tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/hbcus-38001/articlesHBCUs – The Conversation2023-12-06T13:26:50Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2155812023-12-06T13:26:50Z2023-12-06T13:26:50ZCitizen science projects tend to attract white, affluent, well-educated volunteers − here’s how we recruited a more diverse group to identify lead pipes in homes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562552/original/file-20231129-21-kkvov4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C8%2C5431%2C3628&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A lead pipe in the kitchen ceiling of a home in Newark, N.J.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/NewarkLeadInWater/fb4c11b248d84f63ba555307855d6e23/photo">AP Photo/Julio Cortez</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recruiting participants for a citizen science project produced a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/%2010.5334/cstp.627">more diverse group</a> when people were signed up through partner organizations, such as schools and faith-based organizations, than when they joined on their own. We used this approach to recruit volunteers for <a href="http://crowdthetap.org">Crowd the Tap</a>, a citizen science initiative that crowdsources the locations of lead plumbing in homes.</p>
<p>We signed up 2,519 households through partner organizations, in addition to 497 households that signed up on their own. We recruited households from all 50 states, though the majority came from North Carolina. Our project was initially funded by the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/">Environmental Protection Agency</a>, which led to nationwide sampling, but additional funding from the <a href="https://wrri.ncsu.edu/">North Carolina Water Resources Research Institute</a> led to prioritizing sampling in North Carolina. </p>
<p>We recruited 2.2 times more Black participants and 2.3 times more Hispanic or Latino participants through partnerships than we did through individual sign-ups. This allowed us to assemble a group of volunteers that <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/RHI125222">more accurately represented the U.S. population</a>. In addition, 11.2 times more lower-income participants took part in Crowd the Tap through partner organizations than on their own. </p>
<p><iframe id="AKeiu" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/AKeiu/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p><a href="https://citizenscience.org/">Citizen science projects</a> use volunteers to collect data for scientific research. They can provide researchers with data that otherwise might not be available, such as the type of water pipes in people’s homes. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, many of these projects run by scientists at research institutions often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biac035">fail to engage diverse participants</a>. When this happens, the projects can produce datasets that are <a href="https://acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/2178">biased toward predominantly white and higher-income communities</a>. </p>
<p>Lead poisoning mainly affects <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-073117-041222">lower-income communities of color</a>, so citizen science as traditionally conducted was unlikely to provide representative data on exposure to it. As scholars who study <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DjJZRlAAAAAJ&hl=en">citizen science</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/valerie-ann-johnson-712b4a47/">community science</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8C8IzV0AAAAJ&hl=en">public engagement</a>, we needed to <a href="https://idealscience.org/">overcome this diversity challenge</a>. </p>
<p>Lead plumbing is the primary cause of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-us-is-making-plans-to-replace-all-of-its-lead-water-pipes-from-coast-to-coast-173963">lead contamination in drinking water</a> in the U.S. No amount of lead in drinking water is <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/basic-information-about-lead-drinking-water">safe for human consumption</a>.</p>
<p>Use of lead plumbing in public water systems and facilities that provide drinking water for human use has been <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sdwa/use-lead-free-pipes-fittings-fixtures-solder-and-flux-drinking-water">banned in the U.S. since 1986</a>. The federal government is working to replace <a href="https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/lead-service-lines">an estimated 9.2 million lead service lines</a> – the pipes that carry water from city water lines to individual homes – to reduce the risk of lead poisoning.</p>
<p>However, there is almost no data on drinking water pipe materials inside homes, so people could still be at risk for lead contamination. Any U.S. homes built before 1986 could have either <a href="https://www.bobvila.com/articles/lead-pipes/">lead pipes or lead solder</a> in their plumbing systems.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562995/original/file-20231201-29-wa39bn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Infographic showing that solder, faucets or galvanized pipes inside homes can contain lead." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562995/original/file-20231201-29-wa39bn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562995/original/file-20231201-29-wa39bn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562995/original/file-20231201-29-wa39bn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562995/original/file-20231201-29-wa39bn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562995/original/file-20231201-29-wa39bn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562995/original/file-20231201-29-wa39bn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562995/original/file-20231201-29-wa39bn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=736&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The federal government is working to replace lead service lines that run from public water lines to homes, but there can be other lead sources in indoor plumbing, especially in older buildings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/basic-information-about-lead-drinking-water">EPA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Participants in Crowd the Tap identify the types of pipes they have using a magnet and a penny. If the magnet sticks, the pipe is steel. If the magnet doesn’t stick, participants scratch the pipe with a penny. A scratch the color of a penny indicates that the pipe is copper; if it has no shine, the pipe is plastic; and if it has silver streaks, the pipe is lead. People also conduct a simple at-home water chemistry test and provide information on the age of their home. </p>
<p>We combine this data to classify households based on the risk that they may have lead contamination. Anyone found to be at risk receives free laboratory testing of their water. Participants who have their water tested receive resources on how to address lead contamination in their water. </p>
<h2>How we did our work</h2>
<p>We got people to sign up for this project through high school and university classrooms and a Verizon corporate volunteer program. We also ran internship programs at North Carolina State University, where the students are predominantly white and signed up members of their own communities, and Shaw University, a historically Black university in Raleigh, North Carolina, where students recruited members of various faith communities. </p>
<p>Partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, and high school classrooms were especially valuable for engaging Black and Hispanic or Latino participants. The intern program at North Carolina State University was helpful for engaging lower-income participants.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pgVwTclpN6A?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This video explains to Crowd the Tap participants how to identify the types of pipes in their homes.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Faith communities received a stipend for engaging their members in Crowd the Tap through our partnership with the North Carolina Council of Churches’ <a href="https://ncchurches.org/programs">Partners in Health and Wholeness program</a>. We also adapted our project based on feedback we received from older faith community members, who indicated that our online data collection portal was too complicated. </p>
<p>In response, we made questions about demographics and water taste and color optional. Even though these questions helped us answer our research questions, they were a barrier for people who we were trying to engage. </p>
<p>Volunteers who signed up directly for Crowd the Tap came mostly from white households. Working with other organizations, we assembled a more racially and ethnically diverse set of participants. We see our results as a promising step toward making larger-scale citizen science projects more diverse. </p>
<p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take on interesting academic work.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215581/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caren Cooper received funding from the Environmental Protection Agency, the North Carolina Water Resources Research Institute, and the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Valerie Ann Johnson received funding from the National Science Foundation and NASA SCoPE Seed Grant Project . She is affiliated with the Association for Advancing Participatory Sciences (Citizen Science Association). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Danielle Lin Hunter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For a project on identifying lead water pipes in homes, outreach through partner groups produced a more representative set of volunteers.Danielle Lin Hunter, Postdoctoral Scholar in Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State UniversityCaren Cooper, Associate Professor of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State UniversityValerie Ann Johnson, Dean of Arts, Sciences, and Humanities and Professor of Sociology, Shaw UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2012862023-05-10T12:28:23Z2023-05-10T12:28:23ZBlack queer college students want to explore their identity – but feel excluded by both Black and LGBTQ student groups<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524947/original/file-20230508-15-n57mo2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Befriending other Black queer students can build a sense of safety and connection. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/afro-latinx-young-women-sitting-on-the-grass-in-a-royalty-free-image/1415722219">Juanmonino/E+ Collection/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>For his new book “<a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479803910/black-and-queer-on-campus/">Black and Queer on Campus</a>,” American studies professor Michael Jeffries interviewed 65 Black LGBTQ college students across the U.S. – 40 from historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, and 25 from predominantly white schools.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation asked Jeffries to discuss what he learned about how queer Black students view LGBTQ student organizations, their general experiences on college campuses and their opinions about current events.</em></p>
<h2>What specific challenges do Black LGBTQ students face on college campuses?</h2>
<p>The Black LGBTQ students I interviewed understood that college is an opportunity to explore their identity. But many still struggled to move past the bigotry and difficult experiences they had growing up as young queer people.</p>
<p>Deron, a senior at a historically Black university who grew up in the suburbs of a large Southern city, explained, “When I was a teenager, [my mother] kind of kept me sheltered from the gay community. So it kind of made me develop a negative mindset toward the LGBT lifestyle. I mean, as far as participating in the community, she just shunned me away from it for a long time, and I had really negative thoughts about it up until this semester.”</p>
<p>Other major challenges were tied to the broader political environment. Students believed racist, homophobic and transphobic sentiments were being expressed with increased frequency, which made them angry, disappointed and fearful about the future of the United States. Several interviewees talked about the rising threat of white supremacy and the feeling that white supremacists on and around their campuses were emboldened during the Trump era. </p>
<p>Cat, a 19-year-old student at a large, predominantly white school, lamented that “seeing someone get up on a podium and spew hate and misinformation on a regular basis … and just the people making our decisions right now, it’s like, how did y'all get there? It’s like, you know how they got there, but then you’re losing faith in humanity by acknowledging that.”</p>
<p>Finally, students told me they didn’t feel a sense of belonging in either Black student organizations – which seemed to have little regard for queer Black folks – or LGTBQ spaces and student organizations, which were primarily white.</p>
<p>Candace, who attends a large, prestigious public university, told me that one of the problems that Black LGBTQ students face in white LGBTQ spaces is tokenism. She felt that queer Black folk are “there for the entertainment of white queers, and to be able to feel like they’re woke, or like they’re part of this group that really accepts people.” Albert, who also attends a large public university, described a serious blind spot within the primarily white LGBTQ organization on his campus, and the exclusion he experienced there.</p>
<p>“They would talk about like … dating in the gay community, or something like that. And I’m just like, they don’t really date Black people, so there’s that.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three young adults smile and pose together" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525164/original/file-20230509-21-9hrdjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525164/original/file-20230509-21-9hrdjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525164/original/file-20230509-21-9hrdjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525164/original/file-20230509-21-9hrdjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525164/original/file-20230509-21-9hrdjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525164/original/file-20230509-21-9hrdjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525164/original/file-20230509-21-9hrdjf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Connecting with other Black LGBTQ students can help build a sense of safety and belonging.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/group-of-friends-laughing-and-having-fun-shot-royalty-free-image/1316648966">Justin Lambert/DigitalVision Collection/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How do they overcome those challenges?</h2>
<p>One of the most common and powerful ways that students said they overcome these challenges is by building community with one another.</p>
<p>“I know in meeting each other, [my queer friend and I] were both kind of like, ‘Wow, another one!’ And we’re always like, so excited,” said Parker, one of the few trans students I spoke with. “It’s like whenever Black queer people get around each other, I feel like we get strong in our personalities. … I know that there’s support around me. And it’s like these networks keep growing and growing.”</p>
<p>Abraham, a leader of the queer Black student organization at his historically Black university, explained the importance of his group as a collective that cultivated a sense of connection and safety.</p>
<p>“We started hanging out to where we spent all our time together,” he said. “Our organization became like a family. If we felt like someone in this family was being attacked by someone on this campus, we jumped in and said, ‘Yo, that’s not going to happen on our watch.’” </p>
<p>Abraham did not tell me that he or anyone he knows in the Black queer community had been physically attacked by people on campus. But he did say there were times he and his friends felt unsafe, in part because the campus was open enough that visitors could enter and exit freely.</p>
<h2>What stereotypes and threats to safety do Black queer students face today?</h2>
<p>Some students felt that common stereotypes about gay people still exert a powerful hold on the way queer folk are treated within Black communities.</p>
<p>Patricia, who attends a historically Black university, told me about her experience growing up in a small, predominantly Black town in the South.</p>
<p>“If you had ‘sugar in your tank,’ like they say, you got beat,” she said. “They’re in a generation in the ‘80s too where the AIDS epidemic broke out, and they also have that mentality like, 'Oh, if you’re gay, you’re going to have AIDS, or you’re going to get diseases.’”</p>
<p>Several students at predominantly white institutions told me they felt stereotyped and ignored. There was a sense that they were not taken seriously as students or did not deserve their positions at the college. </p>
<p>Ian, a student at a large public university in the Midwest, told me, “I think it’s only me and this other boy that is Black on my floor. Every time I walk down the hallway, or every time I just do regular things that they do, I get stares. … Like I was saying my name, what I’m majoring in and all, like everybody else was doing, but everyone was staring at me like I lost my mind. So that makes me feel uncomfortable.”</p>
<h2>Are students optimistic about the future?</h2>
<p>Though there were students who see progress with respect to LGBTQ issues, very few offered optimistic views of the future for Black people in America, including queer Black people. Some were extremely discouraged about the future, and they believe the U.S. is becoming a more hostile place for people like them.</p>
<p>Still, several students pointed to changes in American politics and culture, like the <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/06/26/417717613/supreme-court-rules-all-states-must-allow-same-sex-marriages">legalization of same-sex marriage</a> in 2015 and the increasing <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-pop-culture/national-coming-day-15-celebrities-came-2022-far-rcna51467">visibility of LGBTQ celebrities</a>, that give them hope. As Ava, a junior at a private historically Black college, told me, “I don’t think that anything is indicative of the future. That’s why it’s the future – because it’s only made of possibility.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201286/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael P. Jeffries does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The new book “Black and Queer on Campus” explores the range of experiences that Black LGBTQ students face at colleges across the US.Michael P. Jeffries, Professor of American Studies, Wellesley CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2024252023-04-17T12:44:16Z2023-04-17T12:44:16ZAs Second Chance Pell Grant program grows, more incarcerated people can get degrees – but there’s a difference between prison-run and college-run education behind bars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518529/original/file-20230330-27-avedhq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Only 15% of adults in prison have earned a postsecondary degree or certificate – either before or while being incarcerated.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/walter-l-mccoy-jr-hugs-a-current-student-in-the-goucher-news-photo/1240758945">Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>People in prison rarely get to go to college. </p>
<p>But an expansion in access to federal financial aid through <a href="https://theconversation.com/expansion-of-second-chance-pell-grants-will-let-more-people-in-prison-pursue-degrees-165421">Pell Grants for those who are incarcerated</a> will soon make higher education a bit more available.</p>
<p>As of 2014, <a href="https://www.newamerica.org/education-policy/reports/equipping-individuals-life-beyond-bars/results">only 15%</a> of people earn a college degree or postsecondary certificate either before or during their incarceration. Among U.S. adults as a whole in 2021, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2023/02/01/percentage-of-us-adults-with-a-college-degree-postsecondary-credential-reaches-new-high-according-to-lumina/?sh=5f2426b14cc5">53.7% earned such degrees</a>.</p>
<p>Joshua Dankoff, who works as <a href="https://www.cfjj.org/cfjj-staff">director of strategic initiatives</a> at the nonprofit Citizens for Juvenile Justice, collects data on prison education. He found that in Massachusetts, where I live, <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/2638/Dankoff_education_pdf.pdf?1681418924">nearly 2,000</a>
of the <a href="https://www.mass.gov/info-details/cross-tracking-state-county-correctional-populations">5,300 people</a> in Department of Correction custody are on college or vocational education waitlists. <a href="https://www.tbf.org/-/media/tbf/reports-and-covers/2022/november/unlocking-college-report.pdf">Only 213</a> are enrolled in some form of postsecondary education. Just 77 are enrolled in a bachelor’s program.</p>
<p>The reason so few U.S. prisons <a href="https://sr.ithaka.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/SR-report-landscape-review-postsecondary-education-in-prison-053019.pdf">offer college education</a> is due to a <a href="https://www.vera.org/news/incarcerated-students-will-have-access-to-pell-grants-again-what-happens-now">1994 crime bill</a> that banned federal financial aid to people in prison.</p>
<p>The Second Chance Pell Experiment, launched by the Obama administration in 2015, reinstated Pell Grants for <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-announces-expansion-second-chance-pell-program-and-actions-help-incarcerated-individuals-resume-educational-journeys-and-reduce-recidivism">incarcerated students who are Pell-eligible</a>. To apply for Pell, students must qualify via the <a href="https://studentaid.gov/help/fafsa">Free Application for Federal Student Aid</a> form, or FAFSA, and be enrolled in college through a <a href="https://pell-grants.org/2023/01/17/everything-you-need-to-know-about-second-chance-pell-grant/">Pell-eligible institution</a> while in prison. </p>
<p>The program <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-announces-it-will-expand-second-chance-pell-experiment-2022-2023-award-year">initially covered just 67 programs</a>. An additional 67 were added in 2020.</p>
<p>The Biden administration is expanding Second Chance Pell access by adding 73 schools, including 24 historically Black colleges and universities. Beginning July 1, 2023, <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-announces-expansion-second-chance-pell-program-and-actions-help-incarcerated-individuals-resume-educational-journeys-and-reduce-recidivism">up to 200 higher education programs</a> will serve incarcerated students.</p>
<p>As the <a href="https://emerson.edu/epi/who-we-are">director of the Emerson Prison Initiative</a> at Emerson College, I believe it’s important to distinguish between the different educational programs offered within prisons. </p>
<p>There are three main types. The first includes high school equivalency and vocational programs run by departments of correction. The second is educational non-credit-bearing programs offered by outside volunteer organizations, such as gardening clubs or <a href="https://www.toastmasters.org/">Toastmasters</a>. Third are credit-bearing degree programs run by outside colleges and universities, like mine. </p>
<h2>Prison-run education programs</h2>
<p>Many U.S. states such as California, New York and Massachusetts provide adult basic education, or ABE. Some also mandate access to English language instruction. ABE is meant to improve literacy and numeracy and offer the opportunity for incarcerated people to get a high school equivalency diploma. Many prisons also offer computer classes and other supplemental, non-credit-bearing courses. </p>
<p>Researchers call educational opportunities like these “<a href="https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.311499">prison education</a>.” The programs are designed and carried out by correctional staff.</p>
<p>Although prison education programs may strive for universal benchmarks such as passing <a href="https://www.doe.mass.edu/hse/comparison.html">HiSET or GED</a> high school equivalency tests, the guidelines for who can participate are set by prison administrators in partnership with state agencies.</p>
<p>For example, in Massachusetts, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education provides <a href="https://www.doe.mass.edu/acls/frameworks/frameworks.html">curricular standards</a> and funding for adult basic education and testing both within and outside of prison. Currently, <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/2638/Dankoff_education_pdf.pdf?1681418924">961 people incarcerated</a> in Massachusetts are on the waitlist for ABE. And while the state Department of Correction received funding for just under 200 ABE spots per year in recent years, it did not request funding for the next five years, suggesting that fewer people will have access to prison education.</p>
<p>Further, while incarcerated young people under age 22 with an identified disability and no high school diploma have a <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/correctional-education/idea-letter.pdf">right to special education services</a>, Dankoff analyzed Massachusetts data and found that <a href="https://www.cfjj.org/s/SchoolsOut.pdf">only a fraction of young people</a> in this situation actually receive these services. This is largely because jails and prisons do a poor job identifying young people with <a href="https://www.cfjj.org/s/SchoolsOut.pdf">special education needs</a>. It is also because the systems are oriented toward punishment rather than education.</p>
<h2>College-run programs in prison</h2>
<p>Prisons also allow education programming through outside partnerships with colleges and universities. Students in “college in prison” programs are usually enrolled into college-level degree-granting programs, including certificates, associate and bachelor’s degrees. These are the types of programs that will grow under the Pell Grant expansion.</p>
<p>Many colleges and universities that bring their programming inside prison walls try to provide an education for incarcerated students that is comparable to what they provide traditional college students. Educators from the outside come into the prison to teach. The programs often offer library research support, accessibility services and academic advising as well – in line with best practices for colleges in general. However, they must adapt to censorship restrictions within prisons, as well as limited internet and technology access, along with a host of additional regulations. </p>
<h2>Power of language</h2>
<p>In my experience, many prison educators are dedicated to the transformational power of education, just like their college-in-prison counterparts.</p>
<p>However, another small but I believe important difference is that prison-run programs typically refer to incarcerated students as “prisoners” or “inmates,” continuing Department of Correction language choice. In contrast, programs like the Emerson Prison Initiative refer to the people we work with as “<a href="https://guides.library.emerson.edu/ld.php?content_id=71231573">students,” “applicants” or “students who are incarcerated</a>.” This language treats incarcerated students with respect and dignity, which I’ve argued is central to <a href="https://brandeisuniversitypress.com/title/9781684581061/">student success and well-being</a>.</p>
<p>The expansion of Pell Grants to more incarcerated people offers an opportunity to make college in prison more available while also maintaining best practices in this rapidly growing field. Such practices include little things, like the labels we use to refer to students, and big things, like ensuring that those who draw Pell Grants enroll in rigorous programs where they get a quality education and earn a degree.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202425/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mneesha Gellman is the director of the Emerson Prison Initiative, which receives funding from the Cummings Foundation, Gardiner Howland Shaw Foundation, Emerson College, and individual donors.</span></em></p>With the expansion of Second Chance Pell grants, more colleges and universities will soon offer degree programs to students in prison.Mneesha Gellman, Associate Professor of Political Science, Emerson CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1963452023-02-22T12:54:48Z2023-02-22T12:54:48ZGlobetrotting Black nutritionist Flemmie P. Kittrell revolutionized early childhood education and illuminated ‘hidden hunger’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509502/original/file-20230210-18-axl9fy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=238%2C274%2C5663%2C3282&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">She traveled far and wide to support children and families around the world.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:549027">Cornell University</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nutrition is among the most critical issues of our time. <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/08/31/1120004717/the-u-s-diet-is-deadly-here-are-7-ideas-to-get-americans-eating-healthier">Diet-related illnesses</a> are shortening life spans and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-urban-planning-and-housing-policy-helped-create-food-apartheid-in-us-cities-154433">the lack of conveniently located and affordable nutritious food</a> makes it hard for many Americans to enjoy good health.</p>
