Education: Something for Cleo

In the growing who's who of Negro educators, the name of Cleo W. Blackburn, 45, ranks high. A former Tuskegee teacher, Sociologist Blackburn took over Planner House in Indianapolis 18 years ago, changed it from a struggling Negro social center to a flourishing institution dedicated to helping Southern rural Negroes adjust to Northern city life. He upped its budget from $17,000 to $250,000, its staff from 17 to 70, set up a nursery school, opened clinics for TB and dentistry, organized classes in sewing, cooking and upholstery. Planner House now provides everything from a full-fledged cannery to individual garden plots. The motto of the house: "The door to self-help."

In 1950 the trustees of Jarvis Christian College in Hawkins, Texas asked Blackburn to take over their campus as well as Flanner. Blackburn saw his problem as helping Negro farm hands driven from their jobs by modern machines. In addition to basic liberal arts, he set such students to studying animal husbandry, soil chemistry and farm machinery, gave them a third year of working at a job under college supervision. After that, armed with an associate of arts certificate, they are ready to strike out for themselves.

Two years ago, a group of Indianapolis and Texas businessmen got together to find a way to further Blackburn's work. Last week their Board for Fundamental Education announced its first project: for Flanner and Jarvis—and for similar centers it hopes to establish elsewhere—it intends to raise $14 million in the name of Cleo Blackburn.