HBCU Is Not An Acronmy For A Cuss Word! HBCU's Are Apart of American History.

19 HBCU’s were established under the Morrill Act of 1890.

What are HBCUs? HBCUs are Historically black colleges and universities.

When and why did they come into exsitence? HBCUs were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving Black students. Most of these institutions were founded during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War because of the segragetionist laws that were embedded in the very fabric of America, most if not all are concentrated in the Southern United States.

Prior to the Civil War, the education of Black Americans was prohibited in most Southern states and often discouraged in Northern states.

Only a few Black schools existed at that time these were:

• Cheyney University (est. 1837),

• University of the District of Columbia (1851),

• Lincoln University (1854),

• Wilberforce University (1856).

The nation's first & oldest HBCU (Cheyney) was established in Pennsylvania. On February 25, 1837, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania became the nation’s first black institute of higher learning. The University was established through a $10,000 endowment from Richard Humphreys, a Quaker philanthropist, to design and establish a school to educate people of African descent and prepare them as teachers.

Source: Cheyney University

Cheyney University Crest- Est 1836

For more information on Cheyney please see link: Cheyney University

The first Black owned & operated HBCU (Wilberforce) was established in Ohio in 1856. Wilberforce University was founded in 1856 by the Cincinnati Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) to provide classical education and teacher training for Black youth. In 1863 — after a year-long closing during the Civil War — AME Bishop Daniel A. Payne (one of the university's original founders) negotiated the AME Church's outright purchase of Wilberforce University and became the first Black American college president in the U.S -

Source: Wilberforce University

Wilberforce University Crest- Est 1856

For more information on Wilberforce please see link: Wilberforce University

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Wonderful fact, my Father graduated from Daniel A. Payne College in Birmingham, Alabama in 1962. Daniel Payne College, was a historically black college in Birmingham, Alabama from 1889 to 1979. It was associated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME Church). The college was named in honor of Daniel Payne, the sixth bishop of the AME Church and the first black president of a college in the United States. While receiving a great education and a Degree in Science, my father could not get a teaching Job in Alabama so he had to leave his home state (Alabama) and migrate his family to Michigan. Fact is the Alabama Education Association and the segragetionist Alabama Board of Education didn’t believe black men or women could teach Science.

Bishop Daniel Payne

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Funding for HBCU’s began with the Second Morrill Act.

Facts:

The Morrill Land-Grant Acts (1860) are U. S. statutes that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges in U.S. states using the proceeds from sales of federally owned land, often obtained from Native American tribes through treaty, cession, or seizure.

The second Morrill Act (1890) also known as the Agricultural College Act of 1890, was also aimed at the former Confederate states. This act required each state to show that race was not an admissions criterion, or else to designate a separate land-grant institution for African Americans.

There are 19 historically Black land-grant institutions — public, agricultural, research, and extension vessels that educate the nation’s top Black agricultural scientists and economists, conservationists, veterinarians, researchers, and engineers.

The 19 HBCU’s established under the Morrill Act of 1890 are:

• Alabama A&M University

• Alcorn State University

• Central State University

• Delaware State University

• Florida A&M University

• Fort Valley State University

• Kentucky State University

• Langston University

• ***Lincoln University

• North Carolina A&T State University

• Prairie View A&M University

• South Carolina State University

• Southern University System

• Tennessee State University

• ***Tuskegee University

• University of Arkansas Pine Bluff

• University of Maryland Eastern Shore

• Virginia State University

• West Virginia State University

***Considered Black Ivy League HBCU

HBCU enrollment saw increases with a backlash of DEI and the removal of Affirmative Action:

Forbes reported, Howard University saw a 12 percent increase in applications for their incoming freshman class this year-2024, receiving 37,000 applications for just 2,500 seats. Applications to Florida A&M University have almost doubled in the last two years. The Tallahassee HBCU received over 21,000 applications for less than 4,000 seats.

The state of Alabama has the largest number of HBCUs in the country with a total of 14. Alabama is the first state to have this number of Black colleges formed before 1964, according to AL.com. HBCUs are a vital part to the Alabama’s state history and even to its economy. With schools like Alabama State University and Alabama A&M University, it might be surprising to note that HBCUs have contributed more than one billion dollars to the state’s economy, according to UNCF.

Also its not just black students attending HBCU’s/ Non-Black students accounted for approximately 30% of all students enrolled at HBCUs.

A study by The Atlantic found that “the percentage of black students at HBCUs has declined by more than a third since 1985, while the percentage of white students has increased by more than a third.” This change is most notable at HBCUs with the highest percentage of white enrollment, such as Howard University and Spelman College..

According to a report from Pew Research Center, the percentage of white students at HBCUs stood at 17 percent in 2020, up from 13 percent in 1980. Graduate, professional, and online programs at HBCUs tend to draw non-Black students at higher rates

Fisk University, Jubilee Hall - Photographer Jack Boucher

If not for HBCU’s those longing for a higher education would never have received one. There are more the 107 HBCUs across United States making up three percent of colleges nationwide. HBCUs graduate nearly 50 percent of Black teachers, 70 percent of Black doctors and dentists; and 80 percent of Black lawyers, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Don’t count the HBCU’s out, they are educating thousands of students yearly. And will continue to do so.

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