<p>Physicians are also alarmed by nutritional trends they see among the nation’s most vulnerable people: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/20/well/family/childhood-obesity-guidelines.html">children</a>. </p>
<p>I think that this situation would frustrate Black nutritionist <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/kittrell-flemmie-pansy-1904-1980/">Flemmie Pansy Kittrell</a> if she were alive today. Throughout a trailblazing career that spanned half a century, she worked to enhance food security and to improve both diets and children’s health – under the umbrella of home economics. </p>
<p>While you might view home economics as merely a set of practical skills concerning cooking and budgeting, <a href="https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/homeEc/masterlabel.html">in the mid-20th century it applied</a> scientific concepts to improve home management, strengthen parenting skills and enhance childhood development.</p>
<p>Kittrell went further, by making the case for healthy and strong families a tool for diplomacy. </p>
<p>While researching Black women’s global activism for rights and freedom, I became aware of Kittrell’s work on behalf of the U.S. State Department, women’s organizations and church groups. I was struck by her <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/ideology-in-u-s-foreign-relations/9780231201810">pragmatic approach to foreign relations</a>, which emphasized women, children and the home as the keys to good living and national and global peace and security.</p>
<p>I was also stunned by the Black nutritionist’s commitment to <a href="https://ww3.aauw.org/2016/02/24/flemmie/">shattering traditional assumptions about home economics</a> and improving the health of low-income families around the globe, especially for people of color. </p>
<h2>Humble roots</h2>
<p>Kittrell, the eighth of nine children born to a sharecropping family, grew up in Henderson, North Carolina. She began working as a nursemaid and cook when <a href="https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:45173968$3i">she was only 11 years old</a>. </p>
<p>In 1919, Kittrell enrolled at Hampton Institute, a small historically Black Virginia college that later became Hampton University. </p>
<p>A professor encouraged her to major in home economics. She initially rejected the suggestion, claiming the home was “<a href="https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:45173968$3i">just so ordinary</a>.” Kittrell reconsidered once she learned about <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/30/metro/ellen-h-swallow-richards-pioneer-sanitary-engineering-science/">Ellen H. Swallow Richards</a>, the first woman to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the nation’s earliest female professional chemists.</p>
<p>Kittrell realized that the field was about <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-bringing-back-home-economics-the-answer-to-our-modern-woes-161632">more than cooking and sewing</a>. Furthermore, women who majored in the subject could then <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/04/26/did-home-economics-empower-women">pursue sciences</a> that were closed to them because of their gender.</p>
<p>With a growing belief that the home and family were the basis of society, Kittrell chose to major in home economics rather than political science or economics.</p>
<h2>Nutrition and Black families</h2>
<p>After her 1928 graduation, Kittrell briefly taught at a high school before becoming the director of home economics and dean of women at <a href="https://www.digitalnc.org/blog/bennett-colleges-home-economics-institute-materials-now-online/">Bennett College</a>, a historically Black college in Greensboro, North Carolina. During a 12-year tenure there, she created a nursery center that trained parents and provided child care.</p>
<p>The center also served as a laboratory for experimenting with different teaching techniques. </p>
<p>Kittrell drew on this research when she became the <a href="https://www.human.cornell.edu/flemmie-kittrell-visiting-scholar-college-human-ecology">first Black woman to earn a doctorate at Cornell University</a>. In her 1936 doctoral dissertation, she argued that the health of Black families could be improved by focusing on infant feeding practices and parental education. She was the first Black woman to get a doctorate in nutrition at any college or university.</p>
<p>In 1940 she returned to Hampton. During World War II, Kittrell and her students taught local families how to ration and substitute food. The home economics department also joined female students in hosting evening activities, including dances for <a href="https://hamptonroadsnavalmuseum.blogspot.com/2018/03/hampton-institute-and-navy-in-second.html">Black military trainees and their families</a>. </p>
<p>Four years later, Kittrell became the head of Howard University’s home economics department. She remained on that faculty for 28 years. </p>
<p>Taking advantage of Howard’s Washington, D.C., location, Kittrell persuaded national leaders that <a href="https://ww3.aauw.org/2016/02/24/flemmie/">home economics could help transform society</a> at home and around the world. She spent so much time working and traveling for the U.S. government that one biographer called her “<a href="https://worldcat.org/title/958934382">a good will ambassador with a cookbook</a>.”</p>
<h2>‘Hidden hunger’ at home and abroad</h2>
<p>In 1947, the State Department sent Kittrell to Liberia to conduct a nutrition study. Her efforts supported an American commitment to strengthen diplomatic and military with countries around the world.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://dh.howard.edu/reprints/230/">her follow-up report</a>, Kittrell explained that while food shortages and hunger were not significant issues, more than 90% of Liberians suffered from vitamin deficiencies, resulting in “hidden hunger.” Though she did not invent the term, she was among the first to draw widespread attention to the issue at home and abroad.</p>
<p>Arguing that what happens in one place often occurs in others, Kittrell implored the U.S. to examine diet issues at home.</p>
<p>In 1949, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/5545597277">she published a study</a> comparing the diet and food choices of Black and white Americans. She showed that the illnesses that many Black Americans experienced were tied to racial discrimination in housing, employment and medical services rather than poor decision-making. <a href="https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/oc/np/HistoryofHumanNutritionResearch/HistoryofHumanNutritionResearch.pdf">In later years</a>, academic, professional and activist organizations similarly applied this intersectional lens to nutrition campaigns.</p>
<h2>Nutrition and democracy</h2>
<p>American foreign policy leaders found <a href="https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1999/winter/us-and-ghana-1957-1966-2.html">Kittrell’s pragmatic and balanced approach</a> indispensable in forging alliances during the Cold War. </p>
<p>In 1950, Kittrell persuaded the State Department’s Fulbright program to send her to India, which had recently won its independence from the U.K. She returned there in 1953 under <a href="https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/InternationalAid_Background.pdf">a government program that provided technical expertise</a> to newly independent nations as a form of diplomacy. </p>
<p>In the 1950s, Kittrell traveled across Africa to improve relations with African states that had criticized the U.S. for boasting of its freedoms while <a href="https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/BAIC/Historical-Essays/Keeping-the-Faith/Postwar-Foreign-Policy-Civil-Rights/">denying basic civil rights to many of its citizens</a>. </p>
<p>In September 1958, the nutritionist traveled to Ghana, the <a href="https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/ghanaians-campaign-independence-british-rule-1949-1951">first West African country to gain independence</a> from a colonizing power. She met with Ghanaian political leaders and members of women’s organizations, delivering lectures on home economics and the value of higher education for women. </p>
<p>Ghanaians asked Kittrell about racial incidents, including the 1957 Little Rock crisis, in which a white mob tried to stop nine Black students from <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/central-high-school-integration">integrating a public high school</a>. Kittrell cast this incident, which violated the <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us483">Brown v. Board 1954 Supreme Court ruling</a> that rendered segregation in public schools unconstitutional, as a Southern dilemma rather than a national one.</p>
<p>She also optimistically emphasized Black Americans’ progress since emancipation and <a href="https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1999/winter/us-and-ghana-1957-1966-2.html">contended that the U.S. Constitution would prevail</a> in ensuring equality.</p>
<h2>An appetite for justice</h2>
<p>Though Kittrell’s answers sidestepped larger issues of discrimination at home, she claimed to reject U.S. boosterism in her thinking about cross-cultural interactions, family and society.</p>
<p>She argued that newly independent nations had much to teach Americans. Even more, Kittrell claimed to see herself not as a representative of the U.S. but as “<a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/ideology-in-u-s-foreign-relations/9780231201810">a citizen of the world</a>.” </p>
<p>A closer look at Kittrell’s activities reveals that she maintained a strong appetite for justice. Even as a dedicated bureaucratic infighter, Kittrell was willing to move beyond these bounds.</p>
<p>In 1967, for example, she protested apartheid in South Africa, the system of segregation that oppressed that country’s nonwhite communities and privileged a white minority. Incensed by American inaction, <a href="https://projects.kora.matrix.msu.edu/files/210-808-3403/ACOA12-6-67Summaryopt.pdf">Kittrell became one of five Americans to stage a fly-in</a> – an impromptu trip in which she and her colleagues sought to enter the country without visas to dramatize their protest. </p>
<p><a href="https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:45173968$3i">In a 1977 interview</a> with the Black Women’s Oral History Interviews Project of the Harvard University Radcliffe Institute, Kittrell hinted that she was engaged in other acts of protest, slyly suggesting that she “was very fortunate not to have gotten into more trouble.” </p>
<p>Three years later in an interview for a faculty profile with Howard University, Kittrell boldly claimed that she had not been “<a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/ideology-in-u-s-foreign-relations/9780231201810">afraid to speak against evil as I see it</a>.”</p>
<p>These statements suggest that she was more of a strategist and activist than many people at the time believed. </p>
<h2>Head Start</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx539W3E41w">Kittrell kept traveling extensively</a> in the 1960s. </p>
<p>She took trips to Russia and several African countries on behalf of the United Nations and professional, women’s and religious organizations, such as the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the United Methodist Church. </p>
<p>Kittrell also increased her focus on the needs of U.S. children. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/09/10/how-the-geography-of-u-s-poverty-has-shifted-since-1960/">In the 1960s</a>, 1 in 5 U.S. children lived in poverty. With the conviction that good living began at a young age, <a href="https://worldcat.org/title/42072097">Kittrell expanded Howard University’s nursery program</a> with a deeper focus on parents, whom she contended were the key to stronger families.</p>
<p>That center became an early model for the <a href="https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/about-us/article/head-start-history">Head Start program</a>, which emerged as part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty.</p>
<p>Refusing to “<a href="https://dh.howard.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1116&context=finaid_manu">sit still enough to hold hands</a>,” Kittrell never married or had children.</p>
<p>Instead, as <a href="https://dh.howard.edu/finaid_manu/117/">her archival papers</a> at Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center show, she dedicated herself to assisting others by cultivating strong families through nutritious habits and healthy children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196345/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brandy Thomas Wells does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Kittrell’s legacy shows that home economics was always about more than cooking and sewing. It’s also a reminder that issues that affect families are simultaneously local and global.Brandy Thomas Wells, Assistant Professor of History, Oklahoma State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1734962022-03-28T12:36:54Z2022-03-28T12:36:54ZHow MacKenzie Scott’s $12 billion in gifts to charity reflect an uncommon trust in the groups she supports<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454181/original/file-20220324-21-7b17cq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=156%2C18%2C1795%2C1223&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The top donor is challenging conventional wisdom about giving.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-and-his-wife-mackenzie-bezos-poses-as-news-photo/950795948">Jorg Carstensen/dpa/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/helping-any-of-us-can-help-us-all-f4c7487818d9">MacKenzie Scott</a> disclosed on March 23, 2022, that she had given <a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-philanthropy-aa2fb209ae9915740f563de6611a0509">US$3.9 billion to 465 nonprofits</a> in the previous nine months. These <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-mackenzie-scotts-8-5-billion-commitment-to-social-and-economic-justice-is-a-model-for-other-donors-162829">no-strings-attached donations</a> bring the total she has given away in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-mackenzie-scotts-8-5-billion-commitment-to-social-and-economic-justice-is-a-model-for-other-donors-162829">past two years</a> to at least $12 billion. We asked <a href="https://blog.philanthropy.iupui.edu/2022/03/01/freeman-named-winner-of-2022-dan-david-prize/">philanthropy historian Tyrone Freeman</a> to weigh in on Scott’s approach to donating large sums of money and her emphasis on other forms of generosity.</em></p>
<h2>Is Scott’s philanthropic philosophy unique?</h2>
<p>After <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/20/business/mackenzie-scott-philanthropy.html">her 2019 divorce from Jeff Bezos</a>, Scott signed the Giving Pledge, a commitment that extremely affluent people make to <a href="https://givingpledge.org/pledger?pledgerId=393">give away at least half their wealth</a>. </p>
<p>The pledge’s signatories may <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-window-into-the-hearts-and-minds-of-billionaire-donors-139161">write a letter</a> summing up why they are giving so much to charity and what their priorities are, which gets posted to the internet. Scott did that and amended the letter when she remarried. What makes her stand out from others who have signed the Giving Pledge is that she continues to write about her <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/">donations and what she’s learning about giving in general</a>. As a historian of philanthropy, I study the philosophies and motivations of donors, which I call their “<a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p085352">gospels of giving</a>.” </p>
<p>Her approach is clearly unique among her peers – other <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-window-into-the-hearts-and-minds-of-billionaire-donors-139161">billionaire donors</a> – because of how she relates to the organizations she supports and the diversity of those causes. She says her overarching goal is “to support the needs of underrepresented people from groups of all kinds.”</p>
<p>Scott values the expertise of the groups she supports and their leadership. She says she doesn’t <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/no-dollar-signs-this-time-ec7ab2a87261">adhere to the conventional concept</a> of philanthropy, and she questions the way many of us think about generosity. To her it is not just a numbers game. It’s more about the spirit of giving, the sacrifice in the gift. </p>
<p>One major difference is that very wealthy donors tend to drill down in a single focused area, such as higher education, or a few causes – perhaps the arts or medical research. There are advisers who often <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=28860">recommend this approach</a> to have the most impact. </p>
<p>But the nonprofits she has funded cover pretty much everything charitable donors support, from education to health, from social justice to the arts. Her latest donations even include <a href="https://www.devex.com/news/as-mackenzie-scott-donates-3-9b-one-grantee-expresses-ambivalence-102921">global organizations like CARE</a> and <a href="https://www.hias.org/news/press-releases/mackenzie-scott-and-dan-jewett-donate-10m-hias-ukraine-response">HIAS</a> that are serving the needs of Ukrainians whose lives have been turned upside down.</p>
<h2>Which other gifts stand out?</h2>
<p>Some of the largest gifts among the most recently announced are for <a href="https://www.bgca.org/news-stories/2022/March/boys-and-girls-clubs-of-america-announces-281-million-dollar-gift-from-mackenzie-scott">Girls & Boys Clubs of America</a>, <a href="https://www.communitiesinschools.org/articles/article/communities-schools-announces-transformative-investment-help-students-overcome-obstacles-learning/">Communities in Schools</a>, <a href="https://www.habitat.org/newsroom/2022/habitat-humanity-international-and-84-us-habitat-affiliates-receive-transformational">Habitat for Humanity</a>
and <a href="https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/599410-mackenzie-scott-donates-275m-to-planned-parenthood">Planned Parenthood Federation of America</a>. </p>
<p>I think it’s important that she didn’t give to only their affiliates in major cities. Foundations have been <a href="https://dailyyonder.com/rural-gets-less-foundation-money/2015/06/29/">underinvesting in rural America</a> for years. Scott’s supporting dozens of local and regional affiliates in suburban and rural counties.</p>
<p>As I have explained before, her support for <a href="https://theconversation.com/mackenzie-scotts-hbcu-giving-starkly-contrasts-with-the-approach-of-early-white-funders-of-historically-black-colleges-and-universities-159039">historically Black colleges and universities</a> is important. Two recent gifts that she made, to <a href="https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/nashville/billionaire-mackenzie-scott-gifts-20m-to-meharry-medical-college/">Meharry Medical College</a> and <a href="https://www.cdrewu.edu/newsroom/charles-r-drew-university-medicine-and-science-receives-20-million-donation-philanthropist">Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science</a>, $20 million apiece, were very significant in light of how elite white donors undercut Black higher ed institutions in the early 20th century.</p>
<h2>Does it matter when she publicly discloses information?</h2>
<p>Scott posted an update in December 2021 <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/no-dollar-signs-this-time-ec7ab2a87261">without any details about her latest donations</a>. </p>
<p>Instead, she praised other forms of giving by people without billions to their name. One thing she has drawn attention to is how there’s a lot of informal giving, and that it’s not valued. This puts Scott where the average person is, especially in <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-hispanic-and-asian-american-donors-give-more-to-social-and-racial-justice-causes-as-well-as-strangers-in-need-new-survey-166720">communities of color</a>, where people look after neighbors and family members regularly in their giving.</p>
<p>Since these are charitable activities you can’t deduct from your taxes, you might not think of these helping behaviors and many forms of civic engagement as philanthropy.</p>
<p><a href="http://webarchive.urban.org/publications/311281.html">Unlike nearly all</a> donors <a href="https://www.designbuild-network.com/projects/the-bill-melinda-gates-foundation-campus/">operating on a big scale</a>, she has no offices and, so far, <a href="https://bloomerang.co/blog/5-tips-to-help-your-nonprofit-receive-mackenzie-scott-funds/">no website</a>. She’s been criticized for <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2021/mackenzie-scott-says-no-dollar-signs-this-time-as-she-finds-new-value-in-philanthropys-meaning/">a lack of</a> <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/mackenzie-scott-is-criticized-for-not-providing-details-in-latest-round-of-gifts">transparency, especially after she didn’t divulge</a> details in December. This sentiment has to do with the widespread belief that the public has a right to know when private interests spread their resources around <a href="https://ktar.com/story/4799980/mackenzie-scott-wont-say-how-much-shes-giving-this-time/">for public benefit</a>. </p>
<p>Her blog posts draw attention to trends people might miss regarding the groups she supports. She states the percentage of these organizations that are led by women, people of color or <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/helping-any-of-us-can-help-us-all-f4c7487818d9">people she says have</a> “lived experience in the regions they support and the issues they seek to address.”</p>
<p>When somebody shows you how they’re thinking about their giving and what they support, that could have an impact on others. It may change whether they <a href="https://theconversation.com/alumni-gratitude-and-support-for-causes-are-behind-donations-of-50-million-or-more-to-colleges-and-universities-156086">donate only to their alma mater</a>, for example. Colleges and museums are used to getting these big gifts, but many of the organizations Scott is giving tens of millions of dollars to say these are the largest donations they’ve ever received. She’s shattering the notion of who is a worthy recipient – the unspoken idea that only the elite institutions and the most well-known are worthy of big gifts.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=weekly&source=inline-weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>How does Scott talk about giving that isn’t purely monetary?</h2>
<p>For her it’s about generosity, not just dollars. She’s definitely thinking <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-elon-musk-saved-big-on-taxes-by-giving-away-a-ton-of-his-tesla-stock-172036">beyond the tax breaks she’ll get</a> for charitable gifts.</p>
<p>Her December 2021 post alludes to volunteering and other activities she calls the “work of practical beneficence” practiced by millions of people, estimating that it’s worth about $1 trillion. <a href="https://nccs.urban.org/publication/nonprofit-sector-brief-2019">Researchers have reached similar conclusions</a>. </p>
<p>She also highlighted the estimated <a href="https://globalindices.iupui.edu/tracker/index.html">$68 billion in annual global remittances</a> in that post. When people come to this country, begin working and send money to their homelands, that is a form of philanthropy. They may not use the word, but it’s the same idea, because it’s giving back to your family and your country of origin, and it responds to the same motivation as a donation to an established charity.</p>
<p>I agree that there’s much more to American philanthropy than the roughly <a href="https://theconversation.com/americans-gave-a-record-471-billion-to-charity-in-2020-amid-concerns-about-the-coronavirus-pandemic-job-losses-and-racial-justice-161489">half a trillion dollars</a> donated annually. There are other kinds of giving that fly below the radar screen that are important for survival, community-building, meeting basic needs and even for democracy.</p>
<p>She also addresses the role and value of <a href="https://youtu.be/KS2n7VUBOa0">using your voice</a> as an important part of social change. The history of the abolition, women’s suffrage, civil rights movements and various movements today bear this out. That is something I focus on <a href="https://theconversation.com/400-years-of-black-giving-from-the-days-of-slavery-to-the-2019-morehouse-graduation-121402">in my research</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KS2n7VUBOa0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Historian Tyrone McKinley Freeman joined Bridgid Coulter Cheadle and Kimberly Jeffries Leonard to discuss how Black leaders are following in the footsteps of history’s trailblazers by devoting their time, talent and voice to many causes.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What do you hope the public takes away from Scott’s approach to giving?</h2>
<p>Scott has emerged as the most notable practitioner of what’s called <a href="https://www.genevaglobal.com/blog/your-reading-list-trust-based-philanthropy">trust-based philanthropy</a>. That refers to the notion that there should be <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-unrestricted-funding-two-philanthropy-experts-explain-164589">fewer strings attached to donations</a> and that reporting requirements and other expectations that often come with grants from foundations can be excessive.</p>
<p>In December 2020, Scott <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/384-ways-to-help-45d0b9ac6ad8">mentioned that she has a team of advisers</a> to help her with screening, although she hasn’t shared what that process looks like. But after that, she is not asking anything else of the organizations she funds. Instead, she has chosen to step back and let them exercise responsibility, giving them space and flexibility. </p>
<p>I hope the public hears her answers to what I like to ask: Who counts as a philanthropist and what counts as philanthropy? I agree with Scott that it’s about more than money and that philanthropy is not only the domain of the wealthy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173496/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tyrone McKinley Freeman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The approximately $12 billion she’s given away in the past two years has shattered conventions, explains a philanthropy historian.Tyrone McKinley Freeman, Associate Professor of Philanthropic Studies, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1590392021-08-02T12:37:51Z2021-08-02T12:37:51ZMacKenzie Scott’s HBCU giving starkly contrasts with the approach of early white funders of historically Black colleges and universities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413776/original/file-20210729-19-b3yejw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C46%2C2180%2C1791&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Attorneys George E.C. Hayes, left, Thurgood Marshall, center, and James M. Nabrit, all HBCU grads, successfully sought to defeat school segregation in court.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/APWasThereSeparateButEqual/bccfc9d5693448b5a9aa1364bb8804f3/photo?boardId=37be9465fcce45d283d5431cccb20a6a&st=boards&mediaType=audio,photo,video,graphic&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=161&currentItemNo=20">AP Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Novelist and billionaire philanthropist <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-mackenzie-scotts-8-5-billion-commitment-to-social-and-economic-justice-is-a-model-for-other-donors-162829">MacKenzie Scott</a> has so far given <a href="https://www.hbcudigest.com/p/mackenzie-scott-hbcu-giving-500-million">at least US$560 million</a> to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/12/18/mackenzie-scott-college-donation-list-hbcus/">23 historically Black colleges and universities</a>. These donations are part of a bid she announced in 2019 to <a href="https://theconversation.com/mackenzie-bezoss-17-billion-pledge-tops-a-growing-list-of-women-giving-big-117964">quickly dedicate most of her fortune</a> to charity.</p>
<p>Scott’s gifts, including the <a href="https://www.tougaloo.edu/tougaloo-college-receives-6-million-gift-philanthropist-mackenzie-scott-0">$6 million she donated to Tougaloo College</a> in Mississippi and the <a href="https://www.ncat.edu/news/2020/12/mackenzie-scott-donation.php">$45 million she gave North Carolina A&T University</a>, vary in size but nearly all of the colleges and universities describe this funding as “historic.” For many, it was the largest single donation they had ever received from an individual donor.</p>
