Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) History & Heritage

There are more than 100 historically Black colleges and universities, including public and private, two-year and four-year institutions, medical schools and community colleges, in the United States today. These institutions of higher learning, whose principal mission is to educate African Americans, have evolved since their beginning in 1837 when their primary responsibility was to educate freed slaves to read and write. At the dawn of the 21st century, along with graduate and post-graduate degrees, historically Black colleges and universities offer African American students a place to earn a sense of identity, heritage and community.

"When you're constantly a minority, almost everywhere you go, it can be extremely empowering to be in a place where you are in the majority. Where the school was actually built for you. Where you are not the Black student in class, but just a student in class. Where you can connect with your culture and history. Where you can speak up without feeling like what you're saying in response to the question, "Should Obama be President?", is being seen as representative of your race, but instead is simply what one student thinks."    HBCU Student

History
After the Civil War, from the Reconstruction era through World War II (1939-1945) the majority of Black students were enrolled in private colleges established and maintained by northern religious mission societies.  The missionary aims of these early schools reflected the ideals of classical liberal education that dominated American higher education in general in that period, with its emphasis on ancient languages, natural sciences, and humanities. Blacks were trained for literacy, but also for teaching and the professions.

With the end of Reconstruction and the return of White rule in the South, however, opportunities for African American professionals became scarcer. Consequently many Black and White leaders turned toward industrial training. The proponents of industrial training, whose most public spokesman was Booker T. Washington of the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Alabama, argued that African Americans should concentrate on the more practical arts of manual labor to better suit them for the work that was available.

Meanwhile, Harvard-trained scholar W. E. B. Du Bois was charting another path. Du Bois paired the liberal and scientific ideals of the missionaries with a conviction that Black life and culture should be a primary topic of Black thought and investigation. Du Bois criticized Washington and his allies for downplaying intellectual ambition and for appeasing Southern White leaders. Du Bois's criticisms gained influence in the following decades, and by the end of World War I, Black leaders had largely turned against Washington's educational theories. The increased militancy of Du Bois and others led to student protests in the 1920s against the White administrations at Fisk, Hampton, and Howard. As a result of such protest, Mordecai Johnson was named the first Black president of Howard in 1926.

Today
HBCUs represent about 3% of colleges in the U.S. but enroll 12% of all Black college students and produce 23% of all Black college graduates. Remarkably, this small group of colleges confers 40% of all STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathamatics) degrees and 60% of all engineering degrees earned by Black students. They also educate half of the country’s Black teachers and 40% of all Black health professionals. And they do this with much less funding support than that of traditionally White institutions.

The National Science Foundation recently looked into the question of where African Americans who received doctorates in science and engineering obtained their undergraduate degrees, Howard University was number one (224 doctorates), while Spelman was ranked second (150 doctorates).

Famous HBCU Alumni
Debbie Allen, Howard University, Choreographer/Director
Erykah Badu, Grambling State University, R & B Singer
Ed Braddley, Cheyney State, 60 Minutes Anchor
Shawn P-Diddy Combs, Howard University, Hip-Hop Music Executive
Common, Florida A & M University, Hip-Hop Artist
Nikki Giovanni, Fisk University, Poet
Alex Haley, Alcorn State University, Author
Jesse Jackson, North Carolina A & T, Politician
Randy Jackson, Southern University, American Idol Judge
Samuel Jackson, Morehouse College, Actor
Tom Joyner, Tuskegee University, Radio Show Host
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Morehouse College, Civil Rights Activist
Spike Lee, Morehouse College, Film Maker
Langston Hughes, Lincoln, writer
Thurgood Marshall, Lincoln, Supreme Court Justice
Ronald McNair, North Carolina A & T Astronaut
Steve McNair, Alcorn State University, NFL Football Player
Toni Morrison, Howard University, Noble Prize Author
Rosa Parks, Alabama State University, Civil Rights Leader
Walter Payton, Jackson State University, Former NFL Player
Keisha Pullman, Spelman College, Actor
Phylicia Rashad, Howard University, Actor
Wanda Sykes, Hampton University, Comedian
Booker T. Washington, Hampton Institute, Founder of Tuskegee Institute
Keenan Ivory Wayans, Tuskegee University, Actor-Director
Oprah Winfrey, Tennessee State University, Talk Show Host
Andrew Young, Howard University, Former U.N. Ambassador


In the age of Obama, are HBCUs still needed?

It’s one thing to read about Black chemists, Black physicists, or Black mathematicians in high school classes during Black History Month; it’s quite another to sit in their classes. It’s one thing to read about high level Black managers; it’s quite another to see them up close, making important decisions. The legal restrictions of slavery and segregation may have been abolished, but the capacities of many African American students to take maximum advantage of the opportunities available to them in today’s society are often impeded by self-imposed limits. Few of us are pioneers … or want to be. Most people need to see that others have already gone down lesser-known paths to be sure that passage down such paths is even possible. In other words, many African American students still need African American role models to inspire them to realize their fullest potential, and the more role models the better. 

To find out more about HBCUs go to:  http://www.uncf.org/aboutus/hbcus.asp