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John S. Wilson Jr., who served as president of Morehouse College and the White House adviser on historically black colleges, said the institutions, known collectively as HBCUs, must seize this moment.
“Is this a lasting moment that constitutes a new era?” Said Dr. Wilson, whose forthcoming book, “Up From Uncertainty,” focuses on the future of historically black colleges. “I think that answer could be ‘yes’ for many HBCUs. Unfortunately, I think it will also be “no” for some institutions. “
Most black colleges and universities were established in the 19th century to educate people freed from slavery. Some students literally had to build their schools: at Tuskegee University in Alabama, they dug the clay and molded and fired the bricks used to build their campus.
Schools have become centers of scholarship and intellectualism, training most of the country’s black doctors, teachers, and judges, and boasting of alumni such as Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., filmmaker Spike Lee, the writer Toni Morrison and the Reverend. Raphael Warnock, a Democratic senator from Georgia.
The more established colleges have used the new funds to consolidate their legacy. Spelman and Morehouse, both in Atlanta, and Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, have started entrepreneurship programs, for example. And Howard in particular has managed to attract talented teachers who otherwise might have gone elsewhere.
Ms Hannah-Jones, a writer for the New York Times Magazine who won a 2020 Pulitzer Prize for her work on Project 1619, rejected an offer from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after controversy over whether she would be established. She chose to join Howard, bringing with her $ 20 million in donations from the Knight Foundation, Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation and an anonymous donor.
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