<p>Scott, previously married to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is not making a splash just because of the size of her donations. She has an unusually unrestrictive <a href="https://www.thebalancesmb.com/restricted-unrestricted-nonprofit-funds-2502167">get-out-of-the-way approach</a>. </p>
<p>“I gave each a contribution and encouraged them to spend it on whatever they believe best serves their efforts,” <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">Scott wrote</a> in a July 2020 blog post.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412537/original/file-20210721-13-1682zg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Photo of MacKenzie Scott" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412537/original/file-20210721-13-1682zg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/412537/original/file-20210721-13-1682zg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412537/original/file-20210721-13-1682zg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412537/original/file-20210721-13-1682zg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412537/original/file-20210721-13-1682zg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412537/original/file-20210721-13-1682zg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/412537/original/file-20210721-13-1682zg0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">MacKenzie Scott has given about $8.5 billion to charity since 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PhilanthropyRecordGiving/5b8e76ff9f254b0e8b9f64aae9e984f2/photo?Query=mackenzie%20AND%20scott&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=69&currentItemNo=1">Evan Agostini/Invision via AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>She sees the standard requirements that universities and other organizations report to funders on their progress as burdensome distractions. Instead of negotiating detailed agreements before making a gift, she <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/20/business/mackenzie-scott-philanthropy.html">works with a team of advisers to stealthily vet</a> a wide array of nonprofits, colleges and universities from afar before surprising them with her unprecedented multimillion-dollar gifts that come <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-unrestricted-funding-two-philanthropy-experts-explain-164589">without any strings attached</a>.</p>
<p>Scott is <a href="https://diverseeducation.com/article/185788/">also supporting students of color</a> through donations to the <a href="https://uncf.org/">United Negro College Fund</a> and the <a href="https://www.tmcf.org/">Thurgood Marshall College Fund</a>, which give HBCU students scholarships, and by supporting many other colleges and universities that <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-billions-mackenzie-scott-is-giving-to-colleges-attended-by-students-of-color-will-help-everyone-in-america-162837">enroll large numbers of minority students</a>.</p>
<p>Her approach sharply contrasts with how many wealthy white donors have interacted with Black-serving nonprofits, including HBCUs, in the past. As a <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/people-directory/freeman-tyrone.html">historian of philanthropy</a>, I have studied the <a href="https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/43qme5pk9780252043451.html">paternalism of white funders</a>, including those who helped many of these schools open their doors.</p>
<h2>HBCU origins</h2>
<p><a href="https://hbcuconnect.com/content/11523/oldesthbcus">The first HBCUs</a> were founded in Northern states before the Civil War, including <a href="https://cheyney.edu/">Cheyney</a> and <a href="https://www.lincoln.edu/">Lincoln</a> universities in Pennsylvania and <a href="https://wilberforce.edu/">Wilberforce University</a> in Ohio. After the war, most HBCUs were established in Southern states. These institutions were lifelines for Black Americans seeking higher education during <a href="https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/3134/">decades of Jim Crow segregation</a> that locked them out of other colleges and universities. (Disclosure: I earned my bachelor’s degree at Lincoln University.)</p>
<p>Although many white philanthropists made large gifts to these schools, their support was fraught with prejudice. Initially, white funders pushed for HBCUs to emphasize vocational training, then called “industrial education,” <a href="http://projects.leadr.msu.edu/makingmodernus/exhibits/show/i-m-going-to-college--the-expa/40-acres-and-an-education--the">such as blacksmithing</a>, printing and shoemaking, over more intellectual pursuits.</p>
<p>White philanthropists including <a href="https://diverseeducation.com/article/11301/">Andrew Carnegie</a> and <a href="https://www.spelman.edu/about-us/history-in-brief">John D. Rockefeller</a> had poured millions from their fortunes into the proliferation of <a href="https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/6511">Black industrial schools</a> by the early 20th century. The HBCUs <a href="https://www.hamptonu.edu/">Hampton University</a> in Virginia and <a href="https://www.tuskegee.edu/">Tuskegee University</a> in Alabama, which received donations from Scott, were leading models of industrial education for decades.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413785/original/file-20210729-13-n7ii9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Wealthy people walk alongside a train in the early 1900s" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413785/original/file-20210729-13-n7ii9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413785/original/file-20210729-13-n7ii9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413785/original/file-20210729-13-n7ii9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413785/original/file-20210729-13-n7ii9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=431&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413785/original/file-20210729-13-n7ii9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413785/original/file-20210729-13-n7ii9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413785/original/file-20210729-13-n7ii9s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tycoon and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, shown leaving a train with his wife, philanthropist Laura Celestia Spelman Rockefeller, in the early 1910s, donated to HBCUs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/tycoon-and-philanthropist-john-d-rockefeller-is-seen-news-photo/466684655">PhotoQuest/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The vocational curriculum at these schools was promoted as preparing Black students to be skilled laborers and academic teachers. During this era, however, most graduates worked as <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807842218/the-education-of-blacks-in-the-south-1860-1935/">unskilled laborers or vocational teachers</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807842218/the-education-of-blacks-in-the-south-1860-1935/">White Southerners overwhelmingly approved</a> of this arrangement, which left many HBCU grads on the bottom rung of society rather than making them educated citizens. Emphasizing industrial education at HBCUs preserved the superior economic status of white Americans and the racist <a href="https://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/what.htm">system of segregation</a>. But African Americans’ educational aspirations required much more.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/w-e-b-du-bois-embraced-science-to-fight-racism-as-editor-of-naacps-magazine-the-crisis-150825">W.E.B. Du Bois</a>, a prominent Black intellectual, was a leading critic of the funding HBCUs got from wealthy whites. He <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781583670422/the-education-of-black-people/">said</a>: “Education is not and should not be a private philanthropy; it is a public service and whenever it merely becomes a gift of the rich it is in danger.”</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413787/original/file-20210729-15-1qnjquy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman sits at a desk surrounded by papers in an old photograph" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413787/original/file-20210729-15-1qnjquy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413787/original/file-20210729-15-1qnjquy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413787/original/file-20210729-15-1qnjquy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413787/original/file-20210729-15-1qnjquy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413787/original/file-20210729-15-1qnjquy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413787/original/file-20210729-15-1qnjquy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413787/original/file-20210729-15-1qnjquy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mary McLeod Bethune.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/educator-mary-mcleod-bethune-sits-at-a-desk-possibly-in-the-news-photo/117627766?adppopup=true">The Abbott Sengstacke Family Papers/Robert Abbott Sengstacke via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1904, the HBCU leader <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-mcleod-bethune">Mary McLeod Bethune</a>, founder of Florida’s Daytona Normal and Industrial School for Negro Girls – now <a href="https://www.cookman.edu/">Bethune Cookman University</a> – felt this pressure. She placed “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/mary-mcleod-bethune-black-womens-political-activism/oclc/51060235">industrial</a>” in her school’s name to attract white funding. But she sought to give Black students a liberal arts education that she believed would support their full citizenship.</p>
<p>Decades later, the sociologist <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/charles-s-johnson-leadership-beyond-the-veil-in-the-age-of-jim-crow/oclc/952756040&referer=brief_results">Charles S. Johnson</a> served as Fisk University’s first Black president, starting in 1946. He sought to turn <a href="https://www.fisk.edu/">that Tennessee HBCU</a>, founded in 1866, into a powerhouse of Black liberal arts education in partnership with white philanthropists and foundations rather than covertly.</p>
<p>HBCU leaders have, in short, faced a predicament for generations: When rich white donors offer big donations, can the money truly be used to support Black educational interests and goals?</p>
<h2>Prejudiced backlash</h2>
<p>When HBCUs secured funding early on, that money was often jeopardized because of bigotry.</p>
<p>In 1887, for example, the <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-First-American-School-of-Sociology-WEB-Du-Bois-and-the-Atlanta-Sociological/II/p/book/9781138476776">Georgia state Legislature withdrew $8,000</a>, worth approximately $220,000 today, in critical annual funding from Atlanta University. The HBCU, founded in 1865, had flouted Southern norms by allowing whites and Blacks to share campus facilities, which white politicians did not appreciate.</p>
<p>Later, the school embraced a liberal arts curriculum, bucking the more vocational emphasis white segregationists preferred.</p>
<p>In response, many white philanthropists withdrew their donations.</p>
<p>Despite that challenge, Atlanta University persevered, eventually merging with Clark College. And so it is historically significant that Scott gave <a href="https://www.cau.edu/">Clark Atlanta University</a> $15 million in 2020 to use as it sees fit. The school is <a href="https://www.cau.edu/news/2020/12/CAU-Announces-15-Million-Gift-from-Philanthropist-MacKenzie-Scott.html">using the money for academic innovation</a>, infrastructure and scholarships, and to build up its endowment.</p>
<h2>Undercutting Black medical schools</h2>
<p>In 1908 there were seven Black medical schools in the U.S. By 1921, following a sustained attack on those institutions, only two remained: <a href="https://home.mmc.edu/">Meharry Medical College</a> in Nashville and <a href="https://home.howard.edu/">Howard University</a> in Washington, D.C.</p>
<p>The loss of those schools began in 1910, when <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3178858/">Andrew Carnegie’s foundation funded a report</a> by educator Abraham Flexner. Part of a larger reform movement to standardize medical training, Flexner’s study recommended the closure of five Black medical schools. It led white funders to sever their support.</p>
<p>At the time, there were extensive problems with <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2569717/">medical education across the board</a> in the U.S. There were no standards for curriculum or instruction. But Black medical schools’ particular problems – poor funding, insufficient faculty and inadequate facilities – were exacerbated by Jim Crow segregation and condescension from the establishment.</p>
<p><a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781466843721">Flexner’s site visits</a> were incredibly short. He castigated Black doctors as a group without interviewing them. He recommended support for Meharry and Howard to ensure that at least some Black doctors would be able to care for Black patients in segregated hospitals and prevent the spread of disease to the white population.</p>
<p>Carnegie’s and Rockefeller’s foundations were initially reluctant to support the two surviving medical schools in implementing Flexner’s suggested reforms. Their subsequent funding ebbed and flowed irregularly. Scholars have estimated that the Black medical schools closed after Flexner’s damning report would have produced <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32816033/">35,000 Black doctors</a> over the past century.</p>
<p>For decades HBCUs such as <a href="https://www.bizneworleans.com/ex-wife-of-amazon-founder-donates-20m-to-xavier/">Xavier University</a> in Louisiana, which received $20 million from Scott in 2020, have been <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.3934%2Fpublichealth.2017.6.579">top producers of Black graduates who become doctors</a>.</p>
<h2>A continuing problem</h2>
<p>A long-term shortage of Black doctors remains a critical <a href="https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/how-should-we-respond-racist-legacies-health-professions-education-originating-flexner-report/2021-03">public health issue</a> today, reflecting the sustained underfunding of HBCUs.</p>
<p>For example, Maryland’s HBCUs won a settlement against the state in 2021 totaling <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/02/992922662/what-a-577-million-settlement-will-mean-for-maryland-hbcus">$577 million</a> intended to remedy decades of underfunding compared with the state’s predominantly white colleges and universities.</p>
<p>Scott funded three of those public institutions: <a href="https://bowiestate.edu/about/news/2020/bsu-receives-largest-gift-from-mackenzie-scott.php">Bowie State</a>, <a href="https://news.morgan.edu/40m-gift-from-mackenzie-scott/">Morgan State</a> and <a href="https://www.umes.edu/PR/News-Articles/2020/UMES-receives-historic-%2420-million-donation/">University of Maryland Eastern Shore</a> in 2020.</p>
<p>A review completed in 2021 of <a href="https://www.tnstate.edu/">Tennessee State University</a>, another HBCU, found the state underfunded it by an estimated <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/04/26/tennessee-state-fights-chronic-underfunding">$544 million</a> compared with the school’s white counterparts, dating back to 1950. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413789/original/file-20210729-23-kg6uuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Kamala Harris greets a college student at Howard University" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413789/original/file-20210729-23-kg6uuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413789/original/file-20210729-23-kg6uuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413789/original/file-20210729-23-kg6uuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413789/original/file-20210729-23-kg6uuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413789/original/file-20210729-23-kg6uuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413789/original/file-20210729-23-kg6uuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413789/original/file-20210729-23-kg6uuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vice President Kamala Harris graduated from Howard University, an HBCU.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sen-kamala-harris-speaks-to-amos-jackson-iii-executive-news-photo/1085870596">Al Drago/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>HBCUs today</h2>
<p>Today there are <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=667">about 100 HBCUs</a>, half of which are public institutions. They enroll roughly 300,000 students and award nearly 50,000 degrees annually.</p>
<p>Seventy percent of HBCU students are <a href="https://studentaid.gov/understand-aid/types/grants/pell">eligible for Pell grants</a>, making the schools critical for first-generation and low-income students. Although they represent only 3% of all degree-granting institutions, HBCUs confer <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=667">13% of all bachelor’s degrees earned by Black Americans</a>.</p>
<p>Today, a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6111265/">disproportionate share of HBCU grads become doctors</a> – making these schools a vital on-ramp into the middle class for students of color.</p>
<p>And yet HBCUs are financially fragile. The<a href="https://afro.com/top-10-hbcu-endowments/"> 10 largest HBCU endowments total $2 billion</a>, just 1% of the <a href="https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/10-universities-with-the-biggest-endowments">$200 billion</a> held collectively by the 10 predominantly white colleges and universities with the largest endowments.</p>
<p>Despite the financial challenges these schools have faced, <a href="https://hbcubuzz.com/2021/02/28-hbcu-alums-made-black-history/">HBCU graduates include some of America’s most prominent figures</a>, including Martin Luther King Jr., Vice President Kamala Harris, multimedia mogul <a href="https://www.tnstate.edu/alumni/distinguishedtigers.aspx#Oprah%20Winfrey%20bio">Oprah Winfrey</a>, Supreme Court Justice <a href="https://www.crimsoneducation.org/us/blog/campus-life-more/the-history-of-hbcus/">Thurgood Marshall, filmmaker Spike Lee and Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison</a>.</p>
<p>There’s no way to know the full toll endured by HBCUs and the Black community as a whole from long-term underfunding and donor hostility. In my view, it will take decades of Scott-style giving for HBCUs to recover what has been lost in time, compound interest and impact over generations.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159039/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tyrone McKinley Freeman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When white philanthropists made large gifts to these schools in the 19th century and early 20th century, many insisted upon a vocational focus for Black higher ed.Tyrone McKinley Freeman, Associate Professor of Philanthropic Studies, Director of Undergraduate Programs, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1620722021-06-25T12:20:53Z2021-06-25T12:20:53ZClosures of Black K-12 schools across the nation threaten neighborhood stability<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408194/original/file-20210624-27-1i467uh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1278%2C931&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A June 2021 protest to keep Dunbar Elementary School in St. Louis from becoming a virtual-only school.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tenille Rose Martin</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Residents of the St. Louis neighborhood known as The Ville have been fighting for years to stop the closing of Charles H. Sumner High School, the <a href="https://www.stltoday.com/first-african-american-high-school-west-of-the-mississippi-river/article_e3943a6a-8f4e-53fe-aee8-165a5b004a27.html">oldest historically Black high school west of the Mississippi River</a>.</p>
<p>Sumner High School has been under repeated threats of closure from the school board and the superintendent, who cite declining enrollment. The most recent such threat arose in <a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/st-louis-schools-slated-for-permanent-closure-during-historic-enrollment-decline/article_303b721d-d0c9-5891-9e18-8d48a04a42e6.html">December 2020</a>. </p>
<p>Established in 1875, Sumner High is named after a <a href="https://www.senate.gov/senators/FeaturedBios/Featured_Bio_Sumner.htm">former U.S. senator</a> who vehemently opposed slavery. The school’s alumni represent a who’s who of Black people, including rock stars Tina Turner and Chuck Berry, comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory and tennis legend Arthur Ashe.</p>
<p><a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807845813/their-highest-potential/">Throughout Black people’s history</a> in the U.S., predominantly Black K-12 schools have served as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085999335003">pillars in Black communities</a>. Their importance is <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807842218/the-education-of-blacks-in-the-south-1860-1935/">second only</a> in significance to the Black church. Neighborhood schools help stabilize communities and foster a sense of belonging for children, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2012.00058.x">serving as</a> a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532480XADS0504_04">foundation for academic achievement</a>.</p>
<p>This is why many parents, community members, activists and even <a href="https://coe.umsl.edu/mycoe/p2_profiles/viewProfile/sso_id/morrisjer">researchers like me</a> who have studied contemporary Black K-12 schools find the <a href="https://www.tcpress.com/troubling-the-waters-9780807750155">shuttering of predominantly Black schools</a> – despite the rich history and success of some of these schools – to be disconcerting.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406574/original/file-20210615-3759-jratco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="High school class photo from 1931" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406574/original/file-20210615-3759-jratco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406574/original/file-20210615-3759-jratco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406574/original/file-20210615-3759-jratco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406574/original/file-20210615-3759-jratco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406574/original/file-20210615-3759-jratco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406574/original/file-20210615-3759-jratco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406574/original/file-20210615-3759-jratco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Graduating class of Sumner High School in January 1931.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://mohistory.org/collections/item/P0900-12783-01-8n">Missouri Historical Society</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Epidemic of closings</h2>
<p>Sumner High <a href="https://news.stlpublicradio.org/education/2021-01-12/st-louis-public-schools-will-close-8-schools-sparing-3">has been spared</a> for the time being. </p>
<p>But other historically Black schools, such as Paul Laurence Dunbar Elementary in St. Louis, have not been so lucky. Dunbar Elementary, named after the famous Black poet and writer, will no longer physically enroll students. District leaders said they want to convert Dunbar to a <a href="https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/education/some-parents-upset-slps-saint-louis-public-schools-turning-dunbar-elementary-into-virtual-school/63-1bedbe13-d6c3-4dae-b888-f2533d99fbc2">virtual school</a> beginning in August 2021. This led parents, community members and activists to protest the superintendent and school board’s decision, asserting that the physical closing of the school removes a key pillar in the historic Black Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312041001069">Two urban schools</a> that I have researched, both renowned for educating low-income Black students, were also recently shuttered. Gentrification and the emergence of charter schools contributed to an enrollment decline at Whitefoord Elementary in Atlanta, leading it to close its doors in 2017 after serving the <a href="https://www.ajc.com/blog/get-schooled/opinion-atlanta-school-died-today-victim-gentrification-and-school-choice/IQqJWdtr1JaQo4AfZAHdVM/">community for 93 years</a>. Farragut Elementary in St. Louis – also located in The Ville – closed in May 2021. The rationale once more: declining enrollment.</p>
<p>As recently as the early 2000s, Black students attending Whitefoord and Farragut <a href="https://www.tcpress.com/troubling-the-waters-9780807750155">outperformed Black students at other schools in their respective cities</a>, including those at magnet and charter schools, on standardized tests.</p>
<p>These school closings are part of an epidemic of Black public school closures in U.S. cities across the country, including in Atlanta, St. Louis, <a href="https://www.infoagepub.com/products/Shuttered-Schools">New Orleans, Baltimore and Chicago</a>.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=619">National Center for Education Statistics</a>, 1,310 schools closed in 2017-18, affecting 267,000 students. </p>
<p>Black and poor students are <a href="https://www.urban.org/features/subtracting-schools-communities">disproportionately affected</a> by these closures. For example, Black students comprise 31% of the students in urban public schools but represent 61% of students in those that closed.</p>
<h2>Human costs</h2>
<p>Sumner High School stands just 10 miles from the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, where protesters marched throughout the summer of 2014 to demand justice for the police killing of Michael Brown.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407730/original/file-20210622-27-z2ej0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Protest flyer with photos of St. Louis public school buildings" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407730/original/file-20210622-27-z2ej0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407730/original/file-20210622-27-z2ej0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407730/original/file-20210622-27-z2ej0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407730/original/file-20210622-27-z2ej0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=779&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407730/original/file-20210622-27-z2ej0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407730/original/file-20210622-27-z2ej0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407730/original/file-20210622-27-z2ej0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Flyer for a rally in St. Louis to protest the closing of neighborhood schools in Black communities.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Amid national rallying cries and hashtags that “Black Lives Matter,” I believe greater attention needs to be given to efforts aimed at stopping the closing of Black K-12 public schools. Just as the Black Lives Matter movement demands a stop to the unjust killing of Black people, residents of predominantly Black communities throughout the U.S. are also <a href="https://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/2549/1882">fighting to stop</a> the <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/G/bo27506579.html#:%7E:text=%22In%20Ghosts%20in%20the%20Schoolyard,closings%20on%20Chicago's%20South%20Side">killing of their communities</a> through school closures. </p>
<p>Superintendents and school boards often present their cases for closing schools using race-neutral language and statistics about low performance, dwindling enrollments and high operating costs. Rarely factored into the equation are the <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/the-color-of-law-a-forgotten-history-of-how-our-government-segregated-america/">historical and social circumstances</a> and policies – racism, persistent underfunding of Black education, redlining, <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/14445.html">disinvestment in Black neighborhoods</a> and desegregation – that gave rise to those statistics.</p>
<p>Moreover, missing from these analyses are the human costs related to closing schools in already struggling neighborhoods. When policymakers remove schools from vulnerable communities, they remove some of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085999335003">few stabilizing institutions</a>. These buildings often sit vacant for years and become eyesores and objects of vandalism. </p>
<h2>Racial reckoning</h2>
<p>I raise these concerns within this time of racial reckoning that purports to value Black institutions. A rush of philanthropic and governmental dollars as a result of protests for Black lives has recently targeted Black businesses, civil rights and social justice organizations, as well as historically Black colleges and universities, or <a href="https://diverseeducation.com/article/186527/">HBCUs</a>. </p>
<p>HBCUs have rightfully received additional resources for their work educating generations of Black students. But I believe that to serve Black children, proponents of Black education must extend this support to include Black K-12 public schools. I see three main reasons for this.</p>
