The Value of an HBCU Education

“Education will set this tangle straight!” — W.E.B. DuBois

When I set foot on the campus of Fisk University, I knew almost nothing about HBCUs in general or Fisk in particular. In high school, I performed exceptionally well on the PSAT Test and was named a National Merit Semi-Finalist. I started receiving mail and offers from hundreds of colleges and universities nationwide. The ones I knew were mainly because of their football or basketball programs. Fortunately, someone in my family knew Fisk and steered me in that direction.

I was well aware of what a Predominantly White Institution (PWI) looked like. In 7th Grade, I attended University High, a private high school associated with and on the campus of the University of Minnesota. It later merged with the public school Marshall High to become Marshall University High. I spent six years on the fringe of the University of Minnesota campus, then the largest in the nation. I went to Gopher sports events, and our football team played home games in their stadium. But for Stan Humphries, I’d have drowned in the Olympic-sized swimming pool in Williams Arena. Not sure I ever said thank you, Stan… thanks!

My friends and I went to “keggers” on the banks of the Mississippi River with U of M students. We joined in anti-war protests and carried signs. While in college and doing a summer internship in Cincinnati, I took a summer school class in Economics at Xavier. I’m not unfamiliar with PWIs, but I’m so glad I went instead to Fisk.

I’m sure I can make the case that my education at Fisk was as good or better than any I could have gotten anywhere. While that’s true at Fisk, Morehouse, Howard, Spelman, Hampton, and others. It might not be universally true; it’s a claim I can’t document. What is universally true of every HBCU is that it gives one space to figure out what kind of Black person you will be. You get a four-year respite from being told how to be Black, often by those who know nothing of it.

I happened to be on the Fisk basketball team, which meant I got to visit dozens of HBCU campuses: Alabama State, LeMoyne-Owen, Stillman, Miles, Alabama A & M, Talladega, Savannah State, Fort Valley, Laine, Paine, and Morehouse among others. We visited PWI’s as well, that doesn’t make me an expert but does qualify me to have an opinion.

At an HBCU, in addition to caring professors, learning our history in addition to theirs. You come away with a sense of self not attainable at a Primary White Institution. Not that Black schools turn out a bunch of clones that are Black in the same manner. The graduates of HBCUs are as diverse a group as can be imagined; while the majority happen to be Black, an increasing percentage of non-Black students also attend HBCUs.

During that partial time out from the rest of the world. You learn what the Black experience has been for others, adopting some views and rejecting others while you determine how you are going to be Black. All the while not having to figure out, as a teenager, how to fit into a situation where you’re not always embraced and often rejected.

HBCUs aren’t perfect. Almost universally, complaints about long registration lines and poor cafeteria food exist. They offer the chance to embrace everything about being Black: the music, dancing, history, and whist, along with encouragement to excel and lead. HBCUs reinforce the responsibility to give back to your community. HBCUs promote a love affair with Blackness that doesn’t end upon graduation but lasts a lifetime. When you meet a fellow HBCU graduate at any point in your life after that, there is a bond. It can be tested or broken based on individual merits, but you start with something in common.

John P. Key, among others, performed a gospel song; the lyrics include:

You don’t know my story

You don’t know the things that I’ve been thru

You cannot imagine…

If you went to an HBCU, there’s a part of every graduate’s story you do know. There are commonalities, including a willingness to help each other and an understanding that we have to give back to our community and our institutions. Some question the ongoing need for HBCUs for whatever reason. I submit that no other institution serves in the same manner. As Prince might say, “Nothing Compares 2 U.”

Kamala Harris went to Howard, MLK attended Morehouse, and W.E. B. DuBois graduated from Fisk before attending Harvard. DuBois valued his Fisk education more. My children attended HBCUs, and I hope my grandchildren do as well.

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This post was previously published on AfroSapiophile.

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