Things you should know about Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU):
- HBCU are colleges and universities established before 1964 (passage of the Civil Rights Act) to educate Black (those of African decent) people and is accredited by a U.S. Department of Education approved agency – thus we cannot create additional Black Colleges, we can only lose them
- HBCU are diverse: most HBCU are predominantly Black, four have more White students than Black, and one is a Hispanic-serving institution; anyone who meets the admission criteria may attend
- HBCU have never discriminated, people of all races and ethnicities have been and still are welcome to attend and find employment at HBCU; Black Colleges have been diverse in all ranks (student body, faculty, administration) since the first HBCU was established in 1837
- HBCU come in all shapes and sizes: 4-year institutions, 2-year colleges, public/state supported, private/independently operated, liberal arts, high-research/”top tier”, NCAA division one in sports, NAIA sports, religiously affiliated, and non-traditional (as in most students are over the age of 25)
- there are approximately 100 HBCU currently in operation with full accreditation (Thurgood Marshall College Fund, 2015)
- only 2% of U.S. higher education instutions
- enroll 9% of all Black students in U.S. colleges and universities
- graduate nearly 20% of all African Americans who earn undergraduate degrees
- 3 HBCU medical schools: Meharry Medical College, Howard University College of Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine
- 6 HBCU law schools: NCCU, Southern, UDC, Howard, FAMU, Texas Southern
- 90% of HBCU are located in the American South, the region of the country where most African Americans still live
- Alabama is the state with the most HBCU with 13, North Carolina is a close second with 11, and Georgia hosts 10 Black Colleges (Atlanta alone is home to 6 HBCU)