Malcolm X Liberation University (or MXLU) was an experimental educational institution inspired by the Black Power and Pan-Africanist movements and located in Durham and Greensboro, North Carolina.
[3] The Black Power Movement shaped the political climate for the Allen Building Takeover, which led to the creation of MXLU.
[5] Before the Nation of Islam allegedly assassinated him in 1965, Malcolm X lent credence to militant tactics, leading to a movement for racial equality through any means necessary, including violence and self-defense.
[6] In early 1969, the AAS issued a set of over ten demands for the university's administration, most of which reflected the black students' dissatisfaction with the inadequacy of civil rights on campus.
[7] The organization negotiated at first with the university's president, Dr. Douglas Knight, who reluctantly agreed to consider the implementation of an Afro-American Studies program.
[10] Knight refused to comply with some of the demands, and he issued an ultimatum to the black student protesters: the school would call the police if they did not leave.
[12] Later that day, a large group of white students who sympathized with the occupants congregated outside the building, so Duke called the police.
After the Allen Building Takeover, some civil rights activists in Durham believed that Duke's administration did not satisfactorily address the demands of its black students, especially regarding the integration of "Afro-American studies" into its curriculum.
[14] One of these activists, Howard Fuller, conceived of building an alternative school for primarily African studies whose administration and student body would be predominantly black.
He listed a fifteen-member board of trustees, which included Bertie Howard, Sandra Philpot and Timothy Harris, in the charter.
[16] In accord with the "Black Manifesto", the diocese of the North Carolina Episcopal Church gave Fuller $45,000, and several anonymous sources donated smaller amounts of money.
[23] One of the students who was admitted into Malcolm X Liberation University in November 1972 but stayed there only briefly before going to school in Michigan was Godfrey Mwakikagile from Tanzania as he explained in his books, Relations Between Africans and African Americans: Misconceptions, Myths and Realities and Reflections on Race Relations: A Personal Odyssey.
Student would have up to ten months to complete the technical courses in order to pursue careers as the following: "food scientists, tailors, architects, engineers, medics, cadre leaders, communications technicians, physical developers, teachers, black expressionists, administrators, and linguists."
The school also offered only foreign African languages during the first year: Swahili, Hausa, and Yoruba, one of which would be required, and another permitted to count as an elective.
In the second year, students received training in one of the following technical fields: communication, technology, engineering, food science, bio-medicine, and pre-school education.
A document in the Cleveland Sellers Jr. Papers in the Avery Institute College of Charleston highlighted the primary goal of the new school: "The existing system of education does not respond to the needs of the Black community; it does not provide an ideological or practical methodology for meeting the physical, social, psychological, economic and cultural needs of Black people.
Most universities assess students based on their scores on classwork and tests, but MXLU encouraged educators to reexamine the effectiveness of an academic grading system.
In defense, the Council of Elders responded in writing, "MXLU would be open to all who desire an education which would prepare then to work with groups of black persons.
[52] Acceptance by larger black universities or civil rights groups was crucial because they would help not only to fund the small school, but also to defend it from criticisms of major opponents.
[53] Kelly Alexander, head of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, did not support MXLU because he believed it was too radical.
However, during an interview on television, Fuller said: "This isn't a 'back-to-African' thing", so he did realize that Marcus Garvey's idea of moving back to Africa was unfeasible.
[57] The school's administrators shut out MXLU from the rest of the world so that they could shield it from the white media, but the isolation also discouraged potential donors from contributing to an institution that lacked transparency.