<p>First, of the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cge">7.7 million</a> Black children who attend public elementary or high schools today, <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cge">3.3 million</a> go to schools that are 50% or more Black. Almost <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cge">2 million</a> Black students attend schools that are at least 75% Black. Conversely, <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/FastFacts/display.asp?id=667">roughly 200,000</a> Black students attended the nation’s HBCUs in 2018.</p>
<p>I find it disingenuous for governmental agencies and philanthropies to provide economic support to Black students at the university level but not at the K-12 level, which comprises the most critical phases of their educational and social development.</p>
<p>Second, the circumstances for Black students who abruptly leave closed schools do not get better. <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED543514">Students from closed schools</a> often experience a decline in math test scores, rarely transfer to better-performing schools and suffer social and academic disruption. </p>
<p>And finally, saving Black K-12 public schools is linked to broader efforts to support Black communities, families and children. In supporting Black schools, policymakers can help re-anchor struggling Black communities. This holistic focus entails supporting families with education and job-training programs, stimulating local Black-owned businesses and supporting neighborhood organizations that serve kids and families.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>Next steps</h2>
<p>How can this be done? As with the recent passage of stimulus bills to stabilize the economy and families affected by COVID-19, governmental and philanthropic dollars must complement local dollars to counter <a href="https://tcf.org/content/report/closing-americas-education-funding">funding gaps</a> for schools that predominantly serve Black students and <a href="https://theconversation.com/america-gets-a-d-for-school-infrastructure-but-federal-covid-relief-could-pay-for-many-repairs-156831">improve the infrastructure</a> of those schools.</p>
<p>Providing financial support to end the massive closing of K-12 Black public schools – which are charged with educating millions of Black students on the racial and economic margins – would make an emphatic statement that Black lives truly matter.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162072/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jerome Morris receives funding from Spencer Foundation. </span></em></p>A professor of urban education argues that an epidemic of majority-Black public school closings is hurting already vulnerable communities across the country.Jerome Morris, Professor of Urban Education, University of Missouri-St. LouisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1628372021-06-24T12:09:26Z2021-06-24T12:09:26ZHow the billions MacKenzie Scott is giving to colleges attended by students of color will help everyone in America<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407765/original/file-20210622-25-1afat81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C423%2C1785%2C1171&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Scott is giving dozens of predominantly nonwhite schools their biggest donations ever, including Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/melissa-gomes-right-fixes-the-tassel-as-new-graduate-sarah-news-photo/1215219419">Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When billionaire <a href="https://www.highereddive.com/news/mackenzie-scott-announces-more-donations-to-colleges-higher-ed-groups/601843/">philanthropist MacKenzie Scott</a> announced her third round of charitable gifts in June 2021, she said she was giving US$2.7 billion to 286 organizations. This list includes 31 colleges and universities serving people of color and other underserved communities.</p>
<p>That’s on top of the $4.2 billion <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2020/12/16/mackenzie-scott-gives-away-42-billion-and-colleges-rejoice">Scott announced in December 2020</a> to support 384 organizations, including 30 colleges and universities. Her <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">initial plan, announced in July 2020</a>, included $1.7 billion for 116 organizations, including several Historically Black Colleges and Universities and other <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pmb/eeo/doi-minority-serving-institutions-program">minority-serving institutions</a>.</p>
<p>For example, Scott is giving Xavier University of Louisiana, a school that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/magazine/a-prescription-for-more-black-doctors.html">sends more Black graduates to medical school</a> than any other university in the U.S., <a href="https://www.bizneworleans.com/ex-wife-of-amazon-founder-donates-20m-to-xavier/">$20 million</a>; <a href="https://datausa.io/profile/university/long-beach-city-college">Long Beach City College</a>, a California school where more than 85% of students are people of color, <a href="https://www.lbcc.edu/press-release/lbcc-receives-historic-30-million-gift-philanthropist-mackenzie-scott">$30 million</a>; and <a href="https://www.cbs7.com/2021/06/15/odessa-college-receives-7-million-donation-mackenzie-scott/">Odessa College</a>, a Texas school where <a href="https://datausa.io/profile/university/odessa-college">74% of students are nonwhite</a>, $7 million. All three colleges said Scott’s donations were the largest they had ever received.</p>
<p>As a counseling psychology professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=nr_dqLUAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">who conducts research regarding the education of Black students</a>, I am encouraged to see Scott, a novelist who was formerly married to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, depart from how billionaires tend to approach their higher education giving. <a href="https://thebestschools.org/features/most-generous-alumni-donors/">Most make donations to prestigious universities</a> that already have <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/how-do-university-endowments-work/">large endowments</a> – money raised from alumni and other donors that they invest in stocks, bonds and other assets. This wealth can cover the cost of scholarships, salaries, construction and any other expenses. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407758/original/file-20210622-25-x1jfgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="MacKenzie Scott and her husband Dan Jewett" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407758/original/file-20210622-25-x1jfgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407758/original/file-20210622-25-x1jfgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407758/original/file-20210622-25-x1jfgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407758/original/file-20210622-25-x1jfgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407758/original/file-20210622-25-x1jfgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407758/original/file-20210622-25-x1jfgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407758/original/file-20210622-25-x1jfgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">MacKenzie Scott’s new husband, Dan Jewett, has joined her in a pledge to give away most of their fortune.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://givingpledge.org/Pledger.aspx?id=393">Giving Pledge</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Most wealthy people donate to wealthy schools</h2>
<p>Mike Bloomberg, for example, <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2018/11/19/18102994/michael-bloomberg-johns-hopkins-financial-aid-donation">donated $1.8 billion</a> to John Hopkins University, his alma mater, in 2018. Notably, <a href="https://doi.org/10.7709/jnegroeducation.85.2.0097">that prestigious school receives</a> more money from federal grants than all of the nation’s 100 HBCUs combined.</p>
<p>Similarly, I question how donations to Harvard University, such as the <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/3/7/zuckerberg-donates-30million/">$30 million</a> from Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, can be considered charitable when it already has <a href="https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2020/09/harvard-endowment-41-9-billion-on-7-3-percent-investment-return">$41.9 billion in its endowment</a>. Harvard earned a 7.3% return on its endowment assets for its fiscal year that ended in June 2020 – about $3 billion.</p>
<p>Interestingly, I’ve calculated that the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/Help/View/1">total combined annual operating cost of all private HBCUs</a> is also about $3 billion.</p>
<h2>Fewer students of color attend ‘national universities’</h2>
<p>U.S. News and World Report considers <a href="https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/rankings-faq">389 schools to be “national universities</a>” <a href="https://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/">because of their stature</a> and academic offerings. These universities are more likely to receive charitable contributions than others because of their reputation and the large number of affluent people who graduate from them. But these colleges and universities represent <a href="https://www.urbanedjournal.org/education/how-many-colleges-are-in-the-us-numbers-of-colleges-and-educational-institutions/">fewer than 10% of all institutions of higher education</a>.</p>
<p>When I analyzed <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/use-the-data">raw data files from the leading federal database for educational data</a>, I found that students of color are less likely to enroll at national universities than their white peers.</p>
<p>I also found that the schools enrolling the most students of color are more likely to be two-year colleges as opposed to a four-year institution; less likely to be prominent research universities; more likely to have significantly high percentages of low-income students; and more likely to have smaller-than-average endowments.</p>
<p>When announcing Scott’s historic donations, many colleges and universities have noted their success with graduating science, technology, engineering and math students.</p>
<p>Florida International University, for example, announced that Scott’s $40 million gift will be used for “<a href="https://news.fiu.edu/2021/mackenzie-scott-makes-a-40-million-gift-to-fiu-that-will-transform-the-student-experience">student success programs</a>.” That school noted its number 6 ranking in terms of awarding engineering degrees to African Americans and the high percentage of its Latino students who earn STEM degrees.</p>
<p><a href="https://affordableschools.net/25-largest-hbcu-bachelors-colleges-enrollment/">North Carolina A&T</a>, the nation’s largest HBCU, announced plans to spend Scott’s <a href="https://abc11.com/mackenzie-scott-worth-who-is-north-carolina-a--t-university-winston-salem-state/8818615/">$45 million donation</a> in “<a href="https://www.ncat.edu/news/2020/12/mackenzie-scott-donation.php">areas of critical national need, including professions in STEM</a>.” The selection of multiple HBCUs, Hispanic-serving and tribal colleges with a track record of graduating underrepresented STEM students seems intentional.</p>
<p>What’s more, recent data suggests that <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25257/minority-serving-institutions-americas-underutilized-resource-for-strengthening-the-stem">prominent national universities are not graduating enough students</a> overall, apart from racial, ethnic and class considerations, to satisfy the needs of the future workforce.</p>
<p>In 2019, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine predicted that the <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25257/minority-serving-institutions-americas-underutilized-resource-for-strengthening-the-stem">nation will need 1 million</a> more STEM professionals than are on pace to earn higher education degrees in the 2020s.</p>
<p>The National Science Board, the governing board for the National Science Foundation, called this impending shortage of STEM professionals the “<a href="https://www.nsf.gov/nsb/news/news_summ.jsp">missing millions</a>.” It passed a resolution to address the “urgent need” for more underrepresented groups in the U.S. science and engineering workforce.</p>
<p>A STEM workforce that represents the diversity of the U.S. population can <a href="https://itif.org/publications/2019/09/12/why-federal-rd-policy-needs-prioritize-productivity-drive-growth-and-reduce">contribute to economic growth</a>. Washington Center for Equitable Growth <a href="https://live-equitablegrowth.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/10153405/0115-ach-gap-report.pdf">estimated</a> the nation could earn $5.3 trillion in increased tax revenue from a more skilled workforce if we closed the achievement gap in math and science over the next 60 years. Similarly, a <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED526954.pdf">Harvard University report</a> estimated, by calculating national income projections over an 80-year period, the U.S. would add $75 trillion to the GDP if math education was equal.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25257/minority-serving-institutions-americas-underutilized-resource-for-strengthening-the-stem">more than 700 minority-serving institutions</a> across the U.S. These <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25257/minority-serving-institutions-americas-underutilized-resource-for-strengthening-the-stem">colleges and universities enroll nearly 30%</a> of all undergraduates in America. Learners of color, research indicates, <a href="https://doi.org/10.7709/jnegroeducation.82.4.0359">find such schools to be more accessible and welcoming</a> than primarily white schools.</p>
<p>What’s more, about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1521025117690159">half of the students attending minority-serving institutions</a> get Pell Grants, which help cover educational costs for low-income students. And they enroll many students who are the <a href="https://cmsi.gse.rutgers.edu/content/brief-history-msis">first in their families to go to college</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407760/original/file-20210622-21-pe95se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A masked woman and man speak under a spotlight in a booklined room" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407760/original/file-20210622-21-pe95se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407760/original/file-20210622-21-pe95se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407760/original/file-20210622-21-pe95se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407760/original/file-20210622-21-pe95se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407760/original/file-20210622-21-pe95se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407760/original/file-20210622-21-pe95se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407760/original/file-20210622-21-pe95se.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm speaks with Howard University student Christopher Flowers about the need for more diversity among STEM students and workers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jennifer-granholm-u-s-energy-secretary-speaks-to-howard-news-photo/1232671043">Stefani Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A welcome trend</h2>
<p>Scott’s <a href="https://givingpledge.org/Pledger.aspx?id=393">approach to giving</a>, with its <a href="https://theconversation.com/racial-justice-giving-is-booming-4-trends-145526">emphasis on racial justice</a>, appears to be inspiring others to take a similar approach with their educational philanthropy.</p>
<p>Days after her June 2021 announcement, for example, <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/google-announces-50-million-in-grants-for-hbcus/">Google confirmed its plans</a> to commit $50 million to build infrastructure and support scholarships at HBCUs. </p>
<p>I see many <a href="https://www.postsecondaryvalue.org/reports/">reasons beyond charity</a> for philanthropists, the government and corporations to consider donating to colleges and universities that mostly enroll students of color. Among them: It’s a key strategy for helping everyone in America.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162837/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ivory A. Toldson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Her giving style is unusual for a billionaire donor.Ivory A. Toldson, Professor of Counseling Psychology, Howard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1548362021-02-17T19:53:21Z2021-02-17T19:53:21ZBlack sororities have stood at the forefront of Black achievement for more than a century<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383593/original/file-20210210-19-168gw2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=26%2C0%2C3000%2C1971&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority members at a get-out-the-vote event in 2020</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-alpha-kappa-alpha-sorority-pose-for-a-photo-news-photo/1229406551?adppopup=true">Octavio Jones/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In her speech at the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/19/dnc-2020-kamala-harris-speech.html">2020 Democratic National Convention</a> Kamala Harris saluted seven women who “inspired us to pick up the torch and fight on.” </p>
<p>All but two of them, one of whom was <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-55786214">her mother</a>, belonged to <a href="https://facingtoday.facinghistory.org/suffrage-and-sisterhood-the-origins-and-impact-of-black-sororities">Black sororities</a>. Harris also mentioned her own Black sorority, saying: “Family is my beloved Alpha Kappa Alpha.”</p>
<p>Many Americans may have wondered why Harris would invoke sororities on such an occasion. But not me. Like her, I am a proud member of a Black sorority: <a href="https://www.deltasigmatheta.org">Delta Sigma Theta</a>, which I joined as a student at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. If I were in Harris’ shoes, accepting such an unprecedented leadership role, I, too, would have paid homage to my sorority as a way to thank those on whose shoulders I stand.</p>
<p>This shoutout also resonated with me because I have researched the <a href="https://www.kentuckypress.com/author/tamara-l-brown/">history of Black sororities and fraternities</a>, including their dedication to combat discrimination and the lifelong family-like bonds they create.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JijFLcbIqMs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Kamala Harris speaks at the 2020 Democratic Convention.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The forerunners of Black sororities</h2>
<p>The nation’s four Black sororities have always differed from white sororities in several ways, in part because of their historical roots.</p>
<p>Their origins are tied to the Black women’s clubs and mutual aid societies that first emerged with the <a href="https://suffragistmemorial.org/suffragists-in-washington-d-c/">Colored Women’s Progressive Association</a>, established in 1880.</p>
<p>In 1892, after the author and activist <a href="https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/2020/09/21/southern-horrors-lynch-law-in-all-its-phases-oct-5-1892/">Ida B. Wells-Barnett distributed her historic anti-lynching speech</a> as a pamphlet, Black women’s clubs sprang up throughout the U.S. in major metropolitan areas and small cities. </p>
<p>These clubs focused on issues of interest to all American women at the time, including education, health and voting rights. But they also sought to <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/resources/general/african-american-reformers">combat racism and discrimination</a>.</p>
<h2>A call toward service</h2>
<p>Young Black women who liked the groups’ insistence on equality and racial justice responded by creating Black sororities at their colleges. Students at Howard University in Washington, D.C. – Harris’ alma mater – created the first one, <a href="https://aka1908.com/about">Alpha Kappa Alpha</a>, in 1908. Female white students by then had begun to form <a href="https://www.oldest.org/culture/sororities-america/">similar groups on other campuses</a>, many of which <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ss.20289">barred Black members</a>.</p>
<p>Five of the <a href="http://www.blackgreek.com/divinenine/">“Divine Nine”</a> Greek organizations Kamala Harris mentioned in her speech are fraternities, created in response to Black men not being included in traditionally white fraternities.</p>
<p>I believe that African American women created their own sororities as communities of resistance that would allow them to survive and achieve in an oppressive society, refute stereotypes, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jctpn">celebrate their own cultures</a> and fight sexism and racism – including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0361684315616113">gendered racism</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384846/original/file-20210217-19-1q02g3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of young African American women hold a sign that reads #StandWithBennet" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384846/original/file-20210217-19-1q02g3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384846/original/file-20210217-19-1q02g3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384846/original/file-20210217-19-1q02g3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384846/original/file-20210217-19-1q02g3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384846/original/file-20210217-19-1q02g3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384846/original/file-20210217-19-1q02g3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384846/original/file-20210217-19-1q02g3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-delta-sigma-theta-sorority-inc-attend-the-2019-news-photo/1097603110?adppopup=true">Paras Griffin/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The 6 women Harris saluted</h2>
<p>The historically significant <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/here-are-some-of-the-women-kamala-harris-said-helped-pave-the-way-for-her/ar-BB18cpzq">Black women</a>, aside from her mother, whom Harris thanked in her speech were:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-church-terrell">Mary Church Terrell</a>, who founded the <a href="https://www.crusadeforthevote.org/nacw">National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs</a>, the largest federation of local Black women’s clubs. After becoming an honorary Delta Sigma Theta member in 1913, decades after graduating from Oberlin College, Terrell wrote the <a href="https://knowthereign.weebly.com/delta-oath.html">sorority’s oath</a> and <a href="https://www.deltasigmatheta.org/conduct.php">code of conduct</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mary-mcleod-bethune">Mary McLeod Bethune</a>, who established what is today <a href="https://cookman.edu/about_BCU/index.html">Bethune-Cookman University</a> in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1904. She also became an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta in 1923, a dozen years before founding the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/National-Council-of-Negro-Women">National Council of Negro Women</a>, an umbrella group that brought together representatives from different organizations seeking to improve the lives of Black women and their communities.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/fannie-lou-hamer">Fannie Lou Hamer</a>, who co-founded the <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/mississippi-freedom-democratic-party-mfdp">Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party</a> in 1964 when the state’s Democratic Party barred Black participation. Her famous words “<a href="https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/2019/08/09/im-sick-and-tired-of-being-sick-and-tired-dec-20-1964/">I am sick and tired of being sick and tired</a>” are still a rallying cry for activists today. She was inducted as an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://snccdigital.org/people/diane-nash-bevel/">Diane Nash</a>, who became a leader and strategist of the student wing of the civil rights movement while attending <a href="https://www.biography.com/activist/diane-nash">Howard and then Fisk University</a>. I have found no evidence, however, that Nash belonged to a Black sorority.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.uscourts.gov/news/2020/02/20/constance-baker-motley-judiciarys-unsung-rights-hero">Constance Baker Motley</a>, who was the first African American woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court – winning nine of the 10 cases she argued before the court as an NAACP attorney. She was also the first Black woman to become a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/oct/01/guardianobituaries.usa">federal judge</a>, the first to win a New York state senate seat and the first to represent Manhattan as the borough’s president. <a href="http://akapioneers.aka1908.com/index.php/component/mtree/vocations/law-1/circuit-court-judge-1/1731-motley-constance-baker">Alpha Kappa Alpha</a> made her an honorary member.</p></li>
<li><p><a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/shirley-chisholm">Shirley Chisolm</a>, who won a House of Representatives seat in 1968. After becoming the first African American woman in Congress, she helped form the <a href="https://cbc.house.gov/about/">Congressional Black Caucus</a>. Her 1972 presidential bid made her the first woman and African American to seek the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/us-politics/shirley-chisolm">nomination from a major political party</a>. She joined <a href="https://weemagine.com/2016/08/28/12-facts-about-the-first-woman-to-run-for-the-democratic-presidential-nomination-hint-its-not-hillary/">Delta Sigma Theta</a> as a Brooklyn College student.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>Continuing a tradition</h2>
<p>Even today, the core mission of Black sororities remains civic engagement and racial justice.</p>
<p>All members of sororities and fraternities may donate to social causes or volunteer as part of satisfying school <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-college-towns-could-benefit-more-from-throngs-of-student-volunteers-109862">community service</a> requirements. A <a href="https://www.uloop.com/news/view.php/154170/How-To-Choose-The-Best-Community-Service-FraternitySorority-For-You">few make it their main focus</a>.</p>
<p>But across the board, Black sororities emphasize consequential and sustained community service, while their members are students and also once they’ve graduated from college. This is also true of the <a href="https://www.watchtheyard.com/deltas/joan-mulholland-delta-sigma-theta-white-member/">few white women</a> who have joined Black sororities over the years.</p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384841/original/file-20210217-17-15oslav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of African American women pose for a photo." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384841/original/file-20210217-17-15oslav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384841/original/file-20210217-17-15oslav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384841/original/file-20210217-17-15oslav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384841/original/file-20210217-17-15oslav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384841/original/file-20210217-17-15oslav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384841/original/file-20210217-17-15oslav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384841/original/file-20210217-17-15oslav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=623&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the Sigma Gamma Rho sorority.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-sigma-gamma-rho-sorority-inc-attend-2016-martin-news-photo/505579488?adppopup=true">Griffin/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Like with biological families where members remain in the family no matter what, for Black women, sorority affiliation usually becomes a <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/2017/11/17/long-after-college-divine-nine-fraternities-and-sororities-are-a-lifeline-for-black-members/">permanent part of their identity</a> and an enduring source of pride and support. </p>
<p>Many members of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jctpn">Black sororities remain active</a> and engaged for the rest of their lives. They join local chapters, changing their affiliation whenever they move. Through this practice, their bond of sisterhood remains intact.</p>
