Historically Black Colleges and Universities

This article examines the contributions of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in improving the achievement of Black students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics) fields. We couple recent descriptive statistics with an extensive review of the literature to elucidate the conditions and best practices, which exist at many HBCUs and characterize these institutions as models for majority institutions for the support of all Black and other racial minority students. We conclude with a discussion and recommendations.

The following article considers the missions of public Black colleges and universities, asking whether or not these missions are focused on liberal arts or professional education, or perhaps a hybrid of these foci. More importantly, we will explore the long term impact of these institutional missions on African Americans. Our discussion and examination will be contextualized using historic arguments put forth by African American leaders Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois. These arguments, although often simplified, are highly complex and can offer insight into the purpose of education at public Black colleges and universities in the current day.

A study was conducted by Witt/Kieffer, a preeminent executive search firm that identifies leadership solutions for organizations that seek to improve quality of life, to compare leaders in higher education to corporate executives (“Witt/Kieffer”, 2013). The purpose of the study was to identify if there were any personality differences between higher education leaders and corporate executives especially since there has been a push for higher education leaders to become more “business like” or entrepreneurial” following the recent shortfalls in funding to universities (“Witt/Kieffer”, 2013). They also posit that many colleges and universities are now “seeking out nontraditional candidates to fill traditional academic roles, from deans to chairs and even presidents” and that these candidates often come from the private sector or at least have “close ties to the corporate world” (“Witt/Kieffer”, 2013).

Purpose – There is limited discussion in the teacher education literature about the experiences of preservice black male teachers generally and the ethnic diversity among black male pre-service teachers specifically. Thus, this paper aims to explore the experiences of Frank, a black male refugee health education major attending an historically black college and university (HBCU).

Design/methodology/approach – This research study is theoretically guided by selected tenets of Bush and Bush’s (2013) African American male theory and Goodman et al.’s (2006) transition framework and uses a
qualitative approach to explore Frank’s transition experiences when coming to America, attending college and engaging in his student teaching experience.

Findings – Frank experienced some difficulty transitioning to America, as a result of not having a strong financial foundation. During his college transition, Frank believed that the HBCU environment was nurturing;
however, he encountered numerous ethnocentrically charged hostile confrontations from US-born black students at his university because of his accent. While he had some disagreements with the US education system in terms of discipline, Frank believed that his accent served as an asset during student teaching.

Originality/value – This study adds to the burgeoning research that explores the intersectional identities among pre-service black male teachers. As we argue in this paper, researchers, policymakers and
practitioners cannot treat black male teachers as a monolithic group and must contemplate the unique supports needed that can attend to the racial and ethnic needs of black male teachers.

In higher education philanthropy, alumni giving is a tremendously vital aspect, especially for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Throughout the history of alumni giving, though, HBCUs have not enjoyed the same success in soliciting and cultivating donations as Primarily White Institutions (PWIs) have. We compiled literature and conducted snowball sampling of private HBCU alumni to understand the motivations for giving or not to their alma maters.

This article explores the role of faculty in fund raising at black colleges, asking what it has been and what it can become. In
addition to an historical exploration of this role, the author draws upon qualitative interviews with both faculty
and administrators to make recommendations for future faculty roles.

This book chapter was published in the volume Diversity in Italian Studies. Edited by Anthony Tamburri and Siân Gibby. New York: Bordighera Press, 13-24. If anybody would like to add a comment/reflection about the topic of diversity in Italian studies, especially about the need to open more programs in Italian studies in more Historically Black Colleges in the United States.

This contribution is based on the new Italian program launched in Fall 2018 at Morgan State University, one of the largest HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) in the United States. The program is of historical importance because the Italian program at MSU is currently the only Italian language course of studies that is offered in an HBCU across the U.S. (to my knowledge). I will reflect on the positive elements as well as the challenges I faced in introducing Italian to minority college students by emphasizing both the question of diversity and the reality of being “a minority” in Italian Studies. 

