Guidance Counselor in the Desegregation Process.

American educators have been in the act of reversing segregated public school education for some fifteen years. During this time, the part played by guidance counselors to assist in this process has been rather obscure. They have been working behind the scenes and have not gained the attention focused upon the roles of politicians, parents, administrators, teachers, and students. In order to understand the arena in which guidance specialists have been operating, three kinds of concerns are reviewed: (1) the background and practices that surround desegregation, (2) the image of the traditional guidance oounselor, and (3) the force of black solidarity.

Counseling From the Past and Present With Blacks.

If counseling services remain as a viable force in the American school system, Black counselors must be involved in significant numbers. Their help is necessary because our heritage dictates this course of action, our youth need the counseling and our wisdom, and the profession must be guided by the black experience. Black Americans must be in counseling because they live, work, rear children, struggle, and die in this land. This is their home in spite of the injustices and oppression experienced. This is the place where counseling is promoted as a profession to help people in institutions and organizations. This is the land where Blacks must help themselves reach fulfillment by protecting those values which are dear in their social, psychological, economic, political, and religious life. This is the place where Blacks need to come to grips with themselves and accept their life style in coalition with other Blacks and in coalition with others who wish to understand, and implement the concept of self-respect, self-determination, and the utilization of black power. Perhaps the most important reason for Blacks to be in counseling is the fact that the concept is a part of their heritage. If counseling is described as a process of helping people think, feel, and do things in an attempt to solve problems, consider these Black Americans who have counseled us through time. There were Brothers David Walker, Henry Garnet, and Denmark Vesey who counseled us to resist oppression at all cost. Sister Harriet Tubman guided many black souls from the clutches of slavery to freedom through the underground. Booker T. Washington counseled about the value of developing business and occupational skills, and Brother Du Bois stressed the importance of enriching the intellectual skills. Mary McCloud Bethune and Charlotte Hawkins Brown guided many of our youth to develop discipline and personable

Head Librarians in Negro Colleges and Universities

To professional librarians, and to some administrators and educators a descriptive outline of the characteristics common among head librarians in Negro institutions of higher education today may prove of interest. The necessary data were gathered by sending questionnaires to head librarians of Negro colleges and universities located in all states where such institutions exist. The questionnaires were designed to find out facts concerning (1) the personal characteristics; age, sex, marital status, etc., (2) educational qualifications, experience, and the length of time spent in their positions, and (3) their financial position. Seventy-six questionnaires were sent to the librarians and of that number 50 (66%o) were returned which serve as the basis of the data herein summarized. This group of institutions includes both the private and state supported colleges and universities.

The Realism of Counseling for Scholarship Aid with Freshmen in the Negro College

SCHOOL DESEGREGATION, de facto and otherwise, many high school counselors for the first time in their lives may be faced with counseling youth who express a desire to attend colleges with predominately Negro populations. Presently the largest number of students enrolled in these colleges lives in the Southern region of the Country where most of the schools are located; nevertheless, these colleges manage to attract students from the Northern, Eastern, and Western parts of the United States, as well as from such foreign places as Burma, China, India, The West Indies, South America, Africa and Iran. In spite of their reported shortcomings, the matter of their survival, reason, general criticism, and desegregation efforts, many of these institutions are quite active academically and are likely to exist for years (2, 3, 5). It would appear, therefore, that high school counselors may find it worth-while to become better acquainted with this group of colleges in order that they may be more effective in assisting eventual counselees in the process of making such a college choice.