Historically black colleges are finally getting the spotlight

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John S. said. Wilson Jr., who served as president of Morehouse College and the White House’s advisor to historically black colleges, said the institutions, known collectively as HBCUs, should seize the moment.

“Is this a sustainable moment shaping a new era?” Dr. Wilson, whose forthcoming book, Out of Uncertainty, focuses on the future of historically black colleges. “I think the answer could be ‘yes’ for a lot of HBCU unfortunately, I think it would also be ‘no’ for some organizations.”

Most black colleges and universities were formed during the 19th century to educate people freed from slavery. Some students literally had to build their schools: at Tuskegee University in Alabama, they dug up the mud, poured and fired the bricks used to build their campus.

Schools have become centers of scholarship and thought, bringing out most of the country’s black doctors, teachers, and judges and boasting alumni such as Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., director Spike Lee, writer Toni Morrison, and Reverend. Raphael Warnock, Democratic Senator from Georgia.

More established colleges have used the new money to build on their legacy. Spelman and Morehouse, both in Atlanta, and Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, have started entrepreneurship programs, for example. Howard in particular has been able to attract talented faculty members who might otherwise have gone elsewhere.

Ms. Hannah Jones, the New York Times Magazine writer who won a 2020 Pulitzer Prize for her work on Project 1619, rejected an offer from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after controversy over whether she would be given a position. . She chose to join Howard, bringing with her $20 million in donations from the Knight Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, and an anonymous benefactor.

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