The main positive component in teaching Italian to minority students is the creation of new trends that could revive and enrich a field that is currently stationary, and that often does not reflect the current changes in place in our modern society. New connections could be created between Italian and African-American culture, thus energizing Italian Studies as a more inclusive and global discipline. The main challenges in teaching Italian to a body comprised mainly of minority students is the limitation provided by the primary material of instruction that is currently available in the market. Textbooks of Italian language for English-speakers are often geared toward a less diversified representation of Italians, and scarcely represent the emerging population of young native Italian speakers who are not of European descent.

This contribution will conclude by offering some reflections about the significance of teaching Italian in an HBCU in relation to the current situation of decline in Italian Studies.

Traduzione in italiano:
La presente pubblicazione è stata pubblicata nel volume Diversity in Italian Studies, a cura di Anthony Tamburri e Siân Gibby. New York: Bordighera Press, 13-24. Se qualcuno desiderasse aggiungere un commento/una riflessione sul tema della diversità negli studi di italianistica, in particolare sulla necessità di aprire nuovi programmi di italianistica in altri Historically Black Colleges negli Stati Uniti.

Questo contributo si basa sul nuovo programma d'italiano lanciato nell'autunno 2018 presso la Morgan State University, uno dei più grandi HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) negli Stati Uniti. Il programma è di importanza storica perché è il programma di italiano alla MSU è l unico al momento che viene offerto in una HBCU negli Stati Uniti (che io sappia). il presente contrinuto offre qualche spunto sugli elementi positivi e sulle sfide che ho affrontato nell'introdurre l'italiano agli studenti universitari che appartengono a una minoranza etnica negli USA e sottolineando sia la questione della diversità che la realtà di essere "una minoranza" negli studi italiani. 

La principale componente positiva nell'insegnamento dell'italiano agli studenti appartenenti a un gruppo di minoranza etnica è la creazione di nuove tendenze che potrebbero rilanciare e arricchire un campo attualmente fermo, e che spesso non riflette gli attuali cambiamenti in atto nella nostra società moderna. Si potrebbero creare nuove connessioni tra la cultura italiana e l'afroamericana, stimolando così gli Studi Italiani come disciplina più inclusiva e globale. Le principali sfide nell'insegnamento dell'italiano a un organismo composto principalmente da studenti di minoranza sono la limitazione fornita dal materiale primario di istruzione attualmente disponibile sul mercato. I libri di testo di lingua italiana per studenti madrelingua inglese sono spesso orientati verso una rappresentanza meno diversificata degli italiani, e rappresentano a malapena la popolazione emergente di giovani madrelingua italiani che non sono di origine europea.

Questo contributo si concluderà offrendo alcune riflessioni sul significato dell'insegnamento dell'italiano in una HBCU in relazione all'attuale situazione di declino degli studi italiani negli STati Uniti.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The primary purpose of this study is to examine the research and literature on African American male enrollment, experiences, and degree completion trends at four-year HBCUs. The secondary goal is to recenter the gendered dialogue that occurs within HBCU undergraduate student research, such that barriers specific to African American men are identified and examined, with the expectation of better promoting their postsecondary success.

Research Design: Analytic essay, cross-sectional data analysis.

Data Collection and Analysis: First, we conducted a review of historical and contemporary literature to identify the role and contribution of four-year HBCUs on African American males over time. In addition, we employed a secondary data analysis of the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System to identify six-year graduation rates for one cohort of African American male and female student at HBCUs.

Findings/Results: Critical analysis of historical data from the mid-19th to early 21st century indicates that African American males have indeed been neglected in research on undergraduate enrollment, experiences, and degree completion at four-year HBCUs. African American males face a number of issues that are not absolved on matriculation to HBCUs merely because their environments are predominantly Black. Our analysis suggests that in general, the nurturing and supportive environment on HBCU campuses, when harnessed by African American male (and female) students, can promote postsecondary matriculation and success.

Conclusions/Recommendations: HBCUs have undoubtedly afforded African American males a route by which to gain access to postsecondary education. However, the lack of attention toward their struggles has served to silence their gendered experience and perpetuate a lack of accountability for African American male underachievement within the higher education establishment. Future gendered analyses of HBCU undergraduates ought to address both the male and female experience on these campuses using a variety of appropriate methodological approaches.

