Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving African Americans.[1] Most of these institutions were founded during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War and are concentrated in the Southern United States.[2] They were primarily founded by Protestant religious groups, until the Second Morill Act of 1890 required educationally segregatedstates (all in the South) to provide African American, public higher-education schools (i.e. state funded schools) in order to receive the Act's benefits (19, generally larger institutions, fall under this Act).
During the period of racial segregation in the United States, the majority of American institutions of higher education served predominantly white students, and disqualified or limited black American enrollment.[3][4] Later on some universities, either after expanding their inclusion of black people and African Americans into their institutions or gaining the status of minority-serving institution, became Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs).[5]
For a century after the abolition of American slavery in 1865, almost all colleges and universities in the Southern United States prohibited all African Americans from attending as required by Jim Crow laws in the South, while institutions in other parts of the country regularly employed quotas to limit admissions of black people.[6][7][8][9] HBCUs were established to provide more opportunities to African Americans and are largely responsible for establishing and expanding the African-American middle class.[10][11] In the 1950s and 1960s, enforced racial segregation in education was generally outlawed across the United States.
There are 101 HBCUs in the United States (of 121 institutions that existed during the 1930s), representing three percent of the nation's colleges,[12] including public and private institutions.[13] Twenty-seven offer doctoral programs, 52 offer master's programs, 83 offer bachelor's degree programs, and 38 offer associate degrees.[14][15][16] HBCUs currently produce nearly 20% of all African American college graduates and 25% of African American STEM graduates.[17] Among the graduates of HBCUs are civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., United States Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and United States Vice President Kamala Harris.
HBCUs were controversial in their early years. At the 1847 National Convention of Colored People and Their Friends, the famed black orators Frederick Douglass, Henry Highland Garnet, and Alexander Crummell debated the need for such institutions, with Crummell arguing that HBCUs were necessary to provide freedom from discrimination, and Douglas and Garnet arguing that self-segregation would harm the black community. A majority of the convention voted that HBCUs should be supported.
Atlanta University – now Clark Atlanta University – was founded on September 19, 1865, as the first HBCU in the Southern United States. Atlanta University was the first graduate institution to award degrees to African Americans in the nation and the first to award bachelor's degrees to African Americans in the South; Clark College (1869) was the nation's first four-year liberal arts college to serve African-American students. The two consolidated in 1988 to form Clark Atlanta University.[24]Shaw University, founded December 1, 1865, was the second HBCU to be established in the South. The year 1865 also saw the foundation of Storer College (1865–1955) in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia.[2] Storer's former campus and buildings have since been incorporated into Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.[25]
Some of these universities eventually became public universities with assistance from the government.
Public institutions
In 1862,[26] the federal government's Morrill Act provided for land grant colleges in each state. Educational institutions established under the Morrill Act in the North and West were open to blacks. But 17 states, almost all in the South, required their post-Civil war systems to be segregated and excluded black students from their land grant colleges. (In the 1870s, Mississippi, Virginia, and South Carolina each assigned one African American college land-grant status: Alcorn University, Hampton Institute, and Claflin University, respectively.)[27] In response, Congress passed the second Morrill Act of 1890, also known as the Agricultural College Act of 1890, requiring states to establish a separate land grant college for blacks if blacks were being excluded from the existing land grant college. Many of the HBCUs were founded by states to satisfy the Second Morrill Act.[28] These land grant schools continue to receive annual federal funding for their research, extension, and outreach activities.[16]
In the 1920s and 1930s, historically black colleges developed a strong interest in athletics. Sports were expanding rapidly at state universities, but very few black stars were recruited there. Race newspapers hailed athletic success as a demonstration of racial progress. Black schools hired coaches, recruited and featured stellar athletes, and set up their own leagues.[31][32]
Jewish refugees
