Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs)

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were founded to educate formerly enslaved people of African descent. Cheyney State University in Cheyney, Pennsylvania, was established in 1837 as the first historically Black institution of higher education. There are now 105 HBCUs scattered throughout the United States, the majority of which are located in the South. Many of these were built after the Morrill Act of 1890, which provided for state-supported land-grant HBCUs. The importance of these institutions to Black people is paramount, past and present. This entry provides a short history of HBCUs and describes the challenges they have faced, the successes they have achieved, and future goals. It identifies reasons why a knowledge of HBCUs is important in understanding race relations in the United States and how Blacks have been self-determined in their efforts to educate themselves despite opposition. It also explores the growing role of degree programs in criminal justice at HBCUs.

After the enslavement of African-descended peoples was abolished, it was HBCUs that embraced the ideals for Black empowerment through education. More than 90% of people of African descent in college were enrolled in HBCUs until midway through the 20th century. However, the favorable impact of HBCUs was not immediate; initial opposition to Black education had to be dealt with before African Americans could truly benefit from the creation and implementation of HBCUs. Some Whites opposed Black education in the belief that education would put Blacks in direct competition with them for jobs. Despite this, HBCUs continued to be built.

Institutions of higher learning established to provide a college education for African Americans facing racial discrimination and exclusion from predominantly white universities. From humble beginnings in the early 1800s, black colleges and universities have grown to number more than 100 institutions today, and they have produced some of the nation's outstanding black scholars, statesmen, and scientists. In recent years, however, financial troubles have threatened many of these institutions with closure, and some people are concerned about the future of historically black schools.

Early History Of Black Colleges

The first black colleges in the United States were established in the North to teach basic literacy to freed slaves. Cheyney University in Pennsylvania is the earliest recorded black college in the United States, founded in 1837 as the Institute for Colored Youth. Other black schools founded prior to the Civil War included Lincoln University (also in Pennsylvania), founded in 1854, and Wilberforce University in Ohio, started two years later.

Because many of the students in these schools and others like them had been forbidden to read and write while enslaved, the schools offered basic elementary and secondary school-level courses to prepare students for more rigorous studies later. Some black colleges did not provide true college-level courses for years because few students were prepared for them.

The end of slavery following the Civil War threw millions of illiterate former slaves into a society and an economy for which they had little formal preparation. Southern blacks, though now free, still faced discrimination in ...