The Importance of HBCUs and the Family By Dr. Robert R. Jennings, President, Alabama A&M University, Special Guest Author

In 1993, President William Jefferson Clinton, acting on the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, established the "President's Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities" through the Office of the Secretary of Education. The Board was charged with creating, preparing, and issuing an annual report to the President on the results of the participation of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in federal programs. The Board was also charged with providing advice to the President and to the Secretary of Education on the needs of these institutions in the areas of infrastructure, academic programs, faculty, and institutional development.

Further, the Board was asked to make annual recommendations on how to increase the role of the private sector. This included the role of private foundations in strengthening HBCUs with particular emphasis given to enhancing institutional planning and development, strengthening fiscal stability and financial management, and improving institutional infrastructure, including the use of technology to ensure the long-term viability and enhancement of these institutions. This was and still is an important endeavor in the life of our nation and, in particular, the estimated 105 HBCUs that serve our country and territories.

This act is also important because these institutions have played and continue to play a key role in the lives of this nation at large, African Americans, and the black family in particular. In fact, the black family and historically black colleges and universities are intertwined and have complemented each other for many years.

Unlike the thousands of immigrants who flooded American shores throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, African Americans were brought to the country as a source of free slave labor for the fields of the American South and ultimately, as developers of the nation. With the emancipation of slaves as an outcome of the Civil War, the earnest education of newly freed men, women and children finally became an issue. Thus, the birth of the HBCU grew out of this series of events. While many private black institutions of higher education were founded in the years immediately following the Civil War, the Morrill Act of 1890 brought about several additional black public schools to further the educational needs of African Americans who had long been left out of the American pursuit of happiness.

World War II gave birth to the GI Bill of Rights, which accorded every man or woman, including African-American families, access to education and home ownership. Affirmative Action launched in the mid-1960s was aimed at mending some of the past patterns and practices of discrimination that impacted the African-American family, while opening access to higher education to many minority groups and helping America to ensure equal access and a more productive life for black families in general.

As remains true today, HBCUs like the newly freed black families of the nineteenth century, often started out with meager resources. What sustained both was the collective dedication and hope for a better future exuded by special people. Yet, in spite of their struggles, ranging from paltry budgets, weakening infrastructures, and turnover, HBCUs and black families have proudly done more with less while simultaneously out-stepping majority institutions in training and producing most of the nation's black professionals. Similarly, it has been reported that more than 75 percent of all black doctorate degree holders earned their undergraduate degrees at HBCUs.

Additionally, approximately 214,000, or 16 percent of all African-American higher education students in the nation are enrolled at HBCUs, which account for only three percent of all higher education institutions in America. Still, HBCUs are important to higher education attainment for numerous African-American families, and these institutions continue to contribute much to the social, economic, and political balance of the country.

HBCUs are a jewel in the cap of American higher education despite the scars from centuries of discrimination and inaccessibility heaped upon African-American families. The contributions these schools make to the fabric of American life are indisputable. HBCUs, through their spirit and their numerous programs and services, are especially significant to the African-American family, certainly those in the South. These institutions are models of perseverance, hard work, quality instruction, meaningful research, and service to their communities, which is a major cornerstone of the American family.

It is unfortunate that the question is still being asked today as to whether or not these institutions are needed. The answer is a qualified "yes!" In fact, if these institutions did not exist, they would need to be created because with the deterioration of families in general, the public and private sectors must join alliances to do what it can to help sustain and strengthen the family unit. In other words, it's good for America and the world.

As purports Beverly Daniel Tatum, president of Spelman College, and author of Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? and A Psychologist Explains the Development of Identity, "HBCUs are the preferred choice for many talented Black students. College choice is a reflection of identity---a statement about how you see yourself, who you are now, and who you hope to become. Students are drawn to environments where they see themselves reflected in powerful ways, places where they see themselves as central to the educational enterprise." Since research continues to show that education, including Extension, is the cornerstone of strengthening families, these institutions cannot be underestimated.

Tatum is right. Colleges must be a place where all students have the opportunity and the encouragement to achieve at a high standard. To do so will strengthen the family unit and strong families will ultimately yield a stronger nation.

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