In the 1930s, many Jewish intellectuals fleeing Europe after the rise of Hitler and anti-Jewish legislation in prewar Nazi Germany following Hitler's elevation to power emigrated to the United States and found work teaching in historically black colleges.[33] In particular, 1933 was a challenging year for many Jewish academics who tried to escape increasingly oppressive Nazi policies,[34] particularly after legislation was passed stripping them of their positions at universities.[34] Jews looking outside of Germany could not find work in other European countries because of calamities like the Spanish Civil War and general antisemitism in Europe.[35][34] In the US, they hoped to continue their academic careers, but barring a scant few, found little acceptance in elite institutions in Depression-era America, which also had their own undercurrent of antisemitism.[33][36]
As a result of these phenomena, more than two-thirds of the faculty hired at many HBCUs from 1933 to 1945 had come to the United States to escape from Nazi Germany.[37] HBCUs believed the Jewish professors were valuable faculty that would help strengthen their institutions' credibility.[38] HBCUs had a firm belief in diversity and giving opportunity no matter the race, religion, or country of origin.[39] HBCUs were open to Jews because of their ideas of equal learning spaces. They sought to create an environment where all people felt welcome to study, including women.[39]
World War II
HBCUs made substantial contributions to the US war effort. One example is Tuskegee University in Alabama, where the Tuskegee Airmen trained and attended classes.[40][41]
The new junior colleges began as extensions of black high schools. They used the same facilities and often the same faculty. Some built their own buildings after a few years. After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 mandated an end to school segregation, the colleges were all abruptly closed. Only a fraction of the students and faculty were able to transfer to the previously all-white junior colleges, where they found, at best, an indifferent reception.[42]
Since 1965
President George H. W. Bush signs a new Executive Order on historically black colleges and universities in the White House Rose Garden, April 1989
A reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965 established a program for direct federal grants to HBCUs, to support their academic, financial, and administrative capabilities.[43][44] Part B specifically provides for formula-based grants, calculated based on each institution's Pell grant eligible enrollment, graduation rate, and percentage of graduates who continue post-baccalaureate education in fields where African Americans are underrepresented. Some colleges with a predominantly black student body are not classified as HBCUs because they were founded (or opened their doors to African Americans) after the implementation of the Sweatt v. Painter (1950) and Brown v. Board of Education (1954) rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court (the court decisions which outlawed racial segregation of public education facilities) and the Higher Education Act of 1965.
In 1980, Jimmy Carter signed an executive order to distribute adequate resources and funds to strengthen the nation's public and private HBCUs. His executive order created the White House Initiative on historically black colleges and universities (WHIHBCU), which is a federally funded program that operates within the U.S. Department of Education.[45] In 1989, George H. W. Bush continued Carter's pioneering spirit by signing Executive Order 12677, which created the presidential advisory board on HBCUs, to counsel the government and the secretary on the future development of these organizations.[46]
Starting in 2001, directors of libraries of several HBCUs began discussions about ways to pool their resources and work collaboratively. In 2003, this partnership was formalized as the HBCU Library Alliance, "a consortium that supports the collaboration of information professionals dedicated to providing an array of resources designed to strengthen historically black colleges and Universities and their constituents."[47]
In 2015, the Bipartisan Congressional Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Caucus was established by U.S. Representatives Alma S. Adams and Bradley Byrne. The caucus advocates for HBCUs on Capitol Hill.[48] As of May 2022[update], there are over 100 elected politicians who are members of the caucus.[49]
Annually, the U.S. Department of Education designates one week in the fall as "National HBCU Week". During this week, conferences and events are held in Washington, D.C. discussing and celebrating HBCUs, as well as recognizing some notable HBCU scholars and alumni.[50]
In 2015, the share of black students attending HBCUs had dropped to 9% of the total number of black students enrolled in degree-granting institutions nationwide. This figure is a decline from the 13% of black students who enrolled in an HBCU in 2000 and 17% who enrolled in 1980. This is a result of desegregation, rising incomes and increased access to financial aid, which has created more college options for black students.[13][53]