<p>When I moved to North Texas, for example, local sorority members reached out to me. They helped me acclimate and make connections so that I immediately felt welcome. I also remain engaged with the sorority chapter I joined at Longwood by mentoring students, donating to scholarship funds and through other means. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384840/original/file-20210217-19-1gq1lk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Several African American women dressed in blue walk together." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384840/original/file-20210217-19-1gq1lk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384840/original/file-20210217-19-1gq1lk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384840/original/file-20210217-19-1gq1lk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384840/original/file-20210217-19-1gq1lk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384840/original/file-20210217-19-1gq1lk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384840/original/file-20210217-19-1gq1lk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384840/original/file-20210217-19-1gq1lk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the Zeta Phi Beta sorority.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-zeta-phi-beta-sorority-inc-participate-in-the-news-photo/631844242?adppopup=true">Paras Griffin/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As Harris made clear in her speech, she believes she stands on the shoulders of phenomenal women who, years after they blazed trails, taught today’s Black women how to be persistent in creating change that benefits our communities, and how to teach others to follow in our footsteps.</p>
<p>They taught us to <a href="https://womensmuseum.wordpress.com/2018/02/21/lifting-as-we-climb-the-story-of-americas-first-black-womens-club/">lift as we climb</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154836/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tamara L. Brown is affiliated with Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. </span></em></p>Members of the nation’s four Black sororities, including Vice President Kamala Harris, commit to lifelong acts of service for their communities.Tamara L. Brown, Executive Dean and Professor of Psychology, University of North TexasLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1544662021-02-09T16:01:13Z2021-02-09T16:01:13ZWhat the $25 billion the biggest US donors gave in 2020 says about high-dollar charity today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383115/original/file-20210208-17-1uft0gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C66%2C3637%2C2166&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott, seen here before they divorced in 2019, were the top two U.S. charitable donors the following year. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-and-his-wife-mackenzie-bezos-arrive-news-photo/950770310">Jorg Carstensen/dpa/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: According to <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/package/the-new-focus-of-2020s-top-donors?cid=theconversation">The Chronicle of Philanthropy</a>, the top 50 Americans who gave the most to charity in 2020 committed to giving a total of US$24.7 billion to hospitals, homeless shelters, universities, museums and more – a boost of roughly 54% from 2019 levels. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VYsdAEIAAAAJ&hl=en">David Campbell</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=tu70lmIAAAAJ">Elizabeth Dale</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=uqv9NgwAAAAJ">Jasmine McGinnis Johnson</a>, three scholars of philanthropy, assess what these gifts mean, the possible motivations behind them and what they hope to see in the future in terms of charitable giving in the United States.</em></p>
<h2>What trends stand out?</h2>
<p><strong>Campbell:</strong> Pandemic. Pandemic. Pandemic. The share of giving that went to <a href="https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.categories&categoryid=6">social service nonprofits</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-food-banks-help-americans-who-have-trouble-getting-enough-to-eat-148150">food banks</a> and homelessness assistance groups rose sharply. At the same time, performing arts organizations, largely shut down as a result of the pandemic and <a href="https://www.americantheatre.org/2020/09/30/study-shows-steep-revenue-plunge-for-theatres-some-hope-for-2021/">starved of revenue from ticket sales</a>, received more support from big donors in 2020 than in 2019, with charitable gifts and pledges to them increasing to $65 million from $51 million.</p>
<p><strong>McGinnis Johnson:</strong> Likewise, Racial justice. Racial justice. Racial justice.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/05/michael-jordans-brand-donates-100-million-to-anti-racist-groups.html">basketball legend Michael Jordan</a> declared that he would personally give at least $50 million to racial equity and education causes over the next decade, with his footwear and clothing company kicking in another $50 million. Also, Netflix CEO <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/netflix-s-reed-hastings-patty-quillin-donate-120m-black-education-n1231267">Reed Hastings and his wife Patty Quillan</a> gave a total of $120 million divided into three equal gifts to <a href="https://uncf.org/news/patty-quillin-and-reed-hastings-give-120-million-to-support-historically-black-colleges-and-universities">Morehouse College, Spelman College and UNCF</a> – the group previously called United Negro College Fund that pays for students to attend <a href="https://theundefeated.com/features/how-hbcus-are-using-more-than-250-million-in-donations/">historically black colleges and universities</a>. Neither Jordan nor <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/netflix-s-reed-hastings-patty-quillin-donate-120m-black-education-n1231267">Hastings and Quillan</a>, who said their increased awareness about the country’s racial injustices and the deaths of Black people in police custody inspired them to give, made the <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/billion-dollar-giving-streak-shows-new-sense-of-urgency-among-50-top-donors/">Chronicle’s list of top donors in 2019</a>.</p>
<p>These and other unusually large <a href="https://theconversation.com/racial-justice-giving-is-booming-4-trends-145526">gifts taking aim at racial injustice</a>, and other forms of social injustice (not counting HBCU donations), totaled $66 million in 2020. But I had anticipated that there would be even more of this giving by the biggest donors.</p>
<p><iframe id="aTRKN" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/aTRKN/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><strong>Dale:</strong> In particular, <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-ways-mackenzie-scotts-5-8-billion-commitment-to-social-and-economic-justice-is-a-model-for-other-donors-152206">MacKenzie Scott</a> – Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife – made <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2021/01/04/mackenzie-scott-surprises-hbcus-tribal-colleges-and-community-colleges-multimillion">many gifts to HBCUs</a>. These donations included $50 million for Prairie View A&M University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and Morgan State University. In addition to racial justice, <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-takeaways-from-mackenzie-scotts-1-7-billion-in-support-for-social-justice-causes-143659">her philanthropy</a> has raised the profile of causes like civic engagement, community development and the need to address the <a href="https://ripmedicaldebt.org/press-release/gift-from-philanthropist-mackenzie-scott/">medical debt crisis</a> in the U.S. Scott was the second-largest donor for the year, after Bezos. Combined, their commitments totaled nearly $16 billion. Neither made the top 50 in 2019.</p>
<p>Until now, the ultra-rich haven’t typically supported causes like these. Instead, extremely wealthy donors have historically been more inclined to fund <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-1-gives-more-money-to-arts-culture-and-sports-than-to-fighting-climate-change-survey-of-billionaires-finds-2020-01-23">higher education and health care</a>, largely with big donations to elite universities, hospitals and arts institutions like museums and operas.</p>
<p>The other aspect that strikes me is the “who” part of the list. There are many new faces: Eight of the 20 top donors didn’t make an appearance on the <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/the-philanthropy-50/?cid2=gen_login_refresh&cid=gen_sign_in#id=table_2019">Philanthropy 50 list for their 2019 giving</a>. </p>
<p><iframe id="2lQPh" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/2lQPh/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>What concerns do you have?</h2>
<p><strong>McGinnis Johnson:</strong> A total of about $14 billion of this giving went to foundations led by the givers themselves and <a href="https://learning.candid.org/resources/knowledge-base/donor-advised-funds">donor-advised funds</a>, which work somewhat like foundations in that donors set money aside for charity before they actually give those funds to nonprofits. When wealthy people set aside money this way, they receive tax benefits before giving those funds. In a troubling development, <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/foundations-are-sending-more-dollars-to-donor-advised-funds-chronicle-analysis-finds">some foundations</a> have begun to put some of their disbursed money, which was already designated for charity, into donor-advised funds rather than addressing today’s many urgent needs, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/18-million-us-children-are-at-risk-of-hunger-how-is-the-problem-being-addressed-and-what-more-can-be-done-151821">alleviating hunger</a> and <a href="https://fox17.com/news/nation-world/eviction-moratorium-gave-renters-relief-but-property-owners-face-billions-in-unpaid-rent">staving off evictions</a> amid a major economic crisis.</p>
<p><strong>Dale:</strong> This list reminds me of the limits of philanthropy, especially with a problem as widespread as the COVID-19 pandemic. Even if you add all of the social service gifts together, including donations to food banks, efforts to help the homeless and gifts to pay off medical debt, it adds up to only about $700 million. Compared to the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/biden-lays-out-1-9-trillion-covid-19-relief-package-n1254334">trillions of dollars in relief</a> the government is providing <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/05/15/854774681/congress-has-approved-3-trillion-for-coronavirus-relief-so-far-heres-a-breakdown">individuals and small businesses</a> for economic problems that <a href="https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2020/dec/covid-19-relief-bill-addresses-key-ppp-issues.html">began in 2020</a>, you can see that philanthropy from the very wealthiest Americans doesn’t come close to meeting all of the nation’s needs.</p>
<p>One possible way Congress could encourage more donations is by increasing the share of assets that foundations must give away every year. A <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-19/wealthy-donors-press-congress-to-require-higher-giving-in-crisis">coalition of wealthy donors</a> including Walt Disney Co. heiress <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/what-are-we-waiting-for-multimillionaires-want-the-new-stimulus-bill-to-force-other-rich-people-to-give-more-money-to-charity-2020-07-22">Abigail Disney</a> and at least two members of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pritzker-family">Pritzker family</a> – heirs to the Hyatt fortune – supports this change.</p>
<p><iframe id="eRbdz" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/eRbdz/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>What do you expect to see in 2021 and beyond?</h2>
<p><strong>McGinnis Johnson:</strong> I think that major gifts in support of racial and social justice causes may continue. I also expect to see the emergence of new donors spurred on by these crises who can give in new and different ways. And I hope that more wealthy donors begin to pay more attention to leadership, by supporting <a href="https://cep.org/a-new-wave-of-philanthropy-to-support-black-led-organizations/">organizations led by people of color</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Campbell:</strong> Donors like <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">MacKenzie Scott</a> and <a href="https://medium.com/@susansandlerfund/my-cancer-milestone-and-my-philanthropic-legacy-a338d03bfc94">Susan Sandler</a> – the heir to a fortune made in the home-mortgage business – and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/01/robin-hood-foundation-launches-fund-to-help-groups-run-by-people-of-color.html">some foundations</a> are going out of their way to invest in people, places and organizations that have long been ignored or marginalized.</p>
<p>Also, their public statements about their giving, along with Twitter CEO <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/1/d/1-eGxq2mMoEGwgSpNVL5j2sa6ToojZUZ-Zun8h2oBAR4/htmlview">Jack Dorsey’s spreadsheet listing his donations</a>, have raised the bar for transparency in philanthropy.</p>
<p>I believe these new approaches can engage the public in an ongoing <a href="https://theconversation.com/my-students-see-giving-money-away-as-a-good-thing-but-theyre-getting-leery-of-billionaire-donors-116627">debate about the best way to use charitable dollars</a> to build a better world. The question is, will other wealthy donors follow their lead?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154466/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Campbell is vice chair of the Conrad and Virginia Klee Foundation in Binghamton, New York. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth J. Dale has received funding from the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation via Indiana University and The Giving USA Foundation for her research on philanthropy. The views expressed in this essay are strictly my own and do not reflect policy stances of Seattle University.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasmine McGinnis Johnson is a Visiting Fellow at Urban Institute, the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy.</span></em></p>While support for social services and historically black colleges and universities rose sharply, these donors spent a tiny fraction of what the government distributed to people who needed help.David Campbell, Associate Professor of Public Administration, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkElizabeth J. Dale, Assistant Professor of Nonprofit Leadership, Seattle UniversityJasmine McGinnis Johnson, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Public Administration, George Washington UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1522062020-12-16T20:52:05Z2020-12-16T20:52:05Z5 ways MacKenzie Scott’s $5.8 billion commitment to social and economic justice is a model for other donors<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375535/original/file-20201216-15-1csl6on.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=69%2C37%2C4124%2C2885&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The philanthropist is giving away billions of dollars quickly to help people like these Floridians seeking donated food.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-aerial-view-from-a-drone-volunteers-load-boxes-of-news-photo/1230043517">Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The author and <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/384-ways-to-help-45d0b9ac6ad8">philanthropist MacKenzie Scott</a> announced on Dec. 15 that she had given almost US$4.2 billion to hundreds of nonprofits. It was her second announcement of this kind since she first publicly discussed her giving intentions in <a href="https://theconversation.com/mackenzie-bezoss-17-billion-pledge-tops-a-growing-list-of-women-giving-big-117964">May of 2019</a>.</p>
<p>In July 2020, Scott revealed that she’d already given away nearly <a href="https://medium.com/@mackenzie_scott/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">$1.7 billion</a> to 116 organizations, many of which focused on racial justice, women’s rights, LGBTQ equality, democracy and climate change. All told, her 2020 philanthropy totals more than $5.8 billion.
Scott directed her latest round of giving to <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/384-ways-to-help-45d0b9ac6ad8">384 organizations</a> to support people disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. She made dozens of gifts to food banks, United Way chapters, YMCAs and YWCAs – organizations that have seen increased demand for services and, in some cases, <a href="https://afpglobal.org/half-charities-expecting-drop-donations-2020-and-beyond">declines in philanthropic gifts</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>In the <a href="https://medium.com/@mackenzie_scott/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">two blog</a> <a href="https://mackenzie-scott.medium.com/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">posts she has written</a> to break the news, Scott has encouraged donors of all means to join her, whether those gifts are money or time.</p>
<p>Previously married to Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, the philanthropist announced in July that from now on she’ll be using her middle name as her new last name. She left it up to the causes she’s funding to reveal precise totals for each gift.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/morgan-state-university-receives-historic-gift-of-40m-from-philanthropist-mackenzie-scott-301193421.html">Morgan State University</a> and <a href="https://www.cbs19news.com/story/43063099/mackenzie-scott-donates-30m-to-virginia-state-university">Virginia State University</a>, two of several historically Black colleges and universities receiving her donations, said these were the biggest gifts they’d ever gotten from an individual donor. A number of her gifts are also funding tribal colleges as well as community colleges.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tu70lmIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholar of philanthropy</a>, I believe that Scott is modeling five best practices for <a href="https://resourcegeneration.org/what-we-do/social-justice-philanthropy-and-giving/">social change giving</a>.</p>
<p><iframe id="ywfjW" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/ywfjW/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>1. Don’t attach strings</h2>
<p>All of Scott’s gifts – many in the millions or tens of millions, like the $30 million she gave <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/29/us/hbcus-largest-donation-history-mackenzie-scott-trnd/index.html">Hampton University</a> and the $40 million to the <a href="https://www.lisc.org/our-stories/story/mackenzie-scott-transformative-gift-lisc">Local Initiatives Support Corporation</a>, which advocates for and builds affordable housing – were made without restrictions. Rather than specify a purpose, as <a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/power_and_pleasure_of_unrestricted_funding#">many large donors</a> do, Scott made it clear that she trusts the organizations’ leaders by providing absolute flexibility in terms of how to use her money to pursue their missions. This hands-off approach <a href="https://theconversation.com/nonprofits-that-scrimp-on-overhead-arent-necessarily-better-than-those-spending-more-111700">gives nonprofits</a> an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764007300386">unusual amount of freedom</a> to innovate while equipping them to <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-survey-shows-that-social-service-nonprofits-are-trying-to-help-more-people-on-smaller-budgets-as-the-coronavirus-pandemic-and-economic-downturn-unfold-138252">weather crises like the coronavirus pandemic</a> without stringent restrictions imposed by donors. </p>
<h2>2. Champion representation</h2>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/@mackenzie_scott/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">According to Scott</a>, 91% of the racial equity organizations she funded in her initial round of massive giving, such as the Movement for Black Lives and LatinoJustice, are run by leaders of color. All of the LGBTQ equity organizations, such as the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Transgender Law Center, that she’s backing are led by LGBTQ leaders. And 83% of the gender equity organizations, such as the Indian nonprofit <a href="https://www.educategirls.ngo/">Educate Girls</a>, are run by women. She says this approach brings “lived experience to solutions for imbalanced social systems.” Backing groups led by people directly affected by an issue is a common tenet of social justice giving at a time when organizations led by people of color <a href="https://www.bridgespan.org/insights/library/philanthropy/disparities-nonprofit-funding-for-leaders-of-color">receive less funding than white-led groups</a>. </p>
<p>In addition, some of her other gifts to grassroots organizations like <a href="https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/song/">Southerners on New Ground</a>, an LGBTQ community-organizing nonprofit, and Southern Partners Fund direct support to a region of the U.S. <a href="https://nonprofitquarterly.org/philanthropy-in-the-south/">that is often overlooked by donors and foundations</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A participant holds a 'Listen to Black Women' sign at a protest in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn, N.Y." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C46%2C2932%2C1494&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">To support these causes, Scott sought out nonprofits led by people from the communities involved.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/participant-holding-a-listen-to-black-women-sign-at-the-news-photo/1224873256">Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Act first, talk later</h2>
<p>Rather than making lengthy announcements about her plans, Scott chose to distribute this money rapidly and directly. Unlike philanthropic peers like Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, or Bill and Melinda Gates, Scott’s first round of giving wasn’t channeled through a <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/2/11/21133298/bill-gates-melinda-gates-money-foundation">large-scale foundation</a> or other entity, like the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/14/chan-zuckerberg-initiative-what-is-it-doing-so-far.html">Chan Zuckerberg Initiative</a>, bearing her own name or that of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-buffett-charities/warren-buffett-donates-2-9-billion-to-gates-foundation-family-charities-idUSKBN2492AA">another billionaire</a>. And when she made her public announcement, the gifts were already made.</p>
<h2>4. Don’t obsess about scale</h2>
<p>Many of the organizations receiving these gifts are relatively small in scale and lack widespread name recognition. The multiracial justice group <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/943311784">Forward Together</a> and the Campaign for Female Education, a global aid group often called <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/542033897">CAMFED</a>, for example, until recently operated on annual budgets of $5.5 million or less, while the <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/472802851">Millennial Action Project</a> had an even smaller budget.</p>
<h2>5. Leverage more than money</h2>
<p>Philanthropy that’s intended to bring about social change inherently expresses the donor’s values, Scott acknowledged in her announcement. She also recognized her immense privilege, highlighting the need to address societal structures that sustain inequality. And <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/institutes/womens-philanthropy-institute/research/all-in.html">like the many women donors I’ve interviewed and studied</a>, she is using her position as the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-28/mackenzie-bezos-donates-1-7-billion-to-charity-within-months?sref=Hjm5biAW">world’s second-wealthiest woman</a> to amplify the voices of the leaders and groups she supported. Her goal is to encourage others to give, join or volunteer to support those same causes.</p>
<p>As Scott noted, the issues her philanthropy addresses are complex and will require sustained and broad-based efforts to solve.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article published on <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-takeaways-from-mackenzie-scotts-1-7-billion-in-support-for-social-justice-causes-143659">July 30, 2020.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152206/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth J. Dale has received funding from the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation via Indiana University, and The Giving USA Foundation for her research on philanthropy. The views expressed in this essay are strictly her own and do not reflect policy stances of Seattle University.</span></em></p>By not attaching any strings to the money, championing representation and generally taking care to respect nonprofit leaders, she’s following five best practices.Elizabeth J. Dale, Assistant Professor of Nonprofit Leadership, Seattle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1455262020-10-05T12:08:51Z2020-10-05T12:08:51ZRacial justice giving is booming: 4 trends<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359629/original/file-20200923-14-1tvijmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=220%2C393%2C5028%2C3100&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There's been an outpouring of giving in honor of Ahmaud Arbery and other victims of racial injustice.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirusOutbreakTexasArberyMural/41be3980bd884bb79e9afb4e518e74fd/photo?boardId=37be9465fcce45d283d5431cccb20a6a&st=boards&mediaType=audio,photo,video,graphic&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=25&currentItemNo=8">AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The tragic, high-profile <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/08/906786745/many-black-people-say-police-killings-arent-going-to-be-fixed-overnight">killings of George Floyd</a> and other Black Americans in 2020 have sparked a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/16/902179773/summer-of-racial-reckoning-the-match-lit">reckoning on race</a>. As <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Una-Okonkwo-Osili-11047902">researchers</a> of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vbP7wlwAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">philanthropy</a>, we’re keeping an eye on how this national awakening is affecting charitable giving across the nation.</p>
<p>We are seeing an <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Grant-Making-for-Racial/249004">outpouring of donations</a> from individuals, corporations and foundations that began to grow as soon as protests and other activities in support of racial and social justice started to spread across the country.</p>
<p>Much of this funding will likely support Black-led groups engaged in criminal justice reform and fighting for education equality. Wealthy donors in the first half of the year gave <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Companies-Lead-Philanthropic/249287">nearly US$6 billion in donations of $1 million or more</a>, but <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/07/beyond-protests-college-students-donate-money-to-make-change-happen.html">people of at various income and wealth levels</a> are also increasingly supporting racial equity causes and organizations.</p>
<h2>1. Crowdfunding related to victims of racial injustice</h2>
<p>The GoFundMe pages crowdfunding to seek justice for <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd">George Floyd</a>, <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/i-run-with-maud">Ahmaud Arbery</a>, <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/9v4q2-justice-for-breonna-taylor?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet">Breonna Taylor</a> and <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/justiceforjacobblake">Jacob Blake</a> have all attracted at least $1 million so far.</p>
<p>Floyd’s GoFundMe memorial campaign has garnered <a href="https://www.insider.com/george-floyd-gofundme-most-donations-all-time-report-2020-6">more donations than any other campaign</a> in the online platform’s history, raising over $14 million with 500,000 individual donors from 140 countries worldwide. Many of these gifts to the impacted families of police violence were for $5 and few were for $50,000 or more.</p>
<p><iframe id="7AlHa" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/7AlHa/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>2. Direct support for grassroots organizations</h2>
<p>After Memorial Day weekend, when Floyd died while in custody of the Minneapolis police, many Black-led grassroots organizations began to draw much higher levels of support as the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/14/us/politics/black-lives-matter-racism-donations.html">protests garnered more participation and attention</a>.</p>
<p>For example, when protests erupted, the <a href="https://minnesotafreedomfund.org/">Minnesota Freedom Fund</a>, which advocates for a more equitable system of cash bail, turned its attention to bailing out arrested protesters. Once the fund reached a total of <a href="https://www.complex.com/life/what-is-the-minnesota-freedom-fund-explainer">$20 million</a> in donations, its organizers urged donors to support <a href="https://www.thecut.com/article/george-floyd-protests-how-to-help-where-to-donate.html">Black-led organizations</a>.
