HBCU’s—A History of Pride. A Future of Promise.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities, better known as HBCU’s are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the African American community. HBCU’s have existed since 1837 and prior to the erection of Cheyney University in Pennsylvania, the oldest of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Black Americans were denied the legal right to an education at almost every level in the first 350 years of American history. However Religious philanthropy played a role in the founding of institutes for the higher education of Blacks before the end of the Civil War.

Most HBCU's developed out of the Normal Schools. Hampton College began as the Hampton Normal and Agricultural School, a co-educational institution whose mission was to educate "select" African and Native Americans with the hopes that they would in turn train others. Black Americans were denied the legal right to an education at almost every level in the first 350 years of American history. Religious philanthropy played a role in the founding of institutes for the higher education of Blacks before the end of the Civil War. Cheyney University in Pennsylvania, the oldest of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU's), was founded in 1837 by a Quaker philanthropist. Since many states had laws on the books preventing the education of Blacks, primary and secondary schools were in short supply before the Emancipation Proclamation, let alone colleges. Some educational institutions, like the Penn Normal School, were established during the war in coastal areas of the South that came under the control of the Union army.

However, most of the HBCU's were founded in the period immediately after the end of the Civil War up until the institutions of the Jim Crow laws in the 1890's. Some of the colleges were founded as religious institutions and seminaries. Others were founded as Normal Schools designed to produce teachers for the newly founded primary and secondary schools in the South. Some of the HBCU's were originally poly technical colleges and followed a technical and agricultural curriculum in an effort to "teach the students a trade". In the Twentieth century, many of these A & T colleges preserved elements of their traditional curriculum and produced leading scientists, engineers, and scholars.

There are at least 110 historically black colleges in the United States today, including public and private, two-year and four-year institutions, medical schools and community colleges. HBCUs are a source of accomplishment and great pride for the African American community as well as the entire nation and the world. HBCUs offer all students, regardless of race, an opportunity to develop their skills and talents. These institutions train young people who go on to serve domestically and internationally in the professions as entrepreneurs and in the public and private sectors. Over the years, HBCUs enroll 14 percent of all African American students in higher education, although they constitute only three percent of America's 4,084 institutions of higher education. In 1999, these institutions matriculated 24 percent of all African American students enrolled in four-year colleges, awarded master’s degrees and first-professional degrees to about one in six African American men and women, and awarded 24 percent of all baccalaureate degrees earned by African Americans nationwide.

HBCUs have a long history of serving African American communities long before many colleges and universities would admit black students. Even though today's African American students can attend college anywhere their grades and talents can take them, many still turn to HBCUs for their education. Many may ask why but the HBCUs offer for some students the chance to study with mentors who are of the same culture and who are successful in their fields. Others may have family ties to an HBCU that go back generations. Still others attend an HBCU to get a college experience with an African American flavor. In addition to rigorous academics, HBCUs have storied legacies that are intertwined with the history of civil rights in the United States, giving their students, regardless of race or background, a distinctive perspective on the African American experience. And the appeal of HBCUs goes beyond African American communities. Though the student bodies at most of these schools are predominantly black, HBCUs encourage students from different backgrounds and culture to join their academic communities.

With notable HBCU alumni like Oprah Winfrey, Jesse Jackson, Ed Bradley, , Toni Braxton, Bill Cosby, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee, Thurgood Marshall, Jessye Norman, Phylicia Rashard, Dr. Levi Watkins, Ruben Studdard, Wilma Rudolph, and Andrew Young Jr. just to name a few. Therefore it is no question why more whites are enrolling at HBCUs and the attack on the status quo of HBCUs being predominately African American has come into question. A recent article I read entitled “Demographic at HBCUs Changing, More White Enrolling” spoke to how in 25 years, the enrollment of white students at HBCUs has increased from 21,000 to 35,000 in America. However the article also revealed that 13 HBCUs are at least 20 percent white and five HBCUs in North Carolina are being pressured to increase their white enrollment (currently 6.5 percent).

The article goes on to talk about how today, students have decided to attend HBCUs because of their reputations and promises to prepare students for success upon graduation. According to hbcunetwork.com, "approximately 45 percent of HBCU graduates hold corporate positions of vice president or higher. Fourteen percent of all black pharmacists are graduates of HBCUs and 43 percent of all blacks who go on to earn doctorate’s degrees graduated from an HBCU.” It is no wonder why white students want to be exposed to the same type of atmosphere and why some African American students currently attending HBCUs and some that are thinking about attending HBCUs fear that the raising white population of students will pose a threat to the unique heritage and mission of HBCUs, I think not. Once an HBCU, forever an HBCU that’s my motto and the motto of many HBCUs for it graduates. I personally graduated from Tennessee State University and one of the first t-shirts I bought in our schools bookstore was “Once a Tiger, Always a Tiger!” I loved the slogan so much that I used it on my first set of business cards.