The percentages of bachelor's and master's degrees awarded to black students by HBCUs has decreased over time. HBCUs awarded 35% of the bachelor's degrees and 21% of the master's degrees earned by blacks in 1976–77, compared with the 14% and 6% respectively of bachelor's and master's degrees earned by blacks in 2014–15. Additionally, the percentage of black doctoral degree recipients who received their degrees from HBCUs was lower in 2014–15 (12%) than in 1976–77 (14%).[54][55][56]
The number of total students enrolled at an HBCU rose by 32% between 1976 and 2015, from 223,000 to 293,000. Total enrollment in degree-granting institutions nationwide increased by 81%, from 11 million to 20 million, in the same period.[54]
Although HBCUs were originally founded to educate black students, their diversity has increased over time. In 2015, students who were either white, Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander, or Native American made up 22% of total enrollment at HBCUs, compared with 15% in 1976.[57]
There are also developments in how African Americans may choose or not choose an HBCU. HBCUs are at risk of losing ground in terms of quality of their applicants as well.[59] The current admission policies of predominately White institutions (PWIs) ensure that qualified applicants of any color are accepted and most top institutions actively recruit minority students.[59] Well qualified minority students are often the target of frenzied competition (Cross, 2007).[59] This competition is reflected in the inducements offered by PWIs to qualified black applicants, most notably monetary incentives, which many students and their parents find too attractive to pass up.[59] For this reason and others, fewer black undergraduates are choosing to attend HBCUs, this figure has gradually declined to 22% as of 2002 (U.S. Department of Education, 2004).[59] This dwindling percentage, coupled with opportunities at PWIs, have led some to speculate whether the HBCU has outlived its purpose and lost its relevance for black youth (Lemelle, 2002; Sowell 1993; Suggs, 1997b).[59]
Racial diversity post-2000
Following the enactment of Civil Rights laws in the 1960s, many educational institutions in the United States that receive federal funding have undertaken affirmative action to increase their racial diversity. Some historically black colleges and universities now have non-black majorities, including West Virginia State University and Bluefield State University, whose student bodies have had large white majorities since the mid-1960s.[13][60][61]
As many HBCUs have made a concerted effort to maintain enrollment levels and often offer relatively affordable tuition, the percentage of non–African-American enrollment has risen.[62][63][64][65] The following table highlights HBCUs with high non–African American enrollments:
Racial diversity at HBCUs, 2016–2017 school year[66]
HBCU libraries have formed the HBCU Library Alliance. That alliance, together with Cornell University, have a joint program to digitize HBCU collections. The project is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.[79] Additionally, more historically black colleges and universities are offering online education programs. As of November 23, 2010, nineteen historically black colleges and universities offer online degree programs.[80] The growth in these programs is driven by partnerships with online educational entrepreneurs like Ezell Brown.[citation needed]
See also the "Notable alumni" sections of each institution's article.
Vice President and HBCU alumna Kamala Harris with students attending HBCUs
HBCUs have a rich legacy of matriculating many leaders in the fields of business, law, science, education, military service, entertainment, art, and sports.
Federal funding for HBCUs has notably increased in recent years. Proper federal support of HBCUs has become more of a key issue in modern U.S. presidential elections.
[85]
In 2019, President Donald Trump signed a bipartisan bill that permanently invested more than $250 million a year to HBCUs.[87]
In 2021, President Joe Biden's first year in office, he invested a historic $5.8 billion to support HBCUs.[88] In 2022, Biden's administration announced an additional $2.7 billion through his American Rescue Plan.[89]
HBCU homecomings
Homecoming is a tradition at almost every American college and university, however homecoming has a more unique meaning at HBCUs. Homecoming plays a significant role in the culture and identity of HBCUs. The level of pageantry and local black community involvement (parades, business vendors, etc.) helps make HBCU homecomings more distinctive. Due to higher campus traffic and activity, classes at HBCUs are usually cancelled on Friday and Saturday of homecoming.[90] Millions of alumni, students, celebrity guests, and visitors attend HBCU homecomings every year. In addition to being a highly cherished tradition and festive week, homecomings generate strong revenue for HBCUs and many black owned businesses.[91][92][93]
^20 U.S. Code sec.1061, [1]Archived December 20, 2022, at the Wayback Machinehttps://USCode.house.govArchived December 20, 2022, at the Wayback Machine For a compact overview of HBCU history, see Walter R. Allen, Joseph O. Jewell, Kimberly A. Griffin, & De'Sha S. Wolf, Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Honoring the Past, Engaging the Present, Touching the Future, 76 Journal of Negro Education, pp. 263–280 (2007).
