hbcus
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The Finessing of Howard University
If you are black, you likely know what it means to “finesse” something: Finesse (verb): To acquire smoothly and without force. The art of persuasion or trickery, in which an individual is able to get something he or she wants with cunning and prowess. If you are black, it is also statistically unlikely that you…
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The 1st Museum Dedicated to America’s Historically Black Colleges Is Open in Washington, DC
A 638-square-foot storefront on Georgia Avenue in Washington, D.C., now houses the first museum in the world dedicated to HBCUs. Inside it, visitors will find historic photos and memorabilia from different HBCUs and prominent grads, as well as important artifacts from black American culture, like early issues of Ebony and Jet. The museum, which opened…
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The Mutiny at Hampton University
Students at one of America’s top HBCUs are protesting a long list of problems faced by students at the school, including sexual assault, safety, food and the lack of maintenance of campus facilities. The long-simmering situation at Hampton University is reaching a slow boil, pitting the student body against the university’s leadership and administration. Faced…
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10 Thoughts on Tell Them We Are Rising, the Documentary About the Story of HBCUs
As an alumnus of Morehouse College and a staunch advocate for HBCUs, I was very excited to finally see the Stanley Nelson film Tell Them We Are Rising, a documentary about HBCUs. Overall, I thought it was cool, with some very interesting stories and facts, but I believe it suffered from a time crunch. Ultimately,…
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Maryland Governor Tries to Settle HBCUs’ Lawsuit With $100 Million; Schools Say ‘What Else You Got?’
Years ago, The Root Editor-in-Chief Danielle Belton and I were having a conversation about America’s jacked-up relationship with black people. We were enslaved for more than 200 years, lived under American apartheid for another century, and then finally, in the last 50 years or so, America has made a half-hearted attempt to erase its terrible…
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Low Graduation Rates Aren’t an HBCU Thing
A black woman with a teenage son told me that several people had sent her the recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution article about black colleges “struggling” with low graduation rates to warn her against sending her son to an HBCU. The article’s headline stated that the six-year graduation rates at “many” HBCUs are lower than 20 percent.…
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Report Finds Some HBCUs Graduating Less Than 1 Out of 5 Freshmen Within 6 Years
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, after analyzing federal data tracking graduation and retention rates for HBCUs, came across an alarming finding. At 20 HBCUs, six-year graduation rates were at 20 percent or lower in 2015. To frame it another way, only 1 in 5 enrolled freshmen ended up graduating within six years. For perspective, the 2015 national…
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Watch: Black Colleges in the Age of Trump Chronicles Donald Trump’s Treatment of HBCUs
When Stanley Nelson agreed to discuss his new op-ed documentary on HBCUs’ strained relationship with the Trump administration, I struggled to find the terms to describe him. Simply calling Nelson a “filmmaker” seemed inadequate. Referring to him as the premier documentarian of the black experience seemed a little hyperbolic (not to mention that it contained…
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Queen: CCH Pounder Celebrates the Art of Black Womanhood With an Exhibition at Xavier University
If you watch television, chances are you’ve watched CCH Pounder. Over the past 38 years, the Emmy-winning Guyanese actress—who celebrated her 65th birthday on Christmas Day—has accumulated well over 100 acting credits, including recurring roles in the Avatar franchise, ER, The Shield, Law and Order: SVU, Sons of Anarchy and, currently, NCIS: New Orleans. New…