HBCUs are Making Moves and Staying Relevant
I am loving all this attention and recognition that our Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are getting!
Why? Because over the fourteen years since we launched The HBCU Career Center, I can’t tell you how many raised eyebrows I have seen when mentioning “HBCUs” while in the company of recruiting and hiring professionals at HR conferences. I would often have to explain what the acronym meant, name a few schools and talk about why these schools were founded, why they still exist and why they need to stay relevant and respected for the future. To date, people have been gracious and seem to genuinely appreciate learning about these institutions.
If colleagues didn’t find my explanation convincing enough, I would often share American Council for Education research that states: the “rate at which institutions move their students from the lowest-income quintile to the top quintile—are two to three times higher at minority-serving institutions.” Meaning: graduates of HBCUs have been crucial to building an educated and economically inclusive middle class in the US economy. On top of that, HBCU Caucus data shows that although these schools represent only 3% of US colleges, they contribute $15 Billion to the economy and produce 46% of Black women engineers. There is still work to be done, but the role HBCUs have played, is impressive.
These days, unless you are living under a rock (and if you are, we are working on turning them all over), you have probably heard about some of the more famous people who are HBCU alumni but might not have realized it. For Women’s History Month, The HBCU Career Center’s giveaway included books from two HBCU grads who have changed the face of American politics: Vice President Kamala Harris (Howard University) and Georgia’s Stacey Abrams (Spelman College). Beyond that, Reverend Raphael Warnock, newly elected Senator from Georgia shares his alma mater, Morehouse College, with leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. If business is what you care about, then you have probably heard of Rosalind Brewer, CEO of Walgreens and alumna of Spelman College. If media is your thing then look no further than Earl Graves, the pioneering founder Black Enterprise who graduated from Morgan State University, Oprah Winfrey, a graduate of Tennessee State, or Spike Lee and Samuel Jackson, both also from Morehouse College.
These are just a few popular names. The list of HBCU alumni who have helped to shape the American landscape is long and distinguished. This was recently acknowledged by Fortune Magazine: “HBCUs are changing the face of business and political leadership...Historically Black Colleges have long held a critical place in developing leaders.”
Some of us also know the graduates whose faces are not publicly recognizable but whose love and passion for these schools developed because someone on a HBCU campus showed them some love and poured some passion into them while they were students. These catalysts are the teachers and administrators who have done the massive heavy lifting of educating a group of people who are as diverse as America. From the brilliant students who had no options because they weren’t welcome on other campuses, to the brilliant students who had and have plenty of options. These institutions have been home to the historically overlooked, to the under-prepared who sought opportunity and to the identity seeker and ardent advocate. These schools have worked to educate Americans and other global citizens spread across the current diaspora.
HBCUs have stayed resilient and pushed through various stages of growth. To imagine how a Cheyney University of Pennsylvania could emerge as the African Institute in 1837 (almost three decades before the adoption of the 13th Amendment to end slavery in the United States) with the express mission to educate the descendants of slaves, is to understand the role these schools have played in every area of American life. Before it became the institution it is today, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania was the Institute for Colored Youth, Cheyney Training School for Teachers and Cheyney State College. With every name change, this institution reinvented itself to stay relevant and make a tighter bond with the community it served. Today, schools like Cheyney University and the dedicated professionals who work there, care for and guard the legacy of HBCUs and the role they play and will continue to play, in an evolving America.
Some of us who have known of these schools and their graduates have amplified them and their collective value. In our own small way, for over a decade, The HBCU Career Center, has played a role in educating businesses to see graduates of these schools as capable emerging professionals and ultimately, experienced talent.
Others are just realizing it and we are happy about that. Those of us who are advocates are excited to see more people getting to know HBCUs for what they are and have been: community anchors that build lives. We are determined, like many others, to bring more people into the broad diverse community of supporters that acknowledge and celebrate HBCU institutions and their legacy.
When I get asked if I think that the era of the Black college is over, I emphatically say - No.
Maybe that will become a consideration eventually, but not now. When people ask me this question I typically explain that I can’t predict the future, but until Americans are also willing to discuss ending other historically relevant classifications in education, why should we get rid of the HBCU distinction?
For example, would we ever discuss ending the Ivy League designations for Yale or Harvard? or the Catholic designations of those schools like Georgetown, Notre Dame or Villanova? I don’t see that happening.
For now, I am enjoying watching the community of supporters for America’s HBCUs grow. I am also watching how these schools continue to innovate, care for students and stay resilient in these trying times. Already, we see glimpses of how a new crop of youth are embracing the legacies and traditions while making their own mark. Activating new supporters has remained at the heart of these schools and, in essence, is the long term value of these institutions.