^ abAnderson, J.D. (1988). The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860–1935. University of North Carolina Press.
^Marybeth Gasman, Envisioning Black Colleges: A History of the United Negro College Fund (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007).
^Marybeth Gasman and Felecia Commodore (eds.), Opportunities and Challenges at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (New York: Palgrave Press, 2014). ISBN978-1-349-50267-7
^Favors, J. (2020). Shelter in a time of storm: How Black colleges fostered generations of leadership and activism. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press. ISBN978-1469648330
^Marybeth Gasman, The Changing Face of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Philadelphia: Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions, University of Pennsylvania, 2013. [ISBN missing]
^ abCasey Boland, Marybeth Gasman et al., Contemporary Public HBCUs: A Four State Comparison, Philadelphia, PA: Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions, University of Pennsylvania, Spring 2014. [ISBN missing]
^For detail of the university's early history from its origins as the Institute for Colored Youth, see Milton M. James, The Institute for Colored Youth, 21 Negro History Bulletin p. 83 (1958)
^Initially chartered as the Ashmun Institute, it changed its name in 1866. It was the first degree-granting HBCU. See Lincoln University, History,[2]https://www.lincoln.edu/about/historyArchived May 31, 2019, at the Wayback Machine. See also Andrew E. Murray, The Founding of Lincoln University, 51 Journal of Presbyterian History p. 392 (1973).
^Originally proposed as Ohio African University, the founders changed the name to Wilberforce University, to honor the English abolitionist William Wilberforce, before its corporate charter was granted. Frederick Alphonso McGinnis, A History and Interpretation of Wilberforce University p. 33 (1941). See also Charles Killian, Wilberforce University: The Reality of Bishop Payne's Dream, 34 Negro History Bulletin p. 83 (1971).
^Marybeth Gasman, Envisioning Black Colleges: A History of the United Negro College Fund (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007).ISBN978-0-8018-8604-1
^Robert C. Lieberman, "The Freedmen’s Bureau and the politics of institutional structure." Social Science History 18.3 (1994): 405-437.
^Ronald E. Butchart, "Freedmen’s education during reconstruction." New Georgia Encyclopedia 13 (2016): 4-13 online.
^Miller, Patrick B. (1995). "To "Bring the Race along Rapidly": Sport, Student Culture, and Educational Mission at Historically Black Colleges during the Interwar Years". History of Education Quarterly. 35 (2): 111–33. doi:10.2307/369629. ISSN0018-2680. JSTOR369629. S2CID147170256.
^Miller, Patrick B; Wiggins, David Kenneth, eds. (2004). Sport and the color line: black athletes and race relations in twentieth-century America. Routledge. ISBN978-0415946100. OCLC53155353.
^ abcHoch, Paul K. (May 11, 1983). "The reception of central European refugee physicists of the 1930s: USSR, UK, US". Annals of Science. 40 (3): 217–46. doi:10.1080/00033798300200211. ISSN0003-3790.
^Marybeth Gasman, "Scylla and Charybdis: Navigating the Waters of Academic Freedom at Fisk University during Charles S. Johnson's Administration (1946–1956)", American Educational Research Journal 36, no. 4 (1999): 739–58.
^ abJewell, Joseph O. (January 1, 2002). "To Set an Example: The Tradition of Diversity at Historically Black Colleges and Universities". Urban Education. 37 (1): 7–21. doi:10.1177/0042085902371002. S2CID145115998.
