A historic moment for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, “A vital part of our ecosystem”
Over the past 12 months, the profile of Historically Black Colleges and Universities has been raised, as notable alumni make history, fundraising from philanthropists and the federal government exponentially increases donations, and institutions continue to thrive during the pandemic.
Video Transcript
BARACK OBAMA: Many of you could have attended any school in this country. But you chose an HBCU, specifically, because it would help you sew seeds of change. You chose to follow in the fearless footsteps of people who shook the system to its core, civil rights icons, like Thurgood Marshall, and Dr. King, storytellers, like Toni Morrison, and Spike Lee. You chose to study medicine at Meharry and engineering at NCANT. Because you want to lead and serve, and I'm here to tell you, you made a great choice.
MICHAEL LOMAX: HBCU's are deeply rooted in the black communities, and they are cornerstone institutions, just like the black church, just like the black family of a healthy black community. And while they don't and cannot educate every African-American, they are there for those who think they're the best school for them. They don't question their ability.
They assume all of their students can achieve at very high levels. They help build their confidence and prepare them with very strong educations to compete in that larger world that they will go out into. And when we compare the black student who attended the historically black college versus the black student who attended a predominantly white institution, we do find that the students who attended the historically black colleges say that they got more mentoring, more support. They were prepared for the challenges of working in a predominantly white world, the building of the self-confidence and the sense of self that, I think, everyone needs to have to compete effectively in the larger society.
In the 1830s, we began to create schools, where black people could earn an education. What most Americans don't realize is that during slavery, it was against the law to teach a black person to read and to write. Because slave owners recognized that it was ignorance and the inability to read and to write, which would be a part of the enslavement system that would keep black people on the bottom of American society. So most black colleges were not founded, until after the Civil War.
They were founded by missionaries, and finally, in many of the Southern states that had been part of the Confederacy, public institutions were established. Those institutions were treated as second class institutions. They didn't get the same level of philanthropic support, or state support, or federal support that predominantly white institutions got. Yet, they still did the work.
They did more with less. The black middle class is the product of historically black colleges in this country. Our doctors, our lawyers, teachers, our judges, our nurses, our front line professionals during this pandemic, the vast majority of them, earned their degrees at historically black colleges.
People need to understand the power and importance of historically black colleges and universities in our country's history and the work that they continue to do. And I think when they do understand that, more Americans will see that these are a vital part of our higher education ecosystem. Over the course of 2020, we saw 100,000 new donors come to UNCF.
Our fundraising has increased by over 400%. What we saw after COVID and then particularly after the murder of George Floyd was an outpouring of public belief that racial inequality, injustice, and racism had to end with a vice president who attended Howard University with mayors across this country who attended historically black colleges, civic leaders who are fighting against voter suppression and for civic engagement, like Stacey Abrams, a Spelman alumna. I think more people are recognizing that these are incredible institutions worthy of investment and worthy of public support.