Thus as an alumni of Tennessee State University, I am telling you that my blood always runs blue and that I am always a Tiger and TSU will always be an HBCU no matter its demographics, people can’t change history. We just seen history in the making last night with the acceptance speech of Barack Obama, who became the first African American Presidential candidate of a major party in the United States of America. It is no one who can proclaim that like just no one can take away the fact that Frederick Douglas was the first African American to obtain a major party vote as Presidential nominee when he received it as Republican Presidential nominee. HBCUs will forever be Historically Black Colleges and Universities because those are the institutions that paved the way for African American to attend school when many Pre-Dominantly White Schools (PWSs) did not accept African Americans. The heritage of HBCU’s will never change no matter how the demographics of HBCUs change.

However a mandate on the number of white students HBCUs have to increase to is unfair and unlawful in so many ways. There are no mandates on the PWSs telling them they have to increase their enrollment of African Americans and Hispanics as well as other ethnicities by a certain year or date. If it is than that is unlawful and not right as well. HBCUs have and will forever be leading the way in helping to shape America and the world. Just ask the President of Untied States of America brother, Jeb Bush who told a crowd that anyone who thinks that HBCUs are not needed, need to go ask the students of Florida A&M University and the progress those students are making to make the state of Florida, America and the world better again. Jeb Bush went on to say that FAMU pushes the envelope and dares to change its vision for continued progress as he spoke at a commemoration breakfast celebrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. All of this was published in FAMU’s student newspaper in an article entitled “Bush brother speaks out…Governor says HBCUs ‘shaped the country”.

Thus it is this type of rhetoric that needs to be heard throughout America when we talk about affirmative action being banned or stripped away in most states but mandates being placed on HBCUs to accept more white students. This is not the American dream will pressure is being placed on HBCUs in order for their continued federal funding but most importantly their state funding to continue at the rate it is growing. While more and more states want to keep their own in state, it is no wonder why out-of-state tuition prices are raising through the roof at HBCUs and PWSs but the reality is that a mandate by any state on HBCUs to increase their white student enrollment should be unconstitutional and discriminatory if the same mandate is not being placed on their counterparts PWSs. HBCUs have done so much for American history and World history in terms of pioneering feats and endeavors only thought of and dreamed of as well as spoken about but HBCU alumni made them a reality, made them the fulfillment of a dream come to true or dreams come true.

The legacy of HBCUs is something that only most PWFs can only wish to have. The movements that have started on the campuses on HBCUs, the educational endeavors, the next generation of African American leaders and pioneers in politics, science, medicine, business and education have all come from HBCUs. The lineage of notable HBCU graduates is long and wide. HBCUs embody a history of pride and a future of promise that can only happen with the dawning of a new day. HBCUs must grow in student enrollment and if that means the demographics change than let it happen as we make sure HBCUs continue to survive. However, the growth of the HBCU population has to happen naturally and not by any mandate by any state or federal government.

HBCUs have a right to prosper without the pressure of state and federal governments. If the same pressure or barriers or guidelines aren’t being placed on PWSs than it is not right and that is something that any alumni of an HBCU should not stand for and should not tolerate by any means. HBCUs have survived well over a hundred years and we will last another hundred years and another hundred years after that as long as we do not allow states to place unconstitutional and unlawful mandates on us that infringe on our civil liberties as Americans. HBCUs have a long history of placing their students at the forefront of corporate America and at the forefront of fulfilling America’s promise to a higher education and the fulfillment of service to the nation. HBCUs are the reasons why many civil rights initiatives got passed during the Civil Rights students because it was the students from HBCUs who marched and got beaten by knight sticks and had dogs set out on them. It was HBCU student athletes who paved the way for African American athletes to be recognized in the time of fashion they are being recognized today. It is an HBCU—Tennessee State University—that has more Olympic medalist in track and field than any other school in the United States America. HBCUs have been the trendsetters, the pioneers, the innovators and the leaders of so many fantastic feats, technological advancements and every day things that we as people have enjoyed throughout our life like the life cell phone in which the chip for the cell phone was created by another Tennessee State University graduate and HBCU alum Jesse Russell.

HBCUs will continue to make fellow PWSs thankful, America proud and the world cheer. HBCUs will forever be a part of American history and world history no matter if our demographics change or not. HBCUs have a history of pride, a record of excellence and a future of promise like no other in America.

HBCUs—A HISTORY OF PRIDE. A FUTURE OF PROMISE.