Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Basic Facts

Historically Black colleges and universities are defined as institutions established specifically for the education of African Americans. Black colleges [Page 408]reflect the tension between the aspirations of the African Americans for equality and economic and social justice and the second-class citizenship of African Americans in American society.

HBCU's represent 105 colleges and universities, down from a peak of 117. Thirty-eight are private, mostly religious. Many still have affiliations with their founding religious organizations. The remaining Black universities and colleges are public institutions that are located in the South, with the exception of Central State University in Ohio and Cheney State and Lincoln universities in Pennsylvania.

While they account for only 3 percent of all colleges and universities in the United States, HBCUs produce approximately 23 percent of all bachelor's degrees earned by African Americans, 13 percent of all master's degrees, and 20 percent of all first professional degrees. Three quarters of all African American Ph.D.s in the United States did their undergraduate work at historically Black colleges and universities. Early in the twentieth century, the Black militant and scholar W E. B. Du Bois described how Black colleges inculcated their students with a sense of racial pride and instilled in them the confidence to fight against the injustices of the American social order.

Historical Context

Higher education for African Americans was limited prior to the Civil War. There were only twenty-eight African Americans recorded as receiving a college degree up to that time. Most opportunities for higher education for African Americans were limited to the New England and Middle Atlantic states, and were highly restricted. Oberlin College in Ohio and Berea College in Kentucky were among the few colleges open to African Americans.

Cheney State University (1837) and Lincoln University (1854) in Pennsylvania and Wilburforce College (1856) in Ohio are generally considered the first colleges established for African Americans. The American Colonization Society, which was concerned with sending African Americans back to Africa, and various Protestant religious denominations were the two major groups supporting the establishment of Black colleges during this period.