Johnnetta Cole at Spelman College and Charles S. Johnson at Fisk University offer two powerful examples of the leadership that is needed in fund-raising at HBCUs. This paper will examine their innovative strategies and program ideas. It will suggest ways in which current presidents can emulate their practices. Most importantly, it will approach this task from the perspective of black leaders by highlighting their ability to generate innovative ideas and solicit funding to support them.

*Winner of the 2018 International Writing Centers Association Best Article Award. Disciplinary histories of composition studies argue that the mission of communication programs shifted during World War II: from striving to democratize higher education to promoting uncritical patriotism. Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) rarely figure into these histories, in part because they seldom appeared in the era’s scholarly publications. Recently digitized African American newspaper archives invite a counter narrative of wartime democratizing pedagogy. Press coverage highlights the Hampton Institute Communications Center, the most widely publicized and politicized site of literacy instruction during the war. The controversy it engendered shows Hampton and other HBCU curricula forwarding wartime literacies that constituted patriotic resistance to Jim Crow segregation.

This dissertation explores Black queer feminism as a frame of reference relevant to the study of Black political science and the practice of Black politics in the United States. While Black feminist political scientists have moved Black politics scholarship forward, beyond its masculinist focus, much less analysis of the ways in which cisheteronormativity and binary conceptions of gender have informed this scholarship has occurred. This fact renders scholars unprepared to explain critical aspects vis-à-vis Black communities and may explain why few frames of reference illuminate Black queer and trans womxn's political experiences. Furthermore, because more mainstream subfields such as women and politics, and LGBTQ politics do not consistently embrace racial analyses they cannot generate rigorous insight concerning the lives of Black LGBTQ individuals and groups. I employ exploratory case studies to build upon the work of Black political scientists by investigating the potential of an alternative lens that is inclusive of Black persons and groups marginalized because of their gender identity and sexuality. A qualitative content analysis is relied upon to examine the activist scholarship of two Black queer womxn, Barbara Smith and Cathy J. Cohen, with the objective of synthesizing a Black queer feminist frame of reference from their political thought. I argue that Black queer feminism is well suited to advance the radical imperative of Black political science.

Researchers have examined the experiences of Black male collegians attending historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). However, there are limited studies exploring the experiences of high-achieving Black males. Using Whiting's (2014) scholar identity model (SIM) as a theoretical framework, this study examined the academic and social experiences of Tim and Jabari, two high-achieving Black male HBCU graduates, to understand the challenges they overcame and supports that aided their academic success. Tim and Jabari's stories highlight the positive impact of supportive professors and peers at HBCUs, but underscore how these same individuals created barriers to their success. Furthermore, their stories emphasize the dedication and persistence required to obtain a degree despite various barriers. Given the low graduation rates at HBCUs understanding the experiences of high-achievers can yield meaningful information to inform HBCU researchers, faculty and administrators on how to better support Black males on campus.

This article explores the curriculum, infrastructure, and students associated with HBCU honors programs. Using the survey method to capture this information, these authors provide the first
comprehensive study of these programs to date. They also provide concrete suggestions for policy, practice, and research.

Most sociological research on racial discrimination has had an “inter-racial” focus. That is, researchers have been principally concerned with the disparate treatment that people of color receive relative to Whites in different social contexts. However, recent theoretical work emerging from legal studies sug- gests that an alternative conception of “intra-racial” discrimination exists that extends beyond colorism. This theory of intra-racial discrimination stipulates that many organizations in the “post-racial” era desire some measure of racial diversity. Yet, in their efforts to achieve this racial diversity they screen people of color based on their degree of racial salience. Whether a given person of color is hired, promoted, or in the case of college admissions, accepted, is a function of whether or not Whites within the organization consider them racially palatable, or not overly concerned with race. This creates an incentive for people of color to work their identity to allay any concerns among Whites that they may be too racially salient. In this paper I critically review this work and attempt to further buttress its claims by highlighting how this process has clear historical precedent. I conclude by showing how the audit method can be used to empirically examine this practice contemporarily.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are racially diverse institutions. As such, this qualitative study examines the interconnected aspects of the college choice processes and campus experiences of White students attending a public HBCU. Utilizing (Renn and Arnold, The Journal of Higher Education, 2003, 74, 261) Ecological Model on College Student Peer Culture, findings highlight how participants' perceptions of HBCUs were influenced by racially informed societal influences and how their academic and social experiences provided opportunities for them to critically engage race and racism. Furthermore, this work reveals how White HBCU students experience intra-racial social anxiety that limited their desire to interact with their White peers on campus.

