The trite HBCU vs. PWI divide among Black folks

Get the Point!

When the United States Supreme Court recently eliminated race as a factor in university admissions, it predictably opened up many old wounds including one, whether Black students should attend an HBCU or PWI, that often leads to bitter division and insults on social media. 

My opinion on this particular subject, whether the talented Black students who may find the doors of elite PWI 's closed to them in light of last week's ruling should strictly focus on attending HBCU's, leads me to conclude that each student should choose the path that will lead them to success in the professional endeavors that best pique their personal interests. 

2023 Morehouse College commencement

As a son of two Florida A&M University grads who were the first in their families to attend college, and as a double HBCU graduate myself (Morehouse, B.A./Florida A&M, M.A.), I expend as much energy as possible in this blog and on social media praising and promoting America's storied Black Colleges. 

But like many HBCU graduates, my parents and I also earned graduate degrees from PWI's, with my father receiving a master's in criminology from Sam Houston State University while serving as a military police officer in the U.S. Army; my mother earning a master's in humanities and a doctorate in British Literature from Florida State University, while yours truly earned a law degree from the University of Florida. While those PWI graduate degrees were important to our professional crafts, our foundations and first loves were and forever will be tethered to our HBCU experiences. 

Five FAMU graduates counted in this photo of the Hobbs/Williams Clan

Now, unlike my parents who grew up during the Jim Crow era, I very easily could have attended a PWI out of high school—but none were really on my radar in large part because of the emphasis that my parents placed on their Black college experiences—and because I was surrounded by men and women in my predominantly Black neighborhood and schools who were proud to share their love for their HBCU alma maters like Southern University, Jackson State University, Tennessee State University, and Tuskegee University, to name a few. 

In fact, observe if you will the picture below, one taken prior to the 2018 FAMU High School Gallery of Distinction program:

Depicted above are Mrs. Horacine Lawrence-McCray (left), Mrs. Sylvia Bradwell (right), and Mrs. Barbara Trueblood (middle), my 4th, 5th, and 6th grade homeroom teachers, respectively. To my eternal appreciation, who I would eventually become as a professional was due, in large part, to their teaching/nurturing! You see, as a boy, I told Mrs. Lawrence-McCray, who grew up with my mother at FAMU High back in their day, that I wanted to be a newspaper writer someday so each Monday, she would bring a copy of the Sunday NY Times and old copies of the Wall Street Journal and place them on the activities table in the back of the classroom for me/us to read. 

Mrs. Bradwell, a classmate of both of my parents at FAMU in the 60's who spared no details about Jim Crow during her social studies lectures, used to tell me that I reminded her of her husband, the late Judge James Bradwell, and suggested that I should consider a career as a lawyer like him. 

Mrs. Trueblood, with her famous "darling dear," "son," and "it would behoove you" statements before getting our unruly behavior straight, was known for motivating us to give our very best in our academic efforts. I remember thanking her one time for "giving" me an "A" in her math class after making "B's" during the previous two grading periods, and she quickly cut me off and said, "son, I didn't give you anything, you earned every bit of that grade." Point taken 😄!

Again, that these teachers earned their educations from FAMU, Wiley, and Southern was not lost upon me or my schoolmates, as we collectively learned the names and faces of the Who's Who in Black History—and the HBCU's they attended or founded! Seriously, what would the Black experience in the 20th Century been like without the efforts of Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, a Fisk University graduate, Dr. Martin Luther King, a Morehouse Man, or Thurgood Marshall, a graduate of Lincoln University and Howard Law?

One of my good Kappa Brothers, Carlton Charles III, posted the following sobering figures about Black enrollment at several elite PWI schools WITH affirmative action as a sign that those numbers will drop even further in the years ahead:

Brown 7.0%

Harvard 6.6%

Yale 6.5%

Dartmouth 5.2%

Columbia 5.1%

Cornell 5.0%

William and Mary 5.0%

Princeton 4.7%

Conversely, lest we forget that Dr. DuBois also earned degrees from Harvard University, Dr. King earned graduate degrees from Crozer Seminary and Boston University, while Attorney Marshall, who eventually rose to become the first Black to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, was aided in his professional trek by his mentor, Charles Hamilton Houston, a graduate of two elite PWI's: Amherst College and Harvard Law!

For the above reasons, I fully believe that each Black student, in consultation with their family members, must choose a college that best suits their academic and social aims. As much as I enjoyed Morehouse upon arrival in 1990, there were other classmates who were absolutely miserable there and eventually transferred. The reverse is true, too, as some very proud Black College alumni started off at PWI's before finding their home at an HBCU. 

But in the end analysis, with higher education still being a key component in finding good paying jobs and creating devisable cross -generational wealth, the goal must remain to keep pathways open for Black students to expand their minds and coffers by enrolling and graduating from accredited institutions of learning!

Amir Rasul II, my little cousin, chose a full scholarship to play running back at Florida State University back in 2016 despite his deep FAMU football roots; his father, Amir Rasul, was a star running back for the Rattlers from 1987-90; his grandfather, Rudy Cambridge, was a star running back for the Rattlers from 1962-65 while his great uncle, Charles Hobbs, was a standout Rattler lineman/linebacker from 1958-62.

For Black students, those job prospects can be opened via higher education be it obtained at a historically Black or predominantly white school, as the racists don't care whether a Black person attended Harvard University or Hampton University, or graduated from Spelman College or Smith College, they simply want to make their version of America great by limiting the professional pursuits of persons of color—period!