The Color of Our Classroom, the Color of Our Future

Abstract

black colleges and universities (HBCUs) constitute only 3 percent of U.S. colleges and universities, yet they enroll 28 percent of all African American students in higher education and educate 40 percent of the black Americans who earn doctorates or first professional degrees. Just fifteen HBCUs accounted for half of the institutions that ranked highest in graduating African Americans who obtained a PhD in 2003-04 (www.webcaspar.nsf.gov). These statistics show just how important the black colleges are for producing African American PhDs and training black leaders. But these colleges are struggling to survive, and the loss of HBCUs could mean the disappearance of African American professors from U.S. classrooms. My own institution, Morgan State University, consistently ranks in the top 10 percent of the nation's HBCUs, of which there are slightly more than one hundred. Designated by the state of Maryland as a public urban university, Morgan was established in Baltimore in 1867, attained university status in 1975, and today has 7,000 students. Its mission is to address the needs associated with the urban community and to educate a relatively broad segment of Baltimore's increasingly diverse population. Part of that mission includes offering programs that increase the number of minority students with graduate degrees in areas of demonstrated need. Morgan State leads all other Maryland campuses in the number of bachelor's degrees awarded to African Americans and accounts for a relatively high percentage of the degrees received by African American graduates in English and other key fields. Historically, Morgan has been a national leader in educating African Americans who subsequently receive doctoral degrees from U.S. universities.