The focus of this research centers on the public personas presented by American Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) through photographs. HBCUs often chose to present themselves in a manner likely to advance their stature to benefactors, donors, philanthropists, government officials, and potential faculty and students. The types of photographs employed by the HBCU promoted them as an institution that offered hope and promise to African Americans as depicted through the dominant visual tropes employed by white society. As such, the use of photography in this manner was an attempt to join the dominant white social and political structure through the medium’s democratizing characteristics. However,  what has been consistently left out of these images is the HBCU’s mission to promote and accentuate its specific alignment toward African American students.

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were created to provide educational opportunities for African Americans when other higher education venues restricted their participation. HBCUs are credited with nurturing and producing leaders who embraced W. E. B. Du Bois's concept of the "Talented Tenth," and exhibiting fortitude in advancing social equality for all. Over the years, as legalized segregation was overturned and efforts were made to expand opportunities for African Americans, some have questioned the continuing
need for HBCUs. A study of 11 African American men attending a public, urban HBCU, indicated that the university's rich supply of social capital (a direct consequence of its mission and history) makes it a unique fixture in the landscape of higher education, one whose special features have not been replicated by historically White institutions.

While the exact roots are not accurately known, hazing has likely existed for countless generations.  Intended to mentally and physically acclimate new members to organizations, this tactic usually backfires, as evidenced by the recent death of Robert Champion on November 19, 2011.  There are many types of marching bands, but some of those in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) run a higher risk of hazing susceptibility than those of Predominately White Institutions (PWIs) due to their high-profile status, intense level of competitive spirit, and the intrinsic cultural need for bonding, loyalty, cohesion, brotherhood, and sisterhood.  Understanding, addressing, and preventing this issue will not come through legal measures alone, as such attempts in the past have only driven members to adapt and resort to further subversion.  This case study was conducted on the campus of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, and centered on interview, focus group, observational, document review, and audiovisual material review data pertaining to the school’s marching band, the “Blue and Gold Marching Machine.”  The findings support the claims that educators and administrators should a) understand the psychosocial (psychological and social) factors that are the root causes of hazing, b) address potential hazing climates by analyzing and shaping organizational culture while working to dispel long-standing negative ideologies, and c) preventing hazing cultures from forming by instilling leadership development, particularly in the servant-leadership style.  This holistic course of action would prove to be more efficient and sustainable than past methods, many of which center only on regulations, punitive measures, and policies alone.

This conceptual study builds an institution-focused, non-Eurocentric, theoretical framework of black college student success. Specifically, the study synthesizes the relevant empirical research on the contributions historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have made for black student success, leading to an original model that all institutions can adapt to their contexts. Significantly, this is the first HBCU-based theoretical model to appear in the academic literature. The study concludes with several implications for research and practice, including testing the model and using it in institutional planning.

High achieving African American male students face a number of challenges navigating the educational pipeline. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have been lauded for providing nurturing and culturally affirming environments for its students, yet little is known about the role they play in promoting the college access and degree attainment of high achieving African American male students. Findings from interviews with 19 African American male alumni from nine institutions indicate that early experiences grappling with negative stereotypes associated with Black male achievement strongly influenced their decisions to attend an HBCU. The HBCU, through its campus environment, fostered opportunities for positive interactions that were shown to be important in the academic, personal, and professional development of African American male students. Findings from this study provide insights into the ways HBCUs can recruit and retain the high achieving Black males enrolled at their institutions.

