I have long been aware of the linkage between Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and segregated Black Pre-K through 12th grade schools. My earliest and most powerful cultural influencers – teachers, coaches, doctors and lawyers — were graduates of HBCUs. My superior Pre-K through 12th grade education, my passion for education, and my moral commitment to serve children were forged in Roanoke’s Black Community.
Although Laboratories of Democracy cites my work at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), my first “presidency,” the Fayetteville State University (FSU) outcomes were much more definitive. Without question, UAPB provided learning experiences which served us well at FSU. It was at UAPB where Hillary Clinton’s influence converted me from a typical college administrator, trying to get as many graduating seniors to enroll in MY school, to an ardent early childhood education advocate, especially Pre-K through Eighth-Grade.
I assumed leadership of FSU on January 1, 1988, which, at the time, was at the bottom of the University of North Carolina System in terms of student success. For example, the graduation rates were 5% in four years and 13% in seven years.
Early after I arrived, one Sunday afternoon, a state government official called and said that I had “intrigued” them with my arguments that cultural bias was not the principal factor that prevented Black students from achieving academic success, but educational deprivation was. He stated that they were willing to consider an appropriation to “test” my “theory,” but that I had to get a proposal to them early the next week. I began working immediately; and starting on Monday, a few colleagues and I completed the proposal, submitted it in time, and it was funded! (Three years later, such appropriations were extended to the other four HBCUs in the UNC System.)
We implemented a program titled Future Freshman Incentives — Reaching Students Today (FIRST). The FIRST program was a collaborative endeavor linking Fayetteville State University with parents, the public schools and communities. FSU “adopted” every rising seventh-grader in our six home and adjacent counties whose parents earned less than $22,000 annually. We tutored and mentored the students in their schools, in community locations, and on the FSU campus.
We also guaranteed scholarships for the freshman year, provided that parents and students had fulfilled their sworn commitments. Parents were required to be openly supportive; and students were required to achieve high standards of excellence in academics and character and perform public service. The program encouraged the students to enroll in college following graduation. The early awareness about the scholarships was critically important because many of the students may not otherwise finish high school or enroll in college without this incentive.
By 1995, we had tutored and mentored more than 20,000 K-12 students. FSU’s Academic Scholarship students, the heart of the FIRST program, were required to perform public service — most of them chose to work with K-12 students. They also managed the program which reduced staff costs to a pittance.
The changes effected at the university were a direct consequence of our intensive involvement with the students, their parents, and their teachers.
By December, 1994, our total enrollment had increased by 56%; Black enrollment had increased by 36%; local Black enrollment had increased by 72%; white enrollment had increased by 95%; graduate enrollment had increased by 108%; transfer enrollment had increased by 150%; the high school GPA had increased from 2.4 to 2.85; the SAT score had risen by 200 points (Black males – 200 points, Black females – 190 points; white students – 90 points); the percentage of students with SAT scores below 600 had dropped from 53.3% to Zero; and the percentage of students with SAT scores above 800 had risen from 8.6% to 46%. Degrees conferred in academic year 1991-1992 showed a 21% increase over 1990-91. By that time, changes to internal academic and academic support activities had been in place long enough to condition improved successes. In fact, most of the improvements had occurred by 1992. (Sources – Annual Reports to the UNC Board of Governors – 1989-1995)
In The Souls of Black Folks, WEB DuBois told us what Black colleges must do for African-Americans and for America: “They must maintain standards of relevant, contemporary education; seek the social regeneration of Blacks; help solve the problems of race contact and cooperation; and, above all, they must develop human beings.”
From 1875 to 1880; 1885 to 1890; and 1895 to 1900, combined, 165 African Americans graduated from northern white colleges. In the same three periods, combined, 1,056 African Americans graduated from HBCUs, most as teachers who returned to their communities.
The Brown v. the Board of Education and Adams v. Richardson cases resulted in a dramatic reduction in Black control of these national treasures; however, if not for HBCUs, America would not be nearly as desegregated as it is!
