When I was ready to look at colleges as a high school grad, I longed for acceptance by a historically black college or university, better known as HBCUs. As fate would have it, I received a full scholarship to a predominantly white college at the height of the Black Power Movement. Coming from a family of meager resources, my college “choice” quickly narrowed to one.
Years later, and thanks to energetic alumna Martha West, I can at least be a booster for Tennessee State University. But I have also come to shed my idealism about HBCUs and put them in their historical, cultural and financial context.
When I read an article earlier this year about Morris Brown College, I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. There were 35 students enrolled; photos in the articles showed boarded up and abandoned buildings. The college’s demise was accelerated by the embezzlement of funds by the college professor and financial aid director. Subsequently, the school lost its accreditation, and its student population fled to avoid loss of credits or degrees.
There are currently 107 historically black universities and colleges (both private and public). The majority were created after the Civil War with the express purpose of educating blacks, not just for degrees but also for full service to the communities in which they lived. They persevered during a hostile time when educating black folks was downright dangerous.
About a dozen black institutions of higher learning have closed their doors over the years, mainly because of financial stress, while others welcomed mergers as their salvation to viability. Many more struggle from year to year with issues such as low endowments, declining student populations, mounting debt, accreditation standards, as well as enduring financial aid laws and policies that negatively impact HBCUs. They also have to deal with the racist and persistent view that black institutions are inferior to their white counterparts.
Some readers were surprised when a recent St. Louis American interview with new Lincoln University president Kevin Rome Sr. revealed that the historically black college was 60 percent non-black. Bluefield State College in West Virginia maintains its designation, even though its student body has been about 80 percent white for decades. The fact is that the visionary founders of historically black colleges were about enhancing equal educational opportunity for all students. They knew segregation wouldn’t last forever; they knew white students seeking cultural understanding also needed a place to grow.
Our own hybrid HBCU seems to be at a crossroads. In the last two years, Harris-Stowe State University has changed its leadership. When Dwaun Warmack takes the helm on July 14, he faces both old and new challenges at the university, including a slipping academic reputation and a major labor dispute.
For the first time in the institution’s history, the faculty has organized a union. One of its key leaders and a popular history professor has been denied a contract for the upcoming year. Brian Elsesser, represented by the National Education Association, is fighting for re-instatement and is receiving broad community and labor support. A petition has been established as part of the fight-back.
Maybe the capitalist free market will snuff out a few more HBCUs, but we shouldn’t engage in fatalistic talk about “extinction” or questioning if these institutions are worth saving. These are the places that are most likely to take a chance on bright, but poor, black students – and now, with the rising costs of big universities, they’re taking on the futures of non-black students.
According to the U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Office, more than 80 percent of all African Americans who received degrees in medicine and dentistry were trained at the two traditionally black institutions of medicine and dentistry, Howard University and Meharry Medical College. HBCUs have provided undergraduate training for three-fourths of all black persons holding a doctorate degree; three-fourths of all black officers in the armed forces; and four-fifths of all black federal judges. HBCUs enroll 20 percent of black undergraduates and award 40 percent of baccalaureate degrees earned by black college students. These stats shouldn’t be dismissed.
Harris-Stowe, like other HBCUs, has a proud legacy to build upon, but it will need both citizen and government support. They must project sound financial management and inclusive policies, while nurturing a democratic environment that promotes black consciousness and a diversity of views. These institutions continue to play a vital role in producing professionals, uplifting black communities, and inspiring others to continue in their traditions. They are definitely worth saving.
