Afro-Centrism Advocate In the Eye of New Storm

By Debra Viadero

A leading proponent of Afro-centric education has come under fire in recent weeks for remarks he made denouncing Jews and whites during a cultural festival in New York State.

In a speech broadcast on state-run cable television in July, Leonard Jeffries Jr. told participants at the Empire State Black Arts and Cultural Festival that "rich Jews" had helped run the slave trade and that they now control Hollywood in a conspiracy with the Mafia for "the destruction of black people."

Mr. Jeffries, who is chairman of the black-studies department at City College and once served as a paid consultant to the state's effort to re-examine its treatment of minorities in the school curriculum, also repeatedly said that whites in general suffer from "racial pathology," according to press...