The recent bomb threats to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are yet another reminder that racism plagues our nation. This reminder comes every time we are reminded to #saytheirnames in remembrance of Black people who have been killed. In response to the racism and racial injustice highlighted through these tragedies, the COVID-19 health crisis, and Trump’s presidency, institutions of higher education have been challenged to confront racism in their own histories, policies, and practices. Many institutions have bolstered efforts towards diversity, equity, and inclusion. As students of all races develop their own stance against this injustice, institutions of higher education also have the responsibility of fostering student activism. Institutions engaged in this work can use Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) as models for understanding how to cultivate student activists.

HBCU Student Activism: Past and Present

With Ida B. Wells-Barnett and W.E.B. Du Bois among their alumni, it is evident that HBCUs from their naissance have produced activist-leaders. During the Civil Rights Movement, students from HBCUs “were the backbone of many southern protests and sit-ins” (Wheatle & Commodore, 2019, p. 8). The most famous of these students is likely the Greensboro Four, young men from North Carolina A & T State University who ignited a wave of student sit-ins during this era (Flowers, 2005; Franklin, 2003). Many HBCU alumni, such as Ella Baker, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Thurgood Marshall, were leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. The Black Power Movement brought another wave of protests at HBCUs with students calling for more Black administrators and faculty. They also called for the curriculum to include the culture and history of Africa and the African diaspora (Aiello, 2012; Azore, 2018; Franklin, 2003; Wheatle & Commodore, 2019).

Today, HBCU students continue to organize, lead, and participate in social justice initiatives. Beginning in 2008 at Prairie View A&M, students advocated for their voting rights until an early voting site was placed near the campus in 2016 (Martinez & Hallmark, 2018). At a 2017 rally, Howard students called for their administration to bar then President Trump from campus along with other demands (Kreighbaum, 2017). After George Floyd’s murder, HBCU students joined others across the country in protest. Some of these students took leadership roles, such as the four HBCU students who organized a protest in Jackson, Mississippi (Williams, 2020). In 2021, Howard students protested for better student housing conditions as well as  affiliate Trustee seats (Carraso, 2021). This legacy of HBCU student activism is not a coincidence. HBCUs cultivate this activism by having service-oriented missions, being the example for their students, and validating their students’ cultural values. 

How HBCUs Cultivate Student Activists

1. Mission to Uplift and Serve the Community

The missions of HBCUs are a key element in cultivating student activists. An essential part of these institutions’ missions always has been the social uplift of Black people (Anderson, 1988; Cole, 2009; Douglas, 2012).  Even W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, who were in staunch opposition on many other issues, agreed on the necessity of this goal of uplift (Gasman & McMickens, 2010). Another important part of HBCU missions is serving the community (Cole, 2009; Gasman et al., 2015; U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 2010). Gasman and McMickens (2010) found in their analysis of mission statements from 39 public, four-year HBCUs that serving the local, national, and international community was the most common element. The mission of service and uplift cultivates activism because it sets the expectation that the institution and its students will take responsibility for their communities and work towards achieving communal goals.

• Being the Example

HBCUs exemplify the commitment to serving the community that they hope to engender in their students. Gasman et al. (2015) showed historical evidence of this commitment in their study of 39 private HBCUs from 1944-1965. In addition to “[providing] day care, voter registration, entertainment, adult learner programs, community outreach, [and] food pantries,” these HBCUs also brought resources into the community and offered important facilities, like their libraries, for community use (Gasman et al., 2015, p. 359). Public HBCUs demonstrated this same commitment (Gasman et al., 2015). HBCUs still prioritize serving their communities. Community development projects led by Benedict College, LeMoyne-Owen College, and Texas Southern University aimed to provide affordable housing and to build the economy (Liou et al., 2007). Xavier University’s Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities, Research and Education provides support to the New Orleans community through training and outreach (Akbar & Sims, 2018). In 2010, Paul Quinn College, whose surrounding community is a food desert, turned its football field into We Over Me Farm. The farm provides organic produce and nutrition education to the community (“We Over Me,” n.d.). Through Morgan Community Mile, Morgan State University collaborates with local partners on initiatives for the community around the university (“Morgan Community Mile,” n.d.). Through these kinds of initiatives, HBCUs set an example for their students, which creates a campus culture that encourages students to prioritize serving their communities.

• Validating Students’ Values through Shared Culture

The HBCU commitment to community is a natural outgrowth of the fact that these institutions are an integral part of Black communities. As Douglas (2012) contended, “the stakeholders and students [of HBCUs] … make up the very fabric of [the external] Black communities” (p. 384). This interconnectedness leads to a reciprocal relationship between HBCUs and these communities that is “rooted in the sharing of culture” (Douglas, 2012, p. 384). Sharing culture means that the institutions’ values reinforce and are reinforced by the cultural values of Black people, who constitute the majority of HBCU students—76% as of 2018 (“Fast Facts”, n.d.). By entwining shared values into campus culture, HBCUs create spaces inside and outside the classroom for culturally relevant education that empowers students by validating the knowledge and practices they bring from their communities. This validation of what Yosso (2005) called Community Cultural Wealth makes students feel supported and empowers them to support others. It encourages them to remain committed to the goal of improving and uplifting their communities.