Charles S. Johnson, the first Black president of Fisk, encouraged integration both in the racial sense and through the inclusion of a broader range of experiences within the college curriculum. This article examines Johnson’s understanding of art as a tool for advancement, developed during his years as a promoter of African-American art and literature during the Harlem Renaissance. It explores the ways in which Fisk’s art collection and cultural programs were used, and their intended effect on students and campus life. In particular, the article demonstrates the unique role of these programs in building a sense of identity among students and expanding the worldview of people of varying races and ethnicities.

This historiography of gender and black colleges uncovers the omission of women and gender relations. It uses an integrative framework, conceptualized by Evelyn Nakano Glenn, that considers race and gender as mutually interconnected, revealing different results than might be seen by considering these issues independently. The article is significant for historians and nonhistorians alike and has implications for
educational policy and practice in the current day.

This article explores a Black queer feminist frame of reference as a critical response to the cisnormative and heteronormative Black political science literature. The contours of this frame are derived from the political thought of Cathy J. Cohen. Cohen’s political thought provides an exemplary case of how Black queer feminist political science can address the lacuna in which Black queer and trans individuals are marginalized within, if not excluded from, the literature on Black political thought and behavior. Cohen’s work exposes oppressive systems, demystifies the nature of political power, and inspires counter- hegemonic knowledge production that challenges the rigidity of what and who counts as “legitimate” subjects for political science inquiries. Before synthesizing a sample of Cohen’s political thought, this article succinctly reviews Black political science, including Black feminist political science, detailing its history, problems, trends, and how scholars have tended to carry out Black politics work within the discipline. Black political science is critically placed in its activist-scholar context. This article argues that Black political scientists must continue to look inward, not only considering how race and racist knowledge has structured the discipline, but also how power is distributed among (and between) various groups of Black political scientists themselves. It is Black queer feminism that will continue to advance the radical imperative of Black political science.

Often overlooked by scholars of philanthropy and practitioners in the area of advancement, black giving has a rich history. This paper will discuss the specific nature of black giving patterns and make recommendations to advancement and alumni staff on how to better include African Americans in the college and university giving process.

Using Harper’s anti-deficit achievement framework as a theoretical guide, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate the academic and social experiences of four nontraditional, high-achieving, Black male undergraduates
attending one historically Black university. Findings show that the participants were intrinsically motivated to succeed in college to make a better future for themselves and their families. Support from their peers, family, and children also played a role in their success. Last, the university cultivated a campus environment that affirmed the participants’ identities as Black males and nontraditional students. These findings present a counternarrative to deficit-oriented research about Black males generally and nontraditional Black male collegians specifically.

This paper traces the rise of corporate philanthropy in terms of its support of Black colleges, explores financial support overall of Black colleges during the 1960s and 1970s, and describes the relationships between corporations and private Black college
leaders.

I argue that the ascendance of individualistic, free-market-oriented ideas about the education of Black people is best understood as the product of the decline of collective social movements. The careers of two of the most well-known American Black educators illustrate this pattern. Booker T. Washington and Geoffrey Canada rose to prominence in similar political circumstances and made similar choices that reshaped education for Black people. The defeat of Reconstruction and of the Black Power movement are the essential contexts for Washington’s and Canada’s respective trajectories. By examining their careers, public statements, and relationships side by side, I argue that their educational and political ideas represent a form of free-market idealism. The similarities are striking. Both men are celebrated advocates of African-American education and uplift; were funded and promoted to national attention by philanthropy; came to prominence in an era of defeat for African-American social movements; and enthusiastically embraced free market ideology.

Previous research has highlighted numerous ways in which historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) offer more supportive educational environments for Black students than do predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Notwithstanding the consistency of these findings, persistence and graduation rates remain low for undergraduates, especially men, at HBCUs. Furthermore, anecdotal reports and news stories have called attention to the conservative politics of many Black colleges. This study explores how Black male students characterize, respond to, and make sense of environmental politics at 12 HBCUs that participated in the National Black Male College Achievement Study. In addition to 2-3 hour face-to-face individual
interviews with 76 undergraduates, documents from 103 HBCUs were analyzed to gather additional insights into the political press of these institutions. Conservatism was evident in the areas of sexuality and sexual orientation, student self-presentation and expression, and the subordinate status of students beneath faculty and administrators.