Reversal of Fortune: The Attack on HBCU’s

Say Something Real

Michelle Bryant

I remember the first time I learned an important truth: many famed Black institutions were found in part or whole, by white benefactors. Recalling an article about former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ effort to say that, after slavery, Black people pioneered “choice schools,” I recoiled at the insulation. The Washington Post article went on to remind us of some hard facts, when we talk of our Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Colleges (HBCU’s).

“Some of today’s most well-known HBCUs were founded by white Americans. Washington’s Howard University…., is named after one of its founders, Gen. Oliver O. Howard, a white Union officer who led the federal Freedmen’s Bureau after the Civil War. Spelman College was founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary by Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles, two white teachers from Massachusetts. Later renamed, the all-female college had among its early benefactors John D. Rockefeller and the family of his wife, Laura Spelman Rockefeller. The Rockefellers and the Baptist organization that underwrote the teachers’ mission also provided major financial support to the nearby all-male HBCU, Morehouse College.”

In total, there are currently 107 HBCUs throughout the country. They can be either public or private and most were created when other colleges/universities refused to admit Black students. For Southern states, HBCU’s were a way to maintain segregation, while meeting the letter of the law. Equal but inequitable became a running theme in state/pubic institutions of higher education. Pushing attendees into teaching and farming, was deemed acceptable work for Black people.

Due to these careers or trades, many of these institutions became known as land-grant schools. The colleges were built on federal land or paid for with the money from the sale of federal land that was given to state governments. Additionally, laws were created to ensure that state governments were required to provide “equitable distribution” of funds from their state governments.

Recently, the Biden administration found that something was seriously wrong with the dissemination of the funds. HBCU’s were being cheated/denied out more than $12 billion dollars in funding. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack determined that HBCUs have “not been able to advance in ways that are on par” with other land-grant institutions in those states “in large part due to unbalanced funding.” We’re talking millions and sixteen states have been called out! Usually when you get called, most folks will answer.

One response came in the form of a slap in the face to select HBCU’s. A member of the Mississippi legislature, in response to Senate Bill 2726, Republican John Polk, is attempting to advance a bill that creates a criterion to close public colleges in the state. Of course, it’s narrowly tailored and seems intended to snare three HBCU’s: Alcorn State University, Mississippi Valley State and Jackson State Universities. Just has it seemed HBCU’s would receive funding they were entitled to receive to help bolster their campuses, a reversal of fortunes is underfoot. Close the schools. No need to repay the money. Problem solved. We need to let the Mississippi legislature know, not on our watch.