TOP SUPPORTERS AND THE ABET-ACCREDITED ENGINEERING SCHOOLS AT HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
Although historically Black colleges and universities were initially founded to educate Black students, they have continually enrolled students of other races. In 2018, non-Black students made up 24 percent of enrollment at historically Black colleges, compared with 15 percent in 1976.
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How HBCUs have changed lives
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Why HBCUs are important
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What America would look like without them
In March 1991, the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) published a landmark document, “Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Higher Education Desegregation,” tracing the timeline of HBCUs from their establishment to serve the educational needs of Black Americans to their continued relevance in the 21st century as the principal means for providing postsecondary education. The OCR pamphlet provided an overview of the role, accomplishments, and challenges faced by HBCUs since the Cheyney University of Pennsylvania became the nation’s first HBCU in 1837. The OCR also made a case for HBCUs as a good choice in meeting minority and nonminority students’ educational needs. The paper summarized the efforts of the Department of Education aimed at strengthening HBCUs while assuring that higher education programs do not discriminate based on race.
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USBE & Information Technology | DEANS ISSUE 2021
In 1953, more than 32,000 students were enrolled in private HBCUs such as Hampton Institute, Howard University, Meharry Medical College, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Tuskegee Institute, and a host of smaller colleges located in the South. In the same year, over 43,000 students were enrolled in public HBCUs. These private and public institutions mutually served the critical mission of providing education for teachers, ministers, lawyers, and doctors for the Black population in a racially segregated society. In April 1991, President George H.W. Bush unveiled “America 2000: An Education Strategy at the White House,” which contained nearly all the critical ingredients for a K–12 reform legislative agenda. During the fall of that year, Bush proclaimed National Historically Black Colleges Week in September. Bush noted that for more than 100 years, HBCUs had provided rewarding educational opportunities for millions of Black Americans. “These institutions have opened the doors of achievement to generations of students who otherwise might not have been able to enjoy the benefits of higher education,” he said. “Our entire nation is more prosperous as a result. Graduates of historically Black colleges and universities have made substantial contributions to our country in virtually every field of endeavor.”
HBCUs as defined by the Higher Education Act of 1965 The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, defines an HBCU 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.”
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