Other grassroots organizations and networks also received support, such as the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53284611">National Bail Fund Network</a>, which received $80 million in donations in late spring.</p>
<p>Even before the protests erupted, the Movement for Black Lives had received $5 million in the first five months of 2020 to support Black communities affected by the pandemic and to address broader issues of racial equity. This was <a href="https://www.philanthropy.com/article/The-Movement-for-Black-Lives/248960/">nearly double the $2.7 million</a> the group, founded in 2014 following the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, raised in all of 2019, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. </p>
<p>The Libra Foundation announced that a dozen grant-making organizations were joining together to give a total of <a href="https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/new-funder-collaborative-commits-36-million-to-black-movement-leaders">$36 million to Black-led organizations</a> and social movements like The Black Youth Project and the National Black Food and Justice Alliance.</p>
<p>These numbers provide only a partial estimate of total giving to these causes, and it will take at least until mid-2021 for the IRS to begin to release the official records and statistics needed for a fuller picture of giving to these groups. Based on data from Candid, a research group, institutional funders and large donors have contributed <a href="https://www-philanthropy-com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/article/Companies-Lead-Philanthropic/249287">$5.9 billion for organizations primarily engaged in in racial equity work</a> to date. </p>
<h2>3. Shoring up HBCUs</h2>
<p>Historically Black colleges and universities, often called HBCUs, and <a href="https://uncf.org/">related groups</a> that <a href="https://www.tmcf.org/">fund scholarships</a> for the students who attend them, are getting more donations in 2020.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.educationdive.com/news/5-hbcu-funding-trends-to-watch-in-2020/570949/">HBCUs in the past</a> received <a href="https://theconversation.com/1-in-10-hbcus-were-financially-fragile-before-covid-19-endangered-all-colleges-and-universities-140528">fewer donations</a> of <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/files/file/jga_million_dollar_ready_academic_working_paper_final_for_upload_2.pdf">$1 million or more</a> than other institutions, a pattern our colleague <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/tyrone-mckinley-freeman-443150">Tyrone Freeman</a> has been studying for years. As a result, HBCU endowments are relatively small.</p>
<p>All told, the roughly 100 HBCUs have a total of <a href="https://feed.georgetown.edu/access-affordability/big-philanthropic-investments-a-bright-spot-for-hbcus-amid-financial-uncertainty-worsened-by-pandemic/">only $2 billion</a> in their endowments. By comparison, 54 predominantly white colleges and universities have $2 billion or more in their own endowment.</p>
<p>In 2018, for example, there were seven of these major gifts totaling $48 million. In contrast, there were at least 33 of these donations by mid-September of 2020, totaling $347 million, according a list of these donations of $1 million or more compiled by <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/research/million-dollar-list/index.html">The Chronicle of Philanthropy</a> and tracking by statistician <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/people-directory/han-xiao.html">Xiao Han</a> of additional news reports and public information disclosed by donors and the schools. </p>
<p>These <a href="https://theconversation.com/1-in-10-hbcus-were-financially-fragile-before-covid-19-endangered-all-colleges-and-universities-140528">philanthropic lifelines</a> for Howard University, Morehouse College, Spelman College and other schools have totaled in the hundreds of millions of dollars from donors like <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hbcu-record-donations-schools-histories-howard-hampton-xavier/">MacKenzie Scott</a> – Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife – <a>Netflix CEO Reed Hastings</a> and former New York City Mayor <a href="https://nonprofitquarterly.org/bloomberg-equity-initiatives-first-investment-is-100-million-gift/">Michael Bloomberg</a>.</p>
<p>Corporate giving for Black colleges and other causes is also on the rise. In early June, the Financial Times reported that Microsoft, Google, Amazon and other large corporations had recently pledged at least <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/5a83fcff-9def-4a66-b65d-2b030759f755">$458 million to support progress toward racial equity</a>, including support for higher education. All told, <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-ceo-tim-cook-announces-100-million-racial-equity-and-justice-initiative/">Apple has said it donated $100 million or more</a> to assorted racial equity initiatives.</p>
<p><iframe id="5prJM" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/5prJM/5/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><iframe id="u1olF" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/u1olF/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>4. Black philanthropists are leading the way</h2>
<p>Donors from all backgrounds have turned their attention to increasing calls for racial equity. While new donors are turning their giving to racial equity issues, <a href="https://theconversation.com/400-years-of-black-giving-from-the-days-of-slavery-to-the-2019-morehouse-graduation-121402">wealthy African Americans</a> have contributed to causes that support racial justice and equity.</p>
<p>In recent years, we have continued to see affluent Black people, such as the entertainer and fashion icon <a href="https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2020/8/31/from-climate-resilience-to-covid-response-rihanna-is-becoming-a-major-philanthropic-player">Rihanna</a> and basketball great <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrasternlicht/2020/06/05/michael-jordan--jordan-brand-pledge-100-million-to-racial-equality/#63c1ece95934">Michael Jordan</a>, make significant <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamzagoria/2019/10/21/why-michael-jordan-has-donated-30-million-to-activist-projects-including-health-clinics-and-hurricane-relief/#7ecbec0e7720">philanthropic commitments</a>.</p>
<p>Along with other colleagues at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and in partnership with the Bank of America, we are conducting a long-term <a href="https://www.privatebank.bankofamerica.com/articles/2018-us-trust-study-of-high-net-worth-philanthropy.html">research project regarding affluent donors</a>. Based on our findings in our 2018 report, at least half of all wealthy Black donors supported African American causes, compared to 6.5% overall of all surveyed donors.</p>
<p>Additionally, 43.8% of the wealthy Black donors surveyed indicated that they made giving to groups that aim to improve race relations a high priority, as opposed to an average of 5.7% all donors.</p>
<p>A diverse range of donors are also increasingly participating in providing large racial justice gifts. These gifts include <a href="https://www.newsbreak.com/news/0PFyaZKE/kroger-ceo-addresses-racial-injustice">Kroger supermarket chain CEO Rodney McMullen</a> and the hedge fund investor <a href="https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/a-220-million-investment-in-racial-justice">George Soros’ Open Society Foundations</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>In mid-September, philanthropist <a href="https://medium.com/@susansandlerfund/my-cancer-milestone-and-my-philanthropic-legacy-a338d03bfc94">Susan Sandler</a> announced that she was giving a total of $200 million to an array of racial justice groups. Sandler’s disclosure echoed <a href="https://theconversation.com/5-takeaways-from-mackenzie-scotts-1-7-billion-in-support-for-social-justice-causes-143659">Scott’s announcement</a>, in <a href="https://medium.com/@mackenzie_scott/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">July 2020</a>, that she was giving $587 million to HBCUs and racial justice organizations.</p>
<p>That means established civil rights organizations such as the NAACP and the Urban League, and newer racial justice groups like the <a href="https://wlos.com/news/local/project-aims-to-recognize-buncombe-county-lynching-victims">Equal Justice Initiative</a>, which aims to end mass incarceration and advance racial equity, and the <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/28/21405770/google-assistant-feature-donation-center-of-policing-equity-racial-inequality">Center for Policing Equity</a>, a think tank focused on improving racial equity within police departments, are all getting a boost.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145526/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From thousands of people chipping in as little as $5 to George Floyd’s GoFundMe to donations well in excess of $1 million to HBCUs, anti-racist philanthropy is rising.Kim Williams-Pulfer, Postdoctoral Research Appointee-Mays Family Institute on Diverse Philanthropy, IUPUIUna Osili, Professor, Economics and Philanthropic Studies; Associate Dean for Research and International Programs, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, IUPUILicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1436592020-07-30T12:13:12Z2020-07-30T12:13:12Z5 takeaways from MacKenzie Scott’s $1.7 billion in support for social justice causes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350291/original/file-20200729-21-kzplbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C100%2C3843%2C1896&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jeff Bezos's ex-wife is funding efforts to dismantle racism and fight homophobia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-take-part-in-a-demonstration-of-black-queer-and-news-photo/1227782055">Romy Arroyo Fernandez/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The author and <a href="https://medium.com/@mackenzie_scott/116-organizations-driving-change-67354c6d733d">philanthropist MacKenzie Scott</a> has announced that she’s disbursed nearly US$1.7 billion to 116 organizations, since first publicly discussing her giving intentions in <a href="https://theconversation.com/mackenzie-bezoss-17-billion-pledge-tops-a-growing-list-of-women-giving-big-117964">May of 2019</a>. Most of the organizations aim to advance racial, gender and economic equity, are dedicated to dealing with climate change, support democracy or are tied to other generally progressive causes.</p>
<p>In the public blog post she wrote to break the news, Scott encouraged donors of all financial means to join her. Previously known as MacKenzie Bezos, before her divorce from Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, the philanthropist also announced that from now on she’ll be using her middle name as her new last name. She left it up to the causes she’s funding to reveal precise totals for each gift. <a href="https://newsroom.howard.edu/newsroom/article/12951/howard-university-receives-transformative-gift-philanthropist-mackenzie-scott">Howard University</a> and <a href="https://www.wsfa.com/2020/07/28/m-gift-is-largest-tuskegee-universitys-nearly-year-history/">Tuskegee University</a>, two of several historically Black colleges and universities receiving her donations, said these were the biggest gifts they’d ever gotten from an individual donor.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tu70lmIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">scholar of philanthropy</a>, I believe that Scott is modeling five best practices for <a href="https://resourcegeneration.org/what-we-do/social-justice-philanthropy-and-giving/">social change giving</a>.</p>
<p><iframe id="Azeqp" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Azeqp/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>1. Don’t attach strings</h2>
<p>All of Scott’s 116 gifts – many in the millions or tens of millions, like the $30 million she gave <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/29/us/hbcus-largest-donation-history-mackenzie-scott-trnd/index.html">Hampton University</a> and the $40 million to the <a href="https://www.lisc.org/our-stories/story/mackenzie-scott-transformative-gift-lisc">Local Initiatives Support Corporation</a>, which advocates for and builds affordable housing, were made without restrictions. Rather than specify a purpose, as <a href="https://ssir.org/articles/entry/power_and_pleasure_of_unrestricted_funding#">many large donors</a> do, Scott made it clear that she trusts the organizations’ leaders by providing absolute flexibility in terms of how to use her money to pursue their missions. This hands-off approach <a href="https://theconversation.com/nonprofits-that-scrimp-on-overhead-arent-necessarily-better-than-those-spending-more-111700">gives nonprofits</a> an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764007300386">unusual amount of freedom</a> to innovate while equipping them to <a href="https://theconversation.com/national-survey-shows-that-social-service-nonprofits-are-trying-to-help-more-people-on-smaller-budgets-as-the-coronavirus-pandemic-and-economic-downturn-unfold-138252">weather crises like the coronavirus pandemic</a>. </p>
<h2>2. Champion representation</h2>
<p>According to Scott, 91% of the racial equity organizations she funded, such as the Movement for Black Lives and LatinoJustice, are run by leaders of color. All of the LGBTQ+ equity organizations, such as the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Transgender Law Center, that she’s backing are led by LGBTQ+ leaders. And 83% of the gender equity organizations, such as the Indian nonprofit <a href="https://www.educategirls.ngo/">Educate Girls</a>, are run by women. She says this approach brings “lived experience to solutions for imbalanced social systems.” Backing groups led by people directly affected by an issue is a common tenet of social justice giving at a time when organizations led by people of color <a href="https://www.bridgespan.org/insights/library/philanthropy/disparities-nonprofit-funding-for-leaders-of-color">receive less funding than white-led groups</a>. </p>
<p>In addition, some of her other gifts to grassroots organizations like <a href="https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/song/">Southerners on New Ground</a>, an LGBTQ community-organizing nonprofit, direct support to a region of the U.S. <a href="https://nonprofitquarterly.org/philanthropy-in-the-south/">that is often overlooked by donors and foundations</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A participant holds a 'Listen to Black Women' sign at a protest in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn, NY." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C46%2C2932%2C1494&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/350270/original/file-20200729-33-n6h211.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">To support these causes, Scott sought out nonprofits led by people from the communities involved.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/participant-holding-a-listen-to-black-women-sign-at-the-news-photo/1224873256">Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>3. Act first, talk later</h2>
<p>Rather than making lengthy announcements about her plans, Scott chose to distribute this money rapidly and directly. Unlike her philanthropic peers like Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, or Bill and Melinda Gates, Scott’s first round of giving wasn’t channeled through a <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/2/11/21133298/bill-gates-melinda-gates-money-foundation">large-scale foundation</a> or other entity, like the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/14/chan-zuckerberg-initiative-what-is-it-doing-so-far.html">Chan Zuckerberg Initiative</a>, bearing her own name or that of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-buffett-charities/warren-buffett-donates-2-9-billion-to-gates-foundation-family-charities-idUSKBN2492AA">another billionaire</a>. And when she made her public announcement, the gifts were already made.</p>
<h2>4. Don’t obsess about scale</h2>
<p>Many of the organizations receiving these gifts are relatively small in scale and lack widespread name recognition. The multiracial justice group <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/943311784">Forward Together</a> and the Campaign for Female Education, a global aid group often called <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/542033897">CAMFED</a>, for example, until recently operated on annual budgets of $5.5 million or less, while the <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/472802851">Millennial Action Project</a> had an even smaller budget.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>5. Leverage more than money</h2>
<p>Philanthropy that’s intended to bring about social change inherently expresses the donor’s values, Scott acknowledged in her announcement. She also recognized her immense privilege, highlighting the need to address societal structures that sustain inequality. And <a href="https://philanthropy.iupui.edu/institutes/womens-philanthropy-institute/research/all-in.html">like the many women donors I’ve interviewed and studied</a>, she is using her position as the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-28/mackenzie-bezos-donates-1-7-billion-to-charity-within-months?sref=Hjm5biAW">world’s second-wealthiest woman</a> to amplify the voices of the leaders and groups she supported. Her goal is to encourage others to give, join or volunteer to support those same causes.</p>
<p>As Scott noted, the issues her philanthropy addresses are complex and will require sustained and broad-based efforts to solve.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143659/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth J. Dale has received funding from the Ford Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation via Indiana University and The Giving USA Foundation for her research on philanthropy. The views expressed in this essay are strictly my own and do not reflect policy stances of Seattle University.</span></em></p>By not attaching any strings to the money, championing representation and generally taking care to respect nonprofit leaders, she’s following five best practices.Elizabeth J. Dale, Assistant Professor of Nonprofit Leadership, Seattle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1405282020-06-24T12:18:58Z2020-06-24T12:18:58Z1 in 10 HBCUs were financially fragile before COVID-19 endangered all colleges and universities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343783/original/file-20200624-132988-102whar.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1114%2C2487%2C2661&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Howard University, in Washington, D.C., recently got its finances in order.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/washington-dc-howard-university-campus-frederick-douglass-news-photo/953896962?adppopup=true">Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>By <a href="https://www.fitchratings.com/research/us-public-finance/declining-enrollment-revenue-risk-more-acute-for-private-colleges-08-06-2020">reducing enrollment</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/going-online-due-to-covid-19-this-fall-could-hurt-colleges-future-138926">disrupting instruction</a>, the COVID-19 pandemic is generating <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/03/20/coronavirus-outbreak-piles-short-term-costs-and-long-term-uncertainty-college-and">financial distress</a> for all colleges and universities.</p>
<p>Schools that were already <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-new-coronavirus-is-hitting-colleges-and-universities-hard-but-donors-can-help-133331">financially fragile</a> before this health emergency and economic recession began could soon face even greater risks. That includes several historically Black colleges and universities, or <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/12/20/struggling-hbcus-must-consider-new-options-survival-opinion">HBCUs</a>. </p>
<p>Based on my <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=cU9jKgYAAAAJ">economic research regarding HBCUs</a> and as a Morehouse College graduate, I’m concerned about the long-term prospects of these institutions for many reasons. One is that HBCUs like my alma mater have long served as vehicles of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0034644619866201">upward social and economic mobility</a> for African Americans denied opportunities elsewhere.</p>
<h2>Federal watchlist</h2>
<p>The Department of Education tracks which colleges and universities are most at risk of closure in its <a href="https://studentaid.gov/data-center/school/hcm">heightened cash monitoring</a> list. The government includes on this watchlist <a href="https://studentaid.gov/data-center/school/hcm">schools with issues</a> related to late or missing annual financial statements or audits, outstanding liabilities, administrative problems and <a href="https://studentaid.gov/data-center/school/composite-scores">budgetary woes</a>. </p>
<p>At least 10 of the nearly 450 schools in the latest edition, released in March 2020, are HBCUs facing one of the two <a href="https://www.higheredexecutives.com/six-reasons-schools-placed-heightened-cash-monitoring/">levels of this federal scrutiny</a>. That’s about 1 in 10 of the nation’s <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=667">roughly 100 HBCUs</a> operating today.</p>
<p>Bluefield State College in West Virginia, Huston-Tillotson University in Texas, Kentucky State University, Paine College in Georgia, Shaw University in North Carolina, Wilberforce University in Ohio and West Virginia State University
are all subject to the heightened cash monitoring oversight known as HCM1. These seven schools must do extra paperwork before drawing <a href="https://ifap.ed.gov/federal-student-aid-handbook/10-30-1998-institutional-eligibility-and-administrative-requirements-0">federal student aid funds</a>.</p>
<p>Three others - Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, Wiley College in Texas and Arkansas Baptist College - face even stricter requirements. Because the government has designated them as being in the more onerous <a href="https://www.higheredexecutives.com/tag/hcm2/">HCM2 category</a>, these colleges and universities have to disburse financial aid funds from their own coffers first. They then submit detailed paperwork for each student before the Education Department will reimburse them.</p>
<h2>No death knell</h2>
<p>Insolvency is the biggest cause of <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/An-Investigation-Into-the-Factors-Leading-to-the-of-Province/c6efdfe2ade9c8fb043b2ac2e7ad8fefcbb423df">colleges and universities shutting down</a>.</p>
<p>Indeed, this was the fate of <a href="http://richmondfreepress.com/news/2019/apr/19/efforts-grow-preserve-history-saint-pauls-college/">St. Paul’s College, a private HBCU in Virginia</a> that closed it doors forever in 2013. Prior to its closure, St. Paul’s was <a href="https://diverseeducation.com/article/53664/">stripped of its accreditation</a> in part due to its poor financial health. Enrollment continued to decline while the school was on accreditation probation.</p>
<p>But to be sure, being on the heightened cash monitoring list means only that a college is at risk of closure, not that it is certain to close. For example, the government put <a href="https://www.educationdive.com/news/howard-u-is-off-cash-monitoring-but-some-colleges-linger-under-sanctions/572864/">Howard University</a> on the watchlist in 2018 and took it off in 2019.</p>
<p>Based in Washington, D.C., Howard’s <a href="https://theundefeated.com/features/spelman-howard-are-top-hbcus-in-us-news-rankings/">prestige has been growing</a> by several metrics, with some of its <a href="https://newsroom.howard.edu/newsroom/static/11156/howard-university-ranked-top-private-institution-among-national-universities">national rankings</a> on the rise. Howard’s <a href="https://www.fitchratings.com/research/us-public-finance/fitch-rates-howard-university-dc-ser-2020b-2021a-bonds-bbb-outlook-stable-05-03-2020">enrollment and endowment</a> have both grown in recent years as well, according to Fitch – a credit rating agency that assesses the relative risk and creditworthiness of companies, governments, schools and other issuers of bonds.</p>
<p>Also, more help than usual is on its way from the federal government, which is already designating some funds specifically for HBCUs.</p>
<p>The Education Department announced on April 30 that it was designating nearly <a href="https://www.wunc.org/post/congress-gave-extra-aid-hbcus-will-it-be-enough">US$1.4 billion authorized in the CARES Act</a> economic relief package for <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/secretary-devos-delivers-nearly-14-billion-additional-cares-act-relief-funds-hbcus-minority-serving-institutions-and-colleges-and-universities-serving-low-income-students">historically minority-serving institutions</a>. </p>
<p>The House-passed follow-up package, which is stalled in the Senate, would add another <a href="https://uncf.org/news/uncf-supports-passage-of-the-heroes-act">$1.7 billion</a> to that funding.</p>
<h2>Philanthropic lifeline</h2>
<p>One way that schools on the heightened cash monitoring list can regain a steadier financial footing is by borrowing money on reasonable terms in private credit markets to shore up their cash flow. However, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2019.05.010">HBCUs may have to spend more to borrow</a> than other colleges and universities.</p>
<p>Another option is to aggressively court large donations. But until now HBCUs have also had a harder time raising <a href="https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/hbcus-struggle-to-close-the-endowment-gap">large sums of money from big donors</a>. There are notable exceptions, of course.</p>
<p>Large gifts in recent years by Black philanthropists include the donation of $5 million to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University by retired corporate executive <a href="https://www.ncat.edu/news/2019/10/2019-cobe-deese.php">Willie Deese</a> and $13 million by the entertainment icon and entrepreneur <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/07/us/oprah-winfrey-morehouse-donation-trnd/index.html">Oprah Winfrey to Morehouse</a>.</p>
<p>On June 17, Netflix co-founder <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/business/netflix-ceo-hbcus-donate-trnd/index.html">Reed Hastings and his wife Patty Quillin</a> announced a major gift to support higher education for African American students. They are donating a total of $120 million to the <a href="https://www.uncf.org/">United Negro College Fund</a>, which supports scholarships for students at all private HBCUs, as well as Morehouse and Spelman College, two prominent HBCUs that aren’t on the watchlist.</p>
<p>All told, the nation’s <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=667">roughly 100 HBCUs</a> raised only <a href="https://hbcumoney.com/category/philanthropy/">$43 million in 2018</a> in donations of $1 million or more, just 1.4% of the 497 of those big gifts all U.S. colleges and universities landed that year.</p>
<h2>Worth saving</h2>
<p>In my view, the potential loss of these schools would be tragic. Of course, critics may argue that some of these 10 HBCUs don’t serve students well, and should be closed. For example, information from the <a href="https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?229887-Wiley-College">College Scorecard</a>, a federal education database, shows that Wiley College only graduates 37% of its students within eight years, and its attendees annually earn on average less then $25,000.</p>
<p>While this may seem less than ideal, my own research on the consequences of going to any HBCU suggests that if students had not attended HBCUs like Wiley, they would have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0034644619866201">fared worse</a>.</p>
<p>As such there is a strong case for the likes of Wiley College to stay viable. These historically black schools provide a pathway to career success and social mobility that its alums and other former students would not otherwise realize.</p>
<p>They may lack the prominence of their counterparts attracting large philanthropic gifts but, like <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/best-universities/best-historically-black-colleges-and-universities-united-states">Spelman, Howard</a> and the other most prominent HBCUs, these institutions of higher education are of historical and ongoing significance.</p>
<p>Cheyney, established in 1837, was the first college opened to educate free Blacks. </p>
<p>The influential scholar and civil right leader <a href="https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b227-i073">W.E.B DuBois</a> started his academic career at Wilberforce. </p>
<p><a href="https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/19872">Adam Clayton Powell Jr.</a>, a Congressman from New York and a prominent pastor, earned his doctorate of divinity at Shaw University.</p>
<p>Collectively, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0034644619866201">HBCUs are powerful engines of social and economic mobility</a> for Black Americans. At a time when the <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/george-floyd-87675">death of George Floyd</a> and other black people at the hands of police is underscoring the vulgar realities of race-based inequality and ushering in <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/6/11/21288021/anti-racism-books-reading-list-sales-figures">widespread soul-searching</a>, I think all Americans will benefit if these colleges and universities, including the 10 currently on the heightened cash monitoring list, can thrive.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140528/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory N. Price does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Any HBCU closures brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic could potentially hinder the careers of many Black Americans.Gregory N. Price, Professor of Economics, University of New OrleansLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1401952020-06-08T12:22:58Z2020-06-08T12:22:58ZStar player who expressed interest in going to an HBCU may shake up how athletes select a college<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/340157/original/file-20200605-176550-rekk6d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mikey Williams dribbles through a crowd during the Pangos All-American Camp on June 2, 2019 at Cerritos College in Norwalk, CA. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mikey-williams-tries-to-dribble-through-traffic-during-the-news-photo/1147665585"> Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/mikey-williams">Mikey Williams</a>, one of the nation’s best 15-year-old basketball players, sent <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/mikey-williams-considering-an-hbcu-a-move-that-could-shake-up-college-basketball-150047572.html">shockwaves through the sports world</a> when he <a href="https://twitter.com/619CONFIDENTIAL/status/1267869043479810049">tweeted</a> that he might go to a <a href="https://sites.ed.gov/whhbcu/one-hundred-and-five-historically-black-colleges-and-universities/">historically black college or university</a>, also known as an HBCU. Here, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=btoK1KsAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Jasmine Harris</a>, a researcher who studies student-athletes, elaborates on why Williams’ potential decision is generating so much interest.</em></p>
<h2>1. What’s the big deal?</h2>
<p>There is a lot of money at stake. Before he became an NBA star, Zion Williamson was worth an <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2019-11-20/zion-williamson-was-worth-5-million-a-year-to-duke-podcast#:%7E:text=Scott%20Soshnick%2C%20Eben%20Novy%2DWilliams,paid%20while%20still%20in%20school.">estimated US$5 million</a> per year for Duke University. That figure is based on media exposure, marketing deals and ticket sales.</p>
<p>Williamson is not unique. Many a college sports star have <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1779801-whats-johnny-manziel-worth-how-about-740-million">made a lot of money</a> for their college. Convincing a talented high school player to commit to a particular school is one of the most <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/sports/wp/2015/11/23/running-up-the-bills/">critical aspects</a> of <a href="https://watchstadium.com/this-is-how-much-it-costs-to-land-one-of-college-footballs-top-recruiting-classes-07-24-2019/">recruitment</a>. A star player can help a school <a href="https://www.murphy.senate.gov/download/madness-inc">generate lots of revenue</a> and <a href="http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/growth-division-i-athletics-expenses-outpaces-revenue-increases">expand their sports program</a>. This is why I believe that college sports programs are more like businesses than part of a school.</p>
<p>HBCUs are historically <a href="https://diverseeducation.com/article/73463/">underfunded</a>. For that reason, HBCUs can’t recruit as competitively as some of their <a href="https://hbcugameday.com/2018/07/02/ballin-on-a-budget-how-hbcus-make-and-spend-their-money-on-athletics/">Division I peers</a>. Without the funds to build programs and modern facilities capable to showcase star players in their quest to go pro, HBCUs are unlikely landing spots for the country’s most talented student athletes.</p>
<p>When HBCUs can’t attract the best young players, they miss out on the larger shares of <a href="http://www.ncaa.org/">NCAA</a> revenue they could get from televised games, <a href="https://www.ncaa.com/march-madness">March Madness</a> tournament participation and apparel and ticket sales. An HBCU has never won an NCAA national championship in football or men’s basketball. Instead, HBCUs compete in their own championship tournaments for the semi-segregated Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference (MEAC) and Southwestern Atlantic Conference (SWAC). One player may not change the entire system, but one player can make a big difference for an individual school.</p>
<h2>2. Is there anything special about the timing?</h2>
<p>The convergence of increased <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2020/04/01/growing-discontent-among-some-essential-workers-during-covid-19-crisis/5105760002/">discontent</a> regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, news coverage of videos that show the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html">killing of George Floyd</a> at the hands of police, and the persistence of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/05/29/amy-cooper-white-woman/">racist rhetoric</a>, has created a perfect storm to re-envision which college a young black student should choose. College men’s basketball teams are made up of 56% black <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-spt-ncaa-tournament-race-pool-20180311-story.html">players</a> student-athletes, but only about half of those athletes <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/03/12/graduation-rates-black-athletes-lower-most-students-study-shows">graduate</a> from college after six years, in some cases that number is well <a href="https://web-app.usc.edu/web/rossier/publications/231/Harper%20Sports%20(2016).pdf">below</a> 50%. Less than 2% will be <a href="http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/estimated-probability-competing-professional-athletics">drafted</a> into professional leagues.</p>
<p>These are black kids who are grappling in <a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/star-player-disputes-new-fsu-coachs-claim-that-hes-had-open-communication-with-team-amidst-george-floyd-protests-124805160.html">real time</a> with their own racial identities, their place in the social hierarchy, and the systemic <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/01/business/economy/black-workers-inequality-economic-risks.html">disadvantages</a> of race in the U.S. </p>
<p>As the NCAA tries to maintain institutional status quo where student-athletes are prevented from being paid for sports participation, while players advocate for their right to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/29/ncaa-allows-athletes-to-be-compensated-for-names-images.html">generate their own revenue</a>, black student-athletes like Williams are recognizing their role in the financial health of the schools for which they choose to play. As Williams <a href="https://hbcugameday.com/2020/06/05/mikey-williams-hbcu-offers-hampton-grambling-nccu/2/">stated</a> on Instagram, “WE ARE THE REASON THAT THESE SCHOOLS HAVE SUCH BIG NAMES AND SUCH GOOD HISTORY … But in the end what do we get out of it?”</p>
