Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the black community. [1]
Overview
There are 103 historically black colleges in the United States today, including public and private, two-year and four-year institutions, medical schools and community colleges.[2]
The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, defines an HBCU as: "...any historically black college or university that was established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of black Americans, and that is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association determined by the Secretary [of Education] to be a reliable authority as to the quality of training offered or is, according to such an agency or association, making reasonable progress toward accreditation." [3] Most HBCU's were established after the American Civil War. Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), established in 1854, and Wilberforce University, established in 1856, were two of the few prominent institutions of higher education established for blacks prior to the American Civil War.
Other educational institutions currently have large numbers of blacks in their student body, but as they were founded (or opened their doors to African Americans) after the implementation of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court (the court decision which outlawed racial segregation of public education facilities) and The Higher Education Act of 1965, they are not historically black colleges, but have been termed "predominantly black." At the same time, some historically black colleges now have non-black majorities, with one especially notable example being West Virginia State University, whose student body has been roughly 90 percent white since the mid-1960s.
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External links
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Historically Black Colleges and Universities |
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