^Philo Hutcheson, Marybeth Gasman, and Kijua Sanders-McMurtry, "Race and Equality in the Academy: Rethinking Higher Education Actors and the Struggle for Equality in the Post-World War II Period", Journal of Higher Education 82, no. 2 (2011): 121–53
^Smith, Walter L. (1994), The Magnificent Twelve: Florida's Black Junior Colleges, Winter Park, Florida: FOUR-G Publishers, ISBN1885066015
^The Act, as amended, defines a "part B institution" as: "...any historically black college or university that was established before 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of black Americans, and that is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association determined by the Secretary [of Education] to be a reliable authority as to the quality of training offered or is, according to such an agency or association, making reasonable progress toward accreditation." U.S. Department of Education (January 15, 2008). "HBCUs: A National Resource". White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Archived from the original on May 13, 2008. Retrieved February 8, 2008. 20 U.S.C. § 1061.
^Robert Nathenson, Andrés Castro Samayoa, & Marybeth Gasman, Moving Upward & Onward: Income Mobility and Historically Black Colleges and Universities, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions, 2019. [ISBN missing]
^William Casey Boland, Marybeth Gasman, Andrés Castro Samayoa, and DeShaun Bennett, "The Effect of Enrolling in Minority Serving Institutions on Earnings Compared to Non-Minority Serving Institutions: A College Scorecard Analysis", Research in Higher Education (2019).
^Robert Palmer, Robert Shorette, and Marybeth Gasman (Eds.), Exploring Diversity at Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Implications for Policy and Practice (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2014).ISBN978-1119108436
^Marybeth Gasman and Felecia Commodore (Eds.), Opportunities and Challenges at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (New York: Palgrave Press, 2014). ISBN978-1-349-50267-7
^Marybeth Gasman, Andrés Castro Samayoa, & Michael Nettles (Eds.). The Return on Investment for Minority Serving Institutions. (San Francisco, CA: Wiley Press, 2017). [ISBN missing]
^Marybeth Gasman, Andrés Castro Samayoa, William Casey Boland, & Paola Esmieu (Eds.), Educational Challenges and Opportunities at Minority Serving Institutions (New York: Routledge Press, 2018) ISBN978-1138572614.
Favors, Jelani M. (2019). Shelter in a Time of Storm: How Black Colleges Fostered Generations of Leadership and Activism. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN9781469648330. OCLC1048660765.
Gasman, Marybeth; Tudico, Christopher L., eds. (2008). Historically Black colleges and universities: triumphs, troubles, and taboos (1st ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN978-0230602731.
Lovett, Bobby L. (2015). America's historically Black colleges & universities: a narrative history from the nineteenth century into the twenty-first century (First ed.). Mercer University Press. ISBN978-0881465341.
Mays, Benjamin E. (1960). "The Significance of the Negro Private and Church-Related College". The Journal of Negro Education. 29 (3): 245–51. doi:10.2307/2293639. ISSN0022-2984. JSTOR2293639.
Minor, James T. (2008). "A Contemporary Perspective on the Role of Public HBCUs: Perspicacity from Mississippi". The Journal of Negro Education. 77 (4): 323–35. ISSN0022-2984. JSTOR25608702.
Palmer, Robert T.; Hilton, Adriel A.; Fountaine, Tiffany P., eds. (2012). Black graduate education at historically Black colleges and universities trends, experiences, and outcomes. Information Age Pub. ISBN978-1617358524.
Rascoe, Ayesha, ed. (2024). HBCU Made: A Celebration of the Black College Experience. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. ISBN9781643753867. OCLC1378381766.
Roebuck, Julian B.; Murty, Komanduri Srinivasa (1993). Historically black colleges and universities: their place in American higher education. Praeger. ISBN978-0275942670.
Wright, Stephanie R. (2008). "Self-Determination, Politics, and Gender on Georgia's Black College Campuses, 1875–1900". The Georgia Historical Quarterly. 92 (1): 93–119. ISSN0016-8297. JSTOR40585040.
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