Abstract
Historically black colleges and universities prepare a disproportionately large percentage of black students for the world of work and graduate school. They also prepare them to respond productively when they encounter race-related problems.
Joseph, a black male high school student who grew up in a suburban, predominantly white Southern city, is a first-generation college goer. His parents, extended family members, and community leaders emphasized the value of obtaining a postsecondary education and gave him opportunities to engage in meaningful educational activities. His parents instilled a strong work ethic and encouraged him to exceed his own expectations. Ultimately, Joseph began his search for college.
In a business class at the high school Joseph attended, a white teacher, Miss Claire, held an informal discussion about college that focused on the state colleges and universities where most of his classmates would enroll. HoweverJoseph wanted a collegiate experience different from his white high school peers. Community leaders had told him about historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). But, when Joseph asked Miss Claire about attending a historically black university, she said, “Those schools would not be the best fit for you because those schools are not the best schools.” Joseph was dismayed by her statement because he trusted her counsel. Miss Claire's lack of knowledge and erroneous assumptions about HBCUs may have steered Joseph away from considering the value of attending a black institution.
Introduction to HBCUs
This situation is not unusual. In fact, some teachers and guidance counselors discourage African-American students from attending HBCUs due to misplaced assumptions that they won't be sufficiently prepared for graduate school or their chosen career. Today, most African-American students attend predominantly white colleges and universities. However, HBCUs enrolled the majority of African-American students in higher education until the early 1970s, and they continue to provide access to African-American, other students of color, and some white students in their undergraduate and graduate programs. The post-1970s change in enrollment resulted from activism that sparked increased access to predominantly white institutions (PWIs). Also, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Higher Education Act of 1964 alleviated some barriers to access and increased enrollment of students of color at PWIs. About 300,000 students are enrolled at more than 100 HBCUs in the United States. Ninety percent of all HBCU undergraduate students attend four-year colleges and universities, while a small percentage (10%) attend community colleges. HBCUs represent only 3% of American postsecondary institutions, yet they enroll 14% and graduate 28% of all African-American undergraduate students.
Despite the white supremacist policies that shadowed their establishment, existence, and survival as well as their comparatively lesser financial resources (Willie, 1978), HBCUs have long offered meaningful educational opportunities to African-American women and men. Over time, these institutions have provided a space to liberate and empower black aspirations for the American dream. This liberation has led to success for many HBCU graduates in a wide variety of professions. Namely, prominent black leaders such as Oprah Winfrey (Tennessee State University), James Clyburn (South Carolina State University), Marian Wright Edelman (Spelman College), and Ralph Ellison (Tuskegee University) have storied legacies in media, politics, literature, and community service. And some well-known black intellectuals in education such as Vivian L. Gadsden (Fisk University), James Earl Davis (Morehouse College), and Shaun R. Harper (Albany State University) attended HBCUs as undergraduates.
Overall, the contemporary mission of HBCUs uses a hybrid approach of teaching critical thinking through a liberal arts education and practical skills in professional fields, such as business, engineering, and health, for the advancement of African-American life (Gasman & McMickens, 2010). In addition, HBCUs provide a social network for students and graduates, creating informal and formal opportunities and resources that advance African-American life (Brown & Davis, 2001). HBCUs maintain an ongoing commitment to racial and social justice. Samuel DuBois Cook, a noted African-American HBCU alumnus, suggests that HBCU graduates have a responsibility to be racial and social justice advocates for the betterment of American society due to the ways that “racism, sexism, and poverty impoverish us all and make us all tragic losers.” Cook's assertion coincides with the crux of my dissertation study, which seeks to understand how HBCUs prepare students to confront racism in predominantly white graduation programs and workplaces.
HBCUs represent only 3% of American postsecondary institutions, yet they enroll 14% and graduate 28% of all African-American undergraduate students.
I conducted over 80 interviews with graduating seniors and alumni representing 20 HBCUs in 10 states, which resulted in a theoretical model displayed in Figure 1. A central category was operationalized from the data — racism readiness, the preparation of black women and men to navigate and productively negotiate racist persons and racist encounters in predominantly white postundergraduate spaces.
Racism readiness theoretical model
Precollege socialization
The central category consists of two parts — precollege socialization and institutional factors at HBCUs. Precollege socialization is racial messaging from parents and other family members. Most participants were taught lessons from their parents, particularly their fathers, about racism in American society and to not allow the social ill to “hinder [them] from doing what [they] want to accomplish.” For example, Laylah, a graduate student, said she learned lessons by volunteering to counter racist situations in her community:
PDK 2012 Dissertation Winner
Tryan L. McMickens, an assistant professor in the master of education in administration of higher education program at Suffolk University, Boston, Mass., has received the 2011-12 PDK International Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award. He earned his doctoral degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.
His dissertation examines how historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) prepare their students for racism in postcollegiate environments.
“I am most passionate about teaching, learning, and exploring the ways education can positively influence one's life,” said McMickens, who has worked in undergraduate student affairs, academic affairs, and institutional advancement at several institutions.
“My research not only has implications for HBCUs, but also offers strategies to enhance teaching and learning, student development, and career development at predominantly white institutions.” In his research, McMickens interviewed more than 80 alumni and graduating seniors from 20 HBCUs.
He received a $5,000 award from the PDK Educational Foundation.