<p>Committing to play for an HBCU isn’t just a neutral, short-term decision in this case. The potential for change instigated as a result of a top player rejecting a predominantly white college in favor of an HBCU is <a href="https://theathletic.com/1796298/2020/05/06/hbcu-college-football-coronavirus-financial-status/">particularly significant</a>, specifically in 2020 as black colleges struggle to stay afloat, but also more possible than ever.</p>
<h2>3. Can just one player shake things up?</h2>
<p>In the short term, probably not. However, Williams has the potential to influence other players in the future – and that may be more important. <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/4/29/21241424/college-sports-football-economics-notre-dame-universitiy-coronavirus-covid">Colleges and universities depend heavily</a> on revenue from men’s basketball and football games to maintain stable operating budgets across the entire institution. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed how <a href="https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/29198526/college-football-return-key-athletic-departments-deal-financial-wreckage-due-coronavirus-pandemic">precarious the financial relationship</a> is between sports and <a href="http://www.ncaa.org/d1">Division I</a> programs. Forfeiting 2020 revenue means these schools will have even thinner margins, and reduced budgets in the years immediately after the pandemic. This will create greater opportunity for a reorganization of the <a href="http://www.ncaa.org/d1">Division I</a> sports hierarchy. </p>
<p>If Williams were to attend an HBCU, his presence would immediately improve the school’s bargaining position for television contracts and marketing deals. It could also lead to an increase in ticket sales and attract additional potential star players.</p>
<p>His decision could ultimately change how star high school athletes choose which college to attend. And if more choose HBCUs, these players have the power to shift a longstanding system which benefits predominantly white schools, to one where black colleges can become more competitive in sports.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re too busy to read everything. We get it. That’s why we’ve got a weekly newsletter.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybusy">Sign up for good Sunday reading.</a> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140195/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasmine Harris does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When Mikey Williams, one of the nation’s top high school basketball players, announced that he was thinking about going to a historically black college, the college basketball world paid attention.Jasmine Harris, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Ursinus CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1326432020-04-14T12:21:09Z2020-04-14T12:21:09ZBirthed by HBCU students, this organization offers important lessons for today’s student activists<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327100/original/file-20200410-51889-12eh4jw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=41%2C0%2C5499%2C2857&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) , 1964.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-the-student-nonviolent-coordinating-committee-news-photo/525238637?adppopup=true">Afro Newspaper/Gado/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>April 15, 2020 marks 60 years since the founding of the <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/student-nonviolent-coordinating-committee-sncc">Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee</a>, perhaps better known as SNCC, and usually pronounced as “snick.” SNCC became one of the most important organizations to engage in grassroots organizing during the modern civil rights movement and radically transformed youth culture during the decade. Jelani Favors, an associate professor of history and author of a <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469648330/shelter-in-a-time-of-storm/">book</a> on how historically black colleges and universities ushered in a new era of activism and leadership, discusses SNCC’s legacy and what lessons it can offer today’s activists</em>.</p>
<h2>What role did SNCC play in the civil rights movement?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/student-nonviolent-coordinating-committee-sncc">founding of SNCC</a> in April 1960 represented an important paradigm shift within the modern civil rights movement. SNCC encouraged black youth to defiantly enter spaces that they had been told to avoid all of their lives. The founding in 1960 resulted in a wave of SNCC activists being sent into the most hostile environments to register voters and mobilize African Americans for change. In doing so, SNCC ushered in the direct action phase of the movement.</p>
<p>Previous generations of activists had embraced lawsuits, such as the 1944 <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/321us649">Smith v. Allwright</a> against racial discrimination in voting, and the 1954 <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us483">Brown v. Board of Education</a> case against racial segregation in public schools. Previous generations also embraced non-direct protest tactics, such as boycotts, to bring slow change. But the sit-ins – popularized by black college students who would later form SNCC – placed black bodies on the line in ways that other tactics had not. They clogged “five and dime” stores across the South, effectively shutting them down, dramatizing the movement for black liberation as the entire world looked on through television and media coverage.</p>
<p>Black youth courageously courted the danger that often accompanied breaking the color line in the racially segregated South. Their actions resulted in violent clashes that fully displayed the immorality of white segregationists and simultaneously captured the nobility and courage of black youth. Perhaps most importantly, SNCC radically transformed youth culture in America. The organization took a generation of youth that Time magazine had previously labeled in 1951 as the “<a href="http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,856950,00.html">silent generation</a>,” and ushered in a <a href="https://www.history.com/tags/1960s">decade – the 1960s – </a> that would be widely characterized and defined by the militancy and dissent of young Americans.</p>
<h2>How did historically black colleges and universities help form SNCC and its agenda?</h2>
<p>Black colleges served as the incubators for this militancy. For generations, historically black colleges and universities – also known as HBCUs – exposed students to a “second curriculum” that was defined by race consciousness, idealism and cultural nationalism. These concepts not only blunted the toxic effects of white supremacy, but they also empowered youth and deliberately fitted them with a mission to serve as change agents within their respective communities and professional fields. It was not happenstance that the origins of SNCC were rooted within the crucial intellectual and social spaces that were carved out within HBCUs. </p>
<p>The overwhelming majority of students who convened in Raleigh, North Carolina, on April 15, 1960 were from southern black colleges where the sit-ins had unfolded. And it was also no mistake that they met at Shaw University, an HBCU located in Raleigh. After all, the woman who had the vision to bring those students together – Ella Baker – was a 1927 graduate of Shaw.</p>
<p>For generations, black college alumni like Baker worked within religious institutions, civil rights organizations, labor unions and special interests groups. Their work within these spaces was largely informed by the “second curriculum” they had been exposed to as HBCU students. SNCC was therefore part of a long tradition of radicalism that was cultivated and produced within black colleges. This exposure equipped them with the necessary intellectual and political tools they would use to take on white supremacy and Jim Crow – the system of legalized segregation in the South.</p>
<h2>What is SNCC’s legacy?</h2>
<p>SNCC had a relatively short lifespan compared to other civil rights organizations. By the end of the decade their operations were defunct. Much of this was due to both external and internal pressures. Nevertheless, SNCC distinguished itself as “<a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807859599/many-minds-one-heart/">the most powerful energy machine</a>” for the freedom struggle. I argue that SNCC was the most important and effective civil rights organization of the 1960s.</p>
<p>Unlike most other organizations, SNCC eschewed “top-down” operations that fostered elitism and “helicopter” tactics in which organizers would swoop in to inspire local folks and then leave them to manage local struggles on their own. SNCC’s objectives were completely opposite. They entered into the most dangerous, racially hostile and violent regions of the country, such as Albany, Georgia, the Delta region of Mississippi, and Lowndes County, Alabama. Once there, they set up operations that listened to and empowered local people, such as Fannie Lou Hamer, Amzie Moore, Unita Blackwell and countless others.</p>
<p>The relationship between SNCC and local people was reciprocal. SNCC activists learned and lived among the black proletariat – sharecroppers, farmers and day laborers. These people’s wisdom, shrewdness and practical knowledge of how to survive and navigate the worst of the Jim Crow South proved invaluable as SNCC took the fight for black liberation into the rural communities and remote areas of the South. Their blueprint became the template for local organizing for the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/black-power">Black Power Movement</a> and beyond. Perhaps most importantly, their actions played a crucial role in expanding the ballot to millions of Americans who had been marginalized by racist policies and violence.</p>
<h2>What lessons can today’s student activists learn from SNCC?</h2>
<p>Both SNCC’s victories and defeats are very informative on the history of black social movements. Internal debates are both necessary and healthy for activist organizations. However, by 1964 SNCC’s ability to function as a cohesive unit was under serious threat. Disagreements concerning the infusion of young white activists in the organization and field operations, arguments concerning the use of non-violence as a tactic, and debate over other competing ideological tenets, such as <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100137757">Marxism</a> and <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095510191">Black Nationalism</a>, greatly impaired the organization’s ability to keep a unified front.</p>
<p>Perhaps most challenging were the external threats to SNCC’s existence. The potency of SNCC drew the attention of federal and state agencies that wanted to curb its influence and power. SNCC activists were constantly under surveillance. They lived their lives under the looming shadow of intimidation from law enforcement and the threat of being infiltrated. Today’s student activists can and should be wary of arguments that are unproductive and those who seek to derail their organizations with their own toxic agendas.</p>
<p>In spite of these challenges, SNCC presented a model that empowered local communities and radically transformed American democracy. By listening to and learning from aggrieved populations and empowering local folks to carry out their own agendas, today’s student activists can extend the radical tradition established by SNCC.</p>
<p>[<em>You’re too busy to read everything. We get it. That’s why we’ve got a weekly newsletter.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybusy">Sign up for good Sunday reading.</a> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132643/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>In 2009 and 2013 I received funding from the Mellon Foundation and Duke University to support the publication of my first book entitled Shelter in a Time of Storm: How Black Colleges Fostered Generations of Leadership and Activism (UNC Press.)</span></em></p>The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, traces its lineage to students who learned from a ‘second curriculum’ at historically black colleges and universities, a historian recounts.Jelani M. Favors, Associate Professor of History, Clayton State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1341162020-03-24T12:16:34Z2020-03-24T12:16:34ZCOVID-19 closures could hit historically black colleges particularly hard<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322280/original/file-20200323-112707-668mgc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C153%2C4761%2C2643&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tight finances have long beset HBCUs.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/angel-dye-is-a-senior-english-major-due-to-recent-changes-news-photo/525308096?adppopup=true">Andre Chung/The Washington Post via Getty Image</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>As the COVID-19 crisis forces many schools to close their campuses and move all courses online, some worry that the pandemic could have a bigger negative impact on the nation’s historically black colleges and universities, than for other campuses. Here, The Conversation US has assembled a panel of experts to forecast what’s in store for HBCUs.</em></p>
<h2>How is the outbreak affecting HBCUs?</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322354/original/file-20200323-112677-vpa4u7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322354/original/file-20200323-112677-vpa4u7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322354/original/file-20200323-112677-vpa4u7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322354/original/file-20200323-112677-vpa4u7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322354/original/file-20200323-112677-vpa4u7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322354/original/file-20200323-112677-vpa4u7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322354/original/file-20200323-112677-vpa4u7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322354/original/file-20200323-112677-vpa4u7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=932&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marybeth Gasman, professor of education at Rutgers Graduate School of Education.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://gse.rutgers.edu/content/marybeth">Rutgers University</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Marybeth Gasman, professor of education at Rutgers University:</strong> I am worried about the technology demands on HBCUs, given how few IT specialists many smaller HBCUs have as well as the costs of managing online classes. I’m also worried about students not having access to Wi-Fi at home or laptops – 75% of HBCU students are <a href="https://www.tmcf.org/about-us/member-schools/about-hbcus/">eligible for Pell Grants</a> for students from low- to middle-income families. I’m happy to see some HBCUs – <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/black-colleges-prepare-uncertainty-coronavirus-outbreak-n1161951">Paul Quinn College</a>, in Dallas, Texas, for example – lending students laptops for the rest of the semester.</p>
<p>HBCUs rely a lot on tuition and have smaller endowments than other schools. If these HBCUs get into financial trouble, they risk losing their accreditation since <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/28/us/hbcu-closed-graduates.html">financial stability</a> is one part of what it takes to remain accredited. Without accreditation, it is nearly impossible to recruit students.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322349/original/file-20200323-112661-478d76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322349/original/file-20200323-112661-478d76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322349/original/file-20200323-112661-478d76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322349/original/file-20200323-112661-478d76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322349/original/file-20200323-112661-478d76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322349/original/file-20200323-112661-478d76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322349/original/file-20200323-112661-478d76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322349/original/file-20200323-112661-478d76.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ivory Toldson, professor of counseling psychology at Howard University.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Justin Knight/Howard University</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Ivory Toldson, professor of counseling psychology at Howard University:</strong> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/30/business/30detroit.html">In 2008, during the Great Recession</a>, The New York Times published an article that mentioned an old saying: “When America catches a cold, African-Americans catch the flu.” This applies to HBCUs. Disruptions in enrollment and fundraising efforts, as well as closed dorms, prorated rebates, and lost revenue from food services and university bookstores will short-circuit normal streams of revenue for all universities. But HBCUs might see worse effects because they have <a href="https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/83120">less money</a> to begin with.</p>
<p>The challenge of abruptly moving to a virtual learning environment may adversely impact HBCUs more than other schools. Most do not have the technical capacity to deliver quality online classes. Even those with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-to-expect-as-colleges-and-universities-move-classes-online-amid-coronavirus-fears-4-questions-answered-133334">technical capacity</a> will have challenges if their students do not have adequate computers and broadband at home.</p>
<p><strong>Gregory Price, professor of economics, University of New Orleans:</strong> To the extent that HBCUs, relative to other schools, owe more <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1072668">debt tied to their dorms</a>, the absence of students in residential on-campus housing could constitute a severe revenue shock. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322353/original/file-20200323-112666-1tejcnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322353/original/file-20200323-112666-1tejcnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322353/original/file-20200323-112666-1tejcnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322353/original/file-20200323-112666-1tejcnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322353/original/file-20200323-112666-1tejcnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322353/original/file-20200323-112666-1tejcnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322353/original/file-20200323-112666-1tejcnj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gregory Price, professor of economics at the University of New Orleans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps an extreme example of this is the case of <a href="https://www.news-journalonline.com/news/20180213/developer-seeks-mediation-in-b-cu-suit-over-scuttled-student-housing-deal">Bethune Cookman</a>. The private historically black university in Daytona Beach, Florida is obligated to spend about US$306 million to pay off debt it took on to build a <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/07/11/dorm-cost-bethune-cookman-306-million">new dorm</a>. If the outbreak continues, many of Bethune Cookman’s dorm rooms could wind up empty, as <a href="http://flcourier.com/another-option-for-b-cu/">enrollment was already declining</a> before this pandemic began. If that happens, it would reduce revenues to pay off the debt on the housing.</p>
<p>In general, I believe that prolonged closures could make it harder to pay off debt for new student housing at many HBCUs, which could move them closer to the financial brink.</p>
<h2>Do HBCUs have rainy day funds?</h2>
<p><strong>Gasman:</strong> No. Because HBCUs have small or <a href="https://www.pionline.com/article/20190204/PRINT/190209946/black-school-endowments-push-for-growth-diversity">relatively small endowments</a> and because they educate some of the most <a href="https://repository.upenn.edu/gse_pubs/331/">socioeconomically vulnerable</a> students, they face a disproportionately high level of risk right now. HBCUs are similar to families without substantial savings. HBCUs are funded heavily by tuition. Any drop in enrollment, which could happen by way of students not returning next year or not enrolling next year, will be devastating. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that, with <a href="https://theconversation.com/could-black-philanthropy-help-solve-the-black-student-debt-crisis-117734">few exceptions</a>, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/ijea.2008.14">HBCUs have rarely gotten large donations</a>. When institutions have a long history of being underfunded, they can’t build the same foundations as those that do.</p>
<h2>What, if anything, should the federal government do to help HBCUs now?</h2>
<p><strong>Gasman:</strong> HBCUs are vitally important to African Americans and other students as well. Their outsized contributions in <a href="https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/45895/Gasman-Nguyen_HBCUs-and-STEM.pdf?sequence=1">STEM</a>, in the <a href="https://go.gale.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CA384338569&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=15568881&p=AONE&sw=w">preparation of students for graduate school</a> and in <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674916586&content=bios">medicine</a> are essential to the representation of African Americans across these areas. Without HBCUs, we would see an <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674916586&content=bios">immediate drop in the number of new black scientists</a>, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1018869922415">black professors</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6111265/">black doctors</a>.</p>
<p>In my view, the federal government could and should support a stimulus package for HBCUs to help them through this dire time. Rep. <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/03/18/black-colleges-lobby-stimulus-funds">Alma Adams</a>, a Democrat from North Carolina, is already working with input from the United Negro College Fund and Thurgood Marshall College Fund, two organizations that support students at HBCUs, on an initiative along these lines.</p>
<p>I’d like to see the federal government invest in HBCU infrastructure, technology and institutional aid so that HBCUs can attract more students.</p>
<p><strong>Toldson:</strong> I think the federal government should provide emergency relief for revenue loss from unexpected closures, including the cost of having to reschedule commencements. The government should also provide support to students who had to spend money to relocate once their campuses closed.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322355/original/file-20200323-112677-1vkse67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/322355/original/file-20200323-112677-1vkse67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322355/original/file-20200323-112677-1vkse67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322355/original/file-20200323-112677-1vkse67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322355/original/file-20200323-112677-1vkse67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322355/original/file-20200323-112677-1vkse67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/322355/original/file-20200323-112677-1vkse67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Howard University student from Trinidad and Tobago wears a face mask and plastic gloves as he moves out of his dorm room in Washington, D.C. on March 18.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Virus-Outbreak-Washington-Daily-Life/91b2604378954143afc91b4eab6436cc/6/0">AP Photo/Patrick Semansky</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Price:</strong> A coronavirus stimulus package could include giving $1,000 for every enrolled student at an HBCU per academic year. For a private institution like Bennett College, in Greensboro, North Carolina – with approximately 500 students – this would translate into approximately $500,000 to offset declines in housing revenue.</p>
<h2>Can HBCUs rely on private philanthropy during this emergency?</h2>
<p><strong>Gasman</strong>: No. Some big donors and foundations give to HBCUs but not in a way that will help them survive this crisis. In addition, HBCU alumni – for the most part – can’t afford to give in the ways that are needed. The average African American family has <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Engaging-Diverse-College-Alumni-The-Essential-Guide-to-Fundraising/Gasman-III/p/book/9780415892759">roughly $5,888 in assets</a> compared to the average white family’s $88,000. Being wealthier makes people feel more free to give.</p>
<p><strong>Price:</strong> Probably not, as philanthropy targeted at HBCUs continues to lag significantly behind other schools. In 2019, the top seven predominantly or historically white colleges landed <a href="https://hbcumoney.com/2019/09/05/the-million-dollar-gift-club-2018s-seven-figure-donations-to-hbcus-led-by-spelman-college/">$2.94 billion</a> in donations, versus just $43 million for the nation’s <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/hq9511.html">100 or so</a> HBCUs.</p>
<h2>Are any HBCUs in danger of permanently closing?</h2>
<p><strong>Gasman:</strong> Yes, but only those that were already in dire straits. And I’m not even convinced that they will close in those cases. I began doing research related to HBCUs in 1994, and I have listened to people say over and over that HBCUs are going to close. Someone will <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/28/us/hbcu-closed-graduates.html">predict the imminent closure</a> of 30-40 about every five years. They are always wrong. A <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/local/hbcus-that-didn-make/BnmRJgnxwnBV8yXqqtsWcP/">few have closed</a> but not many. <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-new-coronavirus-is-hitting-colleges-and-universities-hard-but-donors-can-help-133331">Many colleges are closing</a> and so yes, some HBCUs are in danger, but most HBCUs are incredibly resilient.</p>
<p><strong>Toldson:</strong> In my opinion, only the HBCUs that had – to borrow a phrase commonly used throughout this pandemic – preexisting conditions. HBCUs that are under-enrolled or financially impaired, with infrastructural issues, such as unfilled leadership positions, accreditation issues and subpar facilities, could have serious problems rebounding.</p>
<p><strong>Price:</strong> Yes, private HBCUs who are unable to withstand the declines in enrollment and the associated revenue similar to those that led to the <a href="https://diverseeducation.com/article/53664/">closure of St. Paul’s College</a>, in Lawrenceville, Virginia, in 2013. Currently, several HBCUs have been <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/02/17/695593570/facing-loss-of-accreditation-over-finances-women-s-hbcu-raises-millions">placed on probation</a> by their regional accreditor for financial instability reasons. If the coronavirus continues to keep their dorms empty, the revenue shock from the pandemic could conceivably cause those in a financial situation similar to St. Paul’s College to close their doors.</p>
<p>[<em>You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=upper-coronavirus-help">Read our newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134116/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ivory A. Toldson is affiliated with Howard University. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marybeth Gasman is a member of the board of trustees at Paul Quinn College. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory N. Price does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Without government intervention, three experts warn, HBCUs will have a difficult time bouncing back from the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak.Ivory A. Toldson, Professor of Counseling Psychology, Howard UniversityGregory N. Price, Professor of Economics, University of New OrleansMarybeth Gasman, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Endowed Chair in Education and Distinguished Professor, Rutgers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1218102019-09-11T12:18:42Z2019-09-11T12:18:42ZHistorically black colleges give graduates a wage boost<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291397/original/file-20190909-175663-n1sadi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Research conflicts over how graduates of historically black colleges fare in the job market.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/closeup-graduate-looking-cropped-dean-female-143582296?src=ziFNrIs5GRQz4ZIM-q90yw-1-20">sirtravelalot/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2010, two economists claimed that graduates of historically black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, suffer a “<a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/707/HB_fry_green.pdf?1567963245">wage penalty</a>” – that is, they earn relatively less than they would had they gone to a non-HBCU.</p>
<p>In an early draft of the paper, the economists – one from Harvard and the other from MIT - argued that while HBCUs may have served a useful purpose back in the 1970s, they were now, by some measures, serving to “<a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/706/HBCUsFryerGreenstone2.pdf?1567963159">retard black progress</a>.” The reason why, they suggested, is that traditionally white institutions may have gotten better at educating black students and that there might be value in “cross-racial connections” when it came time to get a job.</p>
<p>The paper, which relied on data from the 1950s through the early 2000s, generated negative headlines for HBCUs. For instance, The Wall Street Journal called HBCUs “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704654004575517822124077834">academically inferior</a>.” The New York Times warned readers about the “<a href="https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/22/the-declining-payoff-from-black-colleges/?partner=rss&emc=rss">declining payoff from black colleges</a>.”</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=cU9jKgYAAAAJ">scholar who has researched HBCUs</a>, my colleagues and I have found contrary evidence: Students who went to HBCUs do not suffer a relative wage penalty. In fact, we found that they typically and on average earn more than similar students who went to non-HBCUs. Our findings are based on comparing HBCUs to other schools with a sizable black student population.</p>
<h2>Producers of black doctors, engineers</h2>
<p>Largely established to serve black people after the Civil War and in the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/jim-crow-laws">Jim Crow era</a> of racial segregation, HBCUs were the <a href="https://www.gse.upenn.edu/pdf/cmsi/Changing_Face_HBCUs.pdf">only higher education option for many black Americans up through the mid-1960s</a> during the push for integration. Since then, HBCUs have served a declining share of black students. For instance, HBCUs served 17.3% of black college students in 1980, but by 2015 the figure had <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/28/a-look-at-historically-black-colleges-and-universities-as-howard-turns-150/">fallen to 8.5%</a>.</p>
<p>HBCUs have been in a constant <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/12/20/struggling-hbcus-must-consider-new-options-survival-opinion">struggle for their financial survival</a> because of declining enrollment, among other things. In fact, some college finance experts <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/local/perilous-times-for-black-colleges/EhDuhVHMOjZqmskOeKBHoM/">predict that many HBCUs will disappear</a> in the next 20 years.</p>
<p>HBCUs currently serve about <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_313.20.asp?current=yes">298,000 students</a> and rank among the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6111265/">highest producers of black doctors</a>. HBCUs also play an <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/HBCUs-an-Unheralded-Role-in/235481">outsized role in the production of black graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics</a>, or STEM.</p>
<h2>A wage premium</h2>
<p>Our study included 1,364 nonprofit colleges and universities, both public and private, that award at least a baccalaureate degree.</p>
<p>Increased wages were strongest for the elite HBCUs: Hampton, Howard, Morehouse, Spelman and Xavier. But the effect persisted 10 years after graduation for graduates of all 59 HBCUs – more than half of the <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=667">100 or so HBCUs</a> in the nation – that were included in the sample. Other HBCUs were not included because of lack of data.</p>
<p>And it wasn’t a small amount of money, either. In our study, we found that HBCU students from the elite universities earn 32% more six years after attendance than students with similar characteristics who attended other colleges and universities.</p>
<p>But before anyone celebrates our findings as a clear victory for HBCUs, a few caveats are in order.</p>
<h2>Penalties exist</h2>
<p>First, all HBCU graduates don’t earn more than all non-HBCU graduates all the time. In fact, much like Freyer and Greenstone did a decade ago, we found that early in their careers – extending to six years after graduation – typical HBCU graduates do in fact suffer a wage penalty. </p>
<p>The HBCU study in 2010 found grads earned 20% less than peers from other colleges in the 1990s, although it’s not known how long after graduation this occurred.</p>
<p>We found that there’s an 11% wage penalty after six years but then it disappears after 10 years, and in fact turns into an advantage. So while typical HBCU graduates may be earning less money than non-HBCU graduates in their late 20s, by their early 30s, they are earning more.</p>
<p>We also found that the wage advantage for HBCUs remained no matter what the major. In my view as an economist, the relative gains for HBCU attendees after six years suggest, that on average, HBCU graduates are better able to find jobs that match their skill and capabilities. </p>
<h2>Demographic factors</h2>
<p>Just what is it that makes HBCUs more effective as escalators for labor market earnings and income mobility? <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1007/s12114-011-9088-0?journalCode=rbpa">Earlier research</a> my colleagues and I conducted at Howard University found that a high proportion of black students in a college or university serves as a boost to black identity and self-esteem. That boost, we found, translates into labor market skill acquisition that results in an earnings advantage. </p>
<p>Given the history of HBCUs receiving <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41996-018-0009-5">unequal resources</a>, our results suggest that government and philanthropy could consider more funding for HBCUs. That could enable them to be even more successful at what they do, particularly when it comes to enabling students from households that <a href="https://hbcudigest.com/two-charts-show-how-essential-hbcus-are-to-low-income-college-students/">earn the least money</a> to move up economically.</p>
<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121810/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory N. Price receives funding from National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>Graduates of historically black colleges and universities make more than peers who went to other schools, according to new findings that refute prior research that showed they suffer a ‘wage penalty.’Gregory N. Price, Professor, Economics, University of New OrleansLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/982842018-08-29T10:47:20Z2018-08-29T10:47:20ZMaking college more affordable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/227517/original/file-20180712-27021-sf3pco.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Has the cost of higher education in the U.S. put college out of financial reach?
