LINCOLN UNIVERSITY—They came by the bus loads, the best and the brightest Black student leaders from through out the world to meet and discuss common issues, unify and to develop strong leadership skills. But most importantly, they were charged to become agents for positive social change.

The event, titled "2000 International African Youth Leadership Summit," was jointly sponsored by the National Association of Black Student Governments, Inc. (NABSG), the Lincoln University Student Government Association, and the Howard University Student Association from March 16-19 and held on both the Lincoln University and Howard University campuses.

Summit organizers said attendance included representatives from 80 of the 110 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), over 50 Black student unions from traditionally white universities, two representatives from the Caribbean and a participant from the European Black Student Union from London, England. Student delegates from Africa also were in attendance.

The summit highlight was a March 18 keynote address by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. It also featured workshops on "Building a Young Black Intelligentsia," "Is Hip Hop Culture?" and "Leadership, Politics, and Movement." Rap artist and community activist Sista Souljah spoke to the student leaders on March 17.

Lewis Franklin Thomas III, president of NABSG and Lincoln University student government president, told The Final Call: "This conference is significant because never before have young African people been able to come together from all over the world to sit down at the table together and come to the understanding that we have a common condition, common problems and that we must seek a common solution."

Issues at the forefront of students’ minds were the disparity in state funding for HBCUs, student apathy and the changing face of HBCUs.

Courtney Wilson from Prairie View A&M University in Texas explained that "economic apartheid" is the major issue at her school (see The Final Call Vol.19 No. 20). She said her school receives the left over crumbs of funding after the major white colleges—Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin—divide the cash.

"As a result of this type of funding through out the country many HBCUs have been caught in a time warp, left standing still when it comes to the continued development of its infrastructure," said Prairie View student Arletta Saafar.

Richard Lion from Howard University said his concern is that students on his campus gain a greater knowledge of self as a means to make more effective change.

"Our people collectively need to emancipate their minds," he said. "As Black people, we have been freed from physical bondage. Now our quest is to liberate our minds."

Mr. Lion noted that the increasing numbers of white students on HBCUs like Howard U. may not be a bad thing. "As more white people enroll in the school, hopefully they will honestly care about knowing more and not be so blind to our culture and we can educate them and be more proactive," he said.

"It will also cause Black folks to think and create a sense of activism within ourselves because we don’t want white folks to come in and take over," he added.

Dr. Anthony Monteiro, a sociology professor who participated in a workshop, called the summit a significant event. "I think this conference might be the beginning of a international Pan-African activist student and youth movement. It harkens back to forty years ago and how the civil rights movement in a lot of ways issued forth from the Black colleges," he said.

Lincoln University President Ivory Nelson confirmed many of the problem issues discussed by the students.

"At Lincoln University in many ways we have not had the money to fix various physical plants, and that’s a problem on many of our HBCUs. We have not had the money and the resources to bring them up to where we would like to have them," he said.

"Students are right when they point out the disparity in terms of state-funding between HBCUs and white colleges," he said.

Student finances was a topic on the mind of Nii Narku Dowuona, president of the Student Representatives Council at the University of Ghana.

"The major issue in Ghana has to do with the payment of school fees. It has lead to a lot of struggle between students on one side and the government on the other," he said.

"This conference has been an eye opener for me," he said. "It has helped me to remove some of the prejudices that I had as it related to my brothers and sisters here. I think as young Africans growing up we need to know our common problems, discuss them and find common solutions to them."

Abdul Alim Shabazz, chairman of the Mathematics Department at Lincoln University and an advisor to the conference, said Black alumni must step up their support of HBCUs. Nevertheless, he expressed the sentiment of other professors at Black colleges.

"Many of the teachers in these institutions have great hope of building a very powerful set of colleges for the education of our children," he said. "We must be about building character and the elevating of moral thinking of our youth."

Mr. Thomas summed the conference up when he said, "There is no way that young African people will be able to survive into the 21st century if we don’t seek common solutions and become agents for social change."