FINALISTS
PANEL OF REVIEWERS
So early on, there was an all-black neighborhood adjacent to the neighborhood we lived in, and they didn't have sewage, sometimes they were still using well water instead of running water — I'm not familiar with the technical terms for some of the pipes. So, very early on, I remember, he told me, he was like — they're being treated differently because it's an all-black neighborhood; if it had been white people living there, they wouldn't have done that, but we're going to help them get a grant so that the government can come in and replace it. I had to be 11. My dad had me going door to door collecting information, helping people, trying to make sure they had everything they needed to win that grant in order to get the water. He taught me, he said, “you know, you deserve anything anybody else does, and no one should treat you differently because of the color of your skin.” So, he started with me when I was very small and taught me how to give back to others and to always begin to recognize when I'm being treated a certain way because of my skin color and how to deal with it because he knew that sometimes it would be a hard road.
Suzie, a workplace professional, recalled messages of empowerment from her mother. These messages were instrumental in countering the deficit-laden stories she was later told about African-Americans:
Everything that she showed me was very empowering, just to note that there was such a vast array of what we came from, civilizations that we built, how we developed mathematic systems, how we adorned ourselves in attire, rites of passage — all of that was beautiful to me because, in America, you've got all these people here from everywhere, and people try so hard to fit in, they often divorce what they came with, all the traditions and language, and you lose the richness and understanding of who people are in that, because they're moving further away from who they are. So, it was like magical to learn about this.
Suzie reported the uneasiness and discomfort experienced when the onus was on her to discuss “the black experience” to her high school classmates:
They thought that we should read all of the great black books for the contemporary period that had just passed, I guess. So, there was Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye, and then Push. I had heard about all of these books before — we also read Things Fall Apart. I found this pattern by the time we got to Push that every time it was time to discuss the book, that the teacher would always say — OK, wait, before anyone wants to put their input out there, what does [Suzie] think — and I had to set the tone for what was going to be appropriate to say about the story, about the character, the environment in which Precious lived. It was too overbearing.
Another unique classroom story resulted from a high school assignment during Black History Month. Danielle, a graduate student interviewee, recalled the following chain of events:
It was AP English. It was my senior year. I guess she forgot about Black History Month, because the last two weeks in the months she was like, “We need to do a paper,” and she picked like four people. I know one was Michael Jordan. One was Condoleezza Rice. The other was Marcus Garvey, and I can't remember who the last person was. I'm like, “Oh, Marcus Garvey.” I wrote a paper about Marcus Garvey and his beliefs. It was only a two-page paper. I was just talking about how he believed that people should be separate, especially whites and blacks; and they had this whole back-to-Africa movement. So when we got our papers back, everyone was looking at me because I had all this red ink all over my papers. I was a really good student, so they were looking like, “What did you do?” I started flipping, and she had attached a whole other page written in red. She was pretty much saying I was racist and that I believed that blacks and whites should be separated. I was like, “That wasn't the point of the paper. The point of the paper was to analyze Marcus Garvey and his beliefs and present them.”
Institutional factors at HBCUs
Four HBCU “institutional context” factors played an equally important role in participants' preparation to confront racism in predominantly white postundergraduate contexts: safe space, personal empowerment, learning cross-context while learning etiquette, and socializing exceptionalism. Safe space, according to the participants, entailed how HBCUs provided an informal, open, and comfortable space for students to discuss issues of race and racism. Participants defined personal empowerment as the ways HBCUs provide empowering messages of self-worth and friendly competition to their students. Learning cross-context involves messages that faculty and staff convey to students about the HBCU versus PWI context. One professor illuminated her point, “We know that this is not the real world.” Then she juxtaposed the HBCU context with a predominantly white corporate setting.
HBCUs play a crucial role in preparing students to handle racist encounters after earning their baccalaureate degrees.
Most study participants said these messages came from faculty members as well as higher education administrators. Often, when these dichotomous stories were shared with participants, faculty and student affairs professionals reiterated the importance of learning etiquette, including the proper and appropriate ways to dress, eat, interview, and speak in predominantly white workplaces. The final preparation characteristic is socializing exceptionalism, which refers to explicit and implicit messages of expressing best efforts and being exceptional in their collegiate pursuits and afterwards. These characteristics shaped the ways participants reacted to work and study experiences and how they dealt with encounters every day.
Implications
Findings from this research inform the education community in useful and constructive ways. First, it is important that school districts across the United States consider recruiting, retaining, and hiring HBCU alumni. The racism readiness study participants are dedicated to racial and social justice and prepared to do exceedingly well in workplace settings and graduate school contexts.
Second, study participants revealed that HBCUs provide in-class and out-of-class opportunities to discuss race and racism in American society. Some of these discussions aren't intentional, yet they become incorporated as curriculum in some college courses. Many HBCU students said the environment is inclusive and that they felt comfortable having such conversations.
Third, this research has implications for HBCUs generally and HBCU admissions, marketing, and communications departments in particular. Admissions departments could use the racism readiness findings to inform high school students and parents about the relevance of HBCUs when students transition from college to career. These conversations can be facilitated at high school college fairs, college open houses, community events, African-American churches and religious organizations, and via college and university admission web sites. Furthermore, it is important that marketing and communications departments share stories about how their respective college environments are preparing students for workplace and graduate school settings.
Conclusions
For the sake of this summative article, I have discussed the preparation characteristics of my grounded theory model, which has implications for school districts, HBCUs, and their students. However, through this research other constructs were also explored, including experiences that HBCU graduating seniors anticipate in graduate school and the workplace, strategies on how participants productively respond to racism, and nuances on the ways graduating seniors are prepared for postcollegiate environments.
Most importantly, this research affirms that HBCUs are necessary and vital in addressing racial inequities and disparities. HBCUs play a crucial role in preparing students to handle racist encounters after earning their baccalaureate degrees.