What can be learned from HBCUs about cultivating student activists?

HBCUs have had a long, sustained history cultivating student activists. Although the HBCU context is unique, there are two takeaways for other institutions engaged in fostering student activism.

1. HBCUs demonstrate the necessity of valuing community by having community-focused, service-oriented missions and by exemplifying these missions through their own service and outreach. When an institution centers serving the community, it creates a campus culture that values working toward communal betterment. So, students are encouraged to work beyond individual goals.
2. HBCUs demonstrate the importance of aligning with students’ values in cultivating activism. Educators must empower students by recognizing their community cultural wealth. When students’ knowledges and values are validated through the campus culture, students feel supported and motivated to take action against injustice.

The COVID-19 health crisis and Trump’s presidency illuminated the racial injustice that is part of the fabric of this nation. Institutions of higher education must respond by changing their own discriminatory policies and practices while also supporting their students who have taken up the mantra “no justice; no peace” as a stance against injustice. HBCUs serve as models for institutions engaged in this work.

About the Scholar

References

Aiello, T. (2012). Violence is a classroom: The 1972 Grambling and Southern Riots and the trajectory of Black student protest. The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, 53(3), 261-291.

Akbar, R., & Sims, M. J. (2018).  Surviving Katrina and keeping our eyes on the prize: The strength of legacy and tradition in New Orleans’s HBCU teacher preparation programs. Urban Education, 43(4), 445-462.   

Anderson, J. D. (1988). The education of blacks in the south, 1860-1935. The University of North Carolina Press.

Azore, K. (2018, March 31). 50 years later: The demonstration that changed Howard and the legacy it left. The Hilltop: The Student Voice of Howard University. https://thehilltoponline.com/

2018/03/31/50-years-later-the-demonstration-that-changed-howard-and-the-legacy-it-left/

Carraso, M. (2021, November 16). Howard students end sit-in. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/11/16/howard-university-reaches-agreement-student-protesters

Cole, E. R. (2009). African American women at Historically Black Colleges during the Civil Rights Movement. Journal of Indiana University Student Personnel Association, 42, 20–28.

Douglas, T. M. O. (2012). HBCUs as sites of resistance: The malignity of materialism, western masculinity, and spiritual malefaction. Urban Review, 44, 378–400. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-012-0198-1  

Fast facts: Historically Black Colleges and Universities. (n.d.). National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=667

Flowers, D. B. (2005). The launching of the student sit-in movement: The role of black women at Bennett College. The Journal of African American History, 90(1/2), 52-63.

Franklin, V. P. (2003). Patterns of student activism at Historically Black Universities in the United States and South Africa, 1960–1977. Journal of African American History, 88(2), 204–217.

Gasman, M. & McMickens, T. L. (2010). Liberal or professional education?: The missions of public Black Colleges and Universities and their impact on the future of African Americans. Souls,   12(3), 286-305. https://doi.org/10.1080/10999949.2010.499800

Gasman, M., Spencer, D., and Orphan, C. (2015). “Building bridges, not fences”: A history of civic engagement at private Black colleges and universities, 1944—1965. History of Education Quarterly, 55(3), 346-379. https://doi.org/10.1111/hoeq.12125

Kreighbaum, A. (2017, February 14). Trump backlash at Howard. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/02/14/howard-students-protest-trump-devos

Liou, N., Davis, L., & Ards, S. (2007). Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Three case studies of experiences in community development (Vol. 1). U.S. Department of Housing and

Urban Development Office of Policy Development & Research. https://www.huduser.gov/publications/pdf/hbcu_vol1.pdf

Martinez, A., & Hallmark, T. (2018). Spotlight on MSIs: Turning student activism into votes. Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions. https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/95160/TurningStudentActivism.pdf?sequence=1

Morgan Community Mile. (n.d.). Morgan State University. https://www.morgan.edu/research_and_economic_development/outreach_programs/morgan_community_mile_.html

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. (2010). The educational effectiveness of Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Briefing Report. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED513988.pdf

We over me. (n.d.). Paul Quinn College. https://www.pqc.edu/we-over-me-farm

Wheatle, K. I. E., & Commodore, F. (2019). Reaching back to move forward: The historic and contemporary role of student activism in the development and implementation of higher education policy. The Review of Higher Education, 42, 5-35. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2019.0043

Williams, L. (2020, June 10). HBCU students organize thousands for protest in Jackson. The Mississippi Link. https://themississippilink.com/2020/06/10/hbcu-students-organize-thousands-for-protest-in-jackson/

Yosso, T. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69-91, https://doi.org/10.1080/1361332052000341006