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/investment-education-concept-conception-fee-expenses-659689999?src=2xQeZglNENWOjh3EuWS-Ww-6-0">DRogatnev/www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: When it comes to the cost of higher education in the U.S., signs of trouble abound.</em></p>
<p><em>For instance, states now <a href="http://www.sheeo.org/news/sheeo-releases-state-higher-education-finance-fy-2017">rely more heavily on tuition</a> to finance their public colleges and universities than on government funding.</em> </p>
<p><em>Private colleges and universities are also struggling to make ends meet, <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/04/30/nacubo-report-finds-tuition-discounting-again">steering a record amount of tuition revenue</a> toward grant aid for economically needy students.</em> </p>
<p><em>Meanwhile, the number of student borrowers who defaulted on their student loans <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-releases-national-student-loan-fy-2014-cohort-default-rate">edged up</a> last year as did the <a href="https://trends.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/2017-trends-in-college-pricing_1.pdf">price of higher education itself</a>.</em> </p>
<p><em>So we asked our panel of presidents – from Xavier University of Louisiana, Colorado College and Penn State: Given this reality, what are the top two or three things that you believe need to happen to make college more affordable – particularly for low-income students, students of color and the working class?</em></p>
<hr>
<h2>More than one funder has to step up</h2>
<p><strong>Jill Tiefenthaler, President of Colorado College</strong></p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233953/original/file-20180828-86141-1ugxh71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233953/original/file-20180828-86141-1ugxh71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233953/original/file-20180828-86141-1ugxh71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233953/original/file-20180828-86141-1ugxh71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=744&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233953/original/file-20180828-86141-1ugxh71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233953/original/file-20180828-86141-1ugxh71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233953/original/file-20180828-86141-1ugxh71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jill Tiefenthaler, president of Colorado College.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.coloradocollege.edu/us/giving/campaign/phonecast.html">Colorado College</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A college education has many funders. Federal and state governments provide support, as do the institutions of higher education themselves. And then, of course, there is the money paid by the students’ families. Improving access will require additional support from one or more of these sources.</p>
<p>To start at the local level, an increase in state funding would make college more affordable. After all <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_303.70.asp">over 70 percent of all undergraduates</a> attend public institutions, and historically, states have been the primary source of funding for both two- and four-year public institutions.</p>
<p>However, states have <a href="https://www.educationnext.org/higher-ed-lower-spending-as-states-cut-back-where-has-money-gone/">reduced their support in recent years</a> and, as a result, the burden has fallen on students and their families. The <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/heres-how-many-new-yorkers-are-benefiting-from-the-states-free-college-plan-2017-10-03">“free college”</a> plans in New York and a <a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2018/01/05/why-free-college-tuition-is-spreading-from-cities-to-states">few other states</a> are examples of commitments to improve access. However, given the pressure on budgets resulting from underfunded pensions, Medicaid and K-12, I am not optimistic that students can count on increased support from states. In addition, <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-the-new-tax-law-affects-homeowners-it-could-be-more-than-you-think-2018-02-05">recent tax changes</a> that limit federal deductions for state taxes will increase pressure to keep state income and property tax rates down, further hindering state funding.</p>
<p>Additional support from the federal government, by increasing the <a href="https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/grants-scholarships/pell">Pell Grant</a> program, could make a big difference. The maximum Pell Grant for the 2018-19 academic year is $6,095. This is sufficient to cover the annual tuition at most community colleges. For example, the average tuition at <a href="https://www.ppcc.edu">the community college in my city</a> is $4,651. However, only students with family incomes of less than $60,000 qualify and the amount of the grant declines significantly as family income increases. Increasing the income cut-off and providing the full $6,095 to all who qualify would make college much more accessible for low- and middle-income students.</p>
<p>Private nonprofit colleges and universities educate <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d17/tables/dt17_303.70.asp">about 20 percent of all undergraduates</a>. The “sticker price” at these institutions gives the impression that they are not accessible to low- and middle-income students. However, privates provide significant institutional aid. </p>
<p>The major source of this support is philanthropy, made up of earnings on endowments and annual gifts. Private institutions with smaller endowments also provide aid from tuition revenue by using the revenue from some students to provide financial aid to other students. However, increasing institutional aid by using tuition revenue is not sustainable. Therefore, the key to making private institutions more affordable is increasing endowments through philanthropy. Although it is true that the new <a href="https://econofact.org/the-university-endowment-tax-who-will-pay-it-and-why-was-it-implemented">“endowment tax”</a> on large endowments and any changes to the tax deduction for charitable giving reduce the funds available for financial aid. In addition, private institutions could reduce “merit aid” – aid that is awarded on the basis of academic, athletic or artistic merit – and reallocate those funds to need-based financial aid. </p>
<p>Of course, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/05/26/forget-the-marketing-gimmicks-its-time-for-colleges-to-cut-costs/">some may argue</a> that rather than finding new sources of revenue, colleges could simply cut their costs and reduce tuition. This would make college more affordable but it would also reduce the quality of the education provided. </p>
<p>Higher education is a very competitive market, and students and their families demand quality – as they should. We must do our best to educate students in a global environment, keeping pace with technological innovations, teaching critical thinking, fostering comfort with ambiguity, and graduating nimble leaders who will thrive in a rapidly changing era.</p>
<hr>
<h2>What needs discussing is the total cost of a degree</h2>
<p><strong>Eric Barron, President of Pennsylvania State University</strong></p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233958/original/file-20180828-86138-9iqxkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233958/original/file-20180828-86138-9iqxkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233958/original/file-20180828-86138-9iqxkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233958/original/file-20180828-86138-9iqxkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=801&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233958/original/file-20180828-86138-9iqxkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233958/original/file-20180828-86138-9iqxkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233958/original/file-20180828-86138-9iqxkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Eric Barron, president of The Pennsylvania State University.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://president.psu.edu/biography.html">The Pennsylvania State University</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The high level of tuition in U.S. universities can be blamed on many factors. On top of <a href="https://www.educationnext.org/higher-ed-lower-spending-as-states-cut-back-where-has-money-gone/">shrinking state appropriations</a> there are more technology-intensive degrees in every field; an <a href="https://news.psu.edu/story/475363/2017/07/21/administration/trustees-hear-update-proposed-university-capital-plan">aging campus infrastructure;</a> a sharp increase in compliance and <a href="https://regulatorystudies.columbian.gwu.edu/reg-stats">regulations</a> reporting; and soaring health care costs.</p>
<p>University administrators should be deeply concerned that our price is limiting access to an education that enables upward mobility. Interestingly, the conversation on access and affordability seems to be fixated on controlling, first and foremost, the increase in tuition. We need to broaden the framing of this discussion considerably.</p>
<p>The first step is to change the conversation to one of the total cost of a degree. The simple fact is that timely completion of a degree is a critical mechanism to control total cost. A tuition increase pales in comparison to going to school for another year.</p>
<p>The second step is to recognize that the only thing worse than going five and six years in order to graduate, is to accumulate debt and drop out before graduation.</p>
<p>Universities like Penn State are justifiably proud of their <a href="https://budget.psu.edu/factbook/StudentDynamic/gradretratesummary.aspx?&ratetype=grad&repyear=2017&YearCode=2015&FBPlusIndc=N">high graduation rates</a>. However, when you dig deeper, you discover that first-generation, need-based students have <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-graduation-rates-lag-for-low-income-college-students-96182">a dramatically lower graduation rate</a> than most of their peers. At Penn State, they graduate 22 percentage points below the average. We can point to many factors that cause [this graduation gap], but it’s clearly not due to lack of ambition.</p>
<p>Sixty-two percent of these students work an average of 22 hours a week, usually at minimum wage jobs, so they can’t take a full credit load. It is impossible to graduate in four years. They drop classes more frequently than other students and tend to have lower grades because of their work load. Sadly, they also don’t have time to participate in advantageous activities, such as research or internships. They get discouraged. They either give up or end up attending a fifth or sixth year at a significant cost. If they graduate, they have paid more and gotten less from the experience than other students.</p>
<p>Our universities need a laser-like focus on mitigating all factors that slow the time to the completion of a degree. Every student should have access to financial literacy advisers and tools that help students take the most cost-efficient way to achieve a degree. We need “completion” programs to be a priority and not allow students to slip away because of finances or other hardships.</p>
<p>We can serve our mission of upward mobility and save students millions in costs and debt if we help every student, regardless of financial capability, to graduate, and graduate on time.</p>
<hr>
<h2>The importance of pre-collegiate preparation</h2>
<p><strong>Reynold Verret, President of Xavier University of Louisiana</strong> </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233948/original/file-20180828-86129-1yc9gx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233948/original/file-20180828-86129-1yc9gx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233948/original/file-20180828-86129-1yc9gx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233948/original/file-20180828-86129-1yc9gx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233948/original/file-20180828-86129-1yc9gx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=633&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233948/original/file-20180828-86129-1yc9gx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233948/original/file-20180828-86129-1yc9gx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233948/original/file-20180828-86129-1yc9gx2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Reynold Verret, president of Xavier University of Louisiana.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.xula.edu/president/">Xavier University</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By 2020, nearly <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED584413.pdf">two-thirds</a> of jobs will require postsecondary education. Yet, fewer than <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d15/tables/dt15_603.20.asp">45 percent of adult Americans</a> currently have earned an associate degree or higher, as reported in national data.</p>
<p>The cost of higher education and its impact on access and opportunity is a major barrier to more students earning degrees. Talent and ability are not relegated to those of higher means. Our present challenge is to assure education and opportunity for students from all backgrounds. Sadly, we as a nation have been comfortable with very good schools for the haves and less than good ones for the have-nots. </p>
<p>On the federal level, <a href="https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/grants-scholarships/pell">Pell awards</a> should be increased and eligibility expanded for students with the greatest need. Pell awards should also be allowed to continue to apply during the summer terms so that students persist and graduate on time. </p>
<p>On average, an American student takes 5.1 years to earn the bachelor’s degree. <a href="https://nscresearchcenter.org/signaturereport11/">Time to degree completion</a> has increased over the past decades due to a number of factors, such as the need to work and inadequate pre-collegiate schooling. Each extra year increases the cost of the bachelor’s degree by 25 percent. The time it takes to earn a bachelor’s degree could be reduced if students didn’t have to take courses to acquire math and language skills that are normally mastered in high school.</p>
<p>Bold steps are needed. This includes building an equitable K-12 educational pipeline that provides better college readiness for all of America’s students. Quality K-12 requires great teachers who remain in the profession and teach in schools with the greatest need. The teaching profession must be elevated and the nation’s best students should be encouraged to become teachers. For their service, school loans should be forgiven or repaid. Colleges and universities should also create postsecondary certificates and credentials meeting the needs of students entering careers that do not require college degrees.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://sites.ed.gov/whhbcu/one-hundred-and-five-historically-black-colleges-and-universities/">HBCU</a> where I serve as president, Xavier University of Louisiana, has been leading the nation in educating <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/magazine/a-prescription-for-more-black-doctors.html">African-Americans who go on to achieve medical degrees</a>. The school also excels in preparing students who achieve Ph.D.s in the STEM fields. A 2017 study has ranked the university <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/opinion/sunday/americas-great-working-class-colleges.html">6th in the nation</a> for social mobility, whereby students from the lower 40 percent of the U.S. income distribution enter the upper 40 percent. Our success and the <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-Are-Black-Colleges-Doing-/243119">success of other HBCUs</a> should dispel any notion that talent is associated with socioeconomic status.</p>
<p>The education of our citizens is not only an individual but a collective benefit: America thrives if it develops all of its talent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98284/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jill Tiefenthaler is affiliated with the National Association of Colleges and Universities (NAICU), serving as treasurer and on its executive committee; and with the Annapolis Group, serving as chair of its board of directors. She has received funding from foundations in support of education and research. These include Blue Shield of California Foundation and National Consortium for Violence Research.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric J. Barron is currently a member of the University Corp. for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Board of Trustees, APLU Board of Directors, CICEP Chair, College Football Play-off (CFP) Board of Managers, Council on Competitiveness: EMCP Steering Committee, Universities Research Association (URA), Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors and American Talent Initiative (ATI). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Reynold Verret and Xavier University of Louisiana receives and has received funding from federal agencies and foundations in support of education and research. These include the NIH, NSF, NASA, DOD and the Howard Hughes Medical institute</span></em></p>As students head back to campus, the ever higher cost of a college education is once again top of mind. The presidents of Colorado College, Penn State and Xavier University weigh in on what’s to be done.Jill Tiefenthaler, President, Colorado CollegeEric J. Barron, President, Penn StateReynold Verret, President, Xavier University of Louisiana, Xavier University of LouisianaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/946472018-04-19T10:50:54Z2018-04-19T10:50:54ZRap and gown: Hip-hop artists as commencement speakers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/215585/original/file-20180419-163978-17qgzjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Entertainer and entrepreneur Sean Combs gives Howard University's commencement speech in 2014.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Traditionally at a college or university commencement before degrees are conferred, some well-respected, often scholarly figure gives a charge to the class. Historically this has been a speech that most people have to endure rather than embrace, praying that it is short so that they can get on with getting their diploma. I have three degrees. I only attended my doctoral ceremony because they were going to call my name, and I would walk across the stage.</p>
<p>But I have no idea who spoke for the commencement.</p>
<p>In recent years, colleges and universities have begun to see commencement as an advancement opportunity. A well-known celebrity or beloved public figure can lead to branding opportunities, raising the profile of the institution. Simultaneously, many students, <a href="https://trends.collegeboard.org/student-aid/figures-tables/loans#Average%20Cumulative%20Debt">having gone into debt</a> for their degrees, began to expect to be rewarded with a memorable commencement speaker.</p>
<p>And while traditional commencement speakers are still the norm, from CEOs to politicians, celebrity commencement speakers are fairly routine. And we’re talking the biggest names: <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/pictures/10-best-commencement-speech-moments-of-2017-w485222/oprah-winfrey-smith-college-w485232">Oprah</a>, <a href="http://gradspeeches.com/2011/2011/tom-hanks">Tom Hanks</a>, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/28/showbiz/celebrity-news-gossip/jim-carrey-commencement-speech/index.html">Jim Carrey</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2015/04/14/what-does-j-k-rowlings-famous-graduation-speech-gain-with-illustrations/?utm_term=.549dd3f64168">J. K. Rowling</a>, <a href="https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1041&context=pure">Ellen DeGeneres</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/05/22/living/feat-deniro-nyu-grad-speech/index.html">Robert De Niro</a>. Even <a href="http://college.usatoday.com/2015/06/11/weirdest-commencement-speakers/">Kermit the Frog</a> gave the commencement address at Southampton College in 1996.</p>
<p>So why not rappers?</p>
<h2>Global influence</h2>
<p>Once thought of as a fad that would disappear, hip-hop is undeniably the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/kendrick-lamar-deserves-his-pulitzer-rap-is-the-most-significant-music-of-our-time/2018/04/16/e007e9b6-41b0-11e8-ad8f-27a8c409298b_story.html?utm_term=.8ec482f09108">most influential</a> art form today. It <a href="http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/h-samy-alim_hip-hop">influences our daily language</a>, is used extensively to <a href="https://curio.ca/en/video/rhyme-pays-hip-hop-and-the-marketing-of-cool-986/">market products and services</a>, and is the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2017/07/17/hip-hoprb-has-now-become-the-dominant-genre-in-the-u-s-for-the-first-time/#41d35fbc5383">most widely sold – and streamed –</a> music form today. Hip-hop is popular culture, an American idea that has <a href="https://pigeonsandplanes.com/music/2017/04/rap-music-around-the-world/">spread around the globe</a>. In fact, the recent announcement that Kendrick Lamar was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his album “Damn,” the first awarded to a hip hop artist, has spurred dozens of articles about hip-hop’s significance.</p>
<p>But because hip-hop is often viewed through its problematic elements, like profanity and misogyny, some might think that a rapper has no place at a commencement exercise. There is an idyllic view that the commencement speaker is some paragon of virtue, a role model presented for graduates not to just live the words that they speak, but the lives that they lead. Considering the number of disgraced or imprisoned men and women who have given commencement speeches at America’s most prestigious institutions, evidenced by the numerous times schools have <a href="https://www.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2018/1/29/donors-college-honor-degrees-revoked">rescinded honorary degrees</a> from people who lived a lie that we bought, hip-hop artists’ honesty, even if uncomfortable, is refreshing.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213738/original/file-20180408-5584-paeosq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213738/original/file-20180408-5584-paeosq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213738/original/file-20180408-5584-paeosq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213738/original/file-20180408-5584-paeosq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213738/original/file-20180408-5584-paeosq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213738/original/file-20180408-5584-paeosq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213738/original/file-20180408-5584-paeosq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Comedian and actor Bill Cosby, once considered ‘America’s Favorite Dad,’ has had several honorary degrees rescinded following accusations of sexual misconduct.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Bill-Cosby/3476c687a15444ed8ed0a562ac0c6346/69/0">Corey Perrine/AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Hip-hop 101</h2>
<p>I teach a class on hip-hop, sex, gender and ethical behavior. One semester, a local minister had us think about hip-hop artists in relation to Biblical figures. He argued that hip-hop takes a questioning stance, much like we find in the Psalms or in the book of <a href="http://truthandtidings.com/2003/02/the-minor-prophets-habakkuk-questioning-go">Habakkuk</a>. Historically, the mantra of hip-hop has been to “keep it real,” as artists often through their lyrics wrestle with the sacred, the secular and the profane.</p>
<p>In essence, hip-hop wrestles with real-life issues through imperfect people, just like the Bible. That’s why, in my view, hip-hop artists make for perfect commencement speakers.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213736/original/file-20180408-5603-1reqxgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213736/original/file-20180408-5603-1reqxgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213736/original/file-20180408-5603-1reqxgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213736/original/file-20180408-5603-1reqxgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213736/original/file-20180408-5603-1reqxgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213736/original/file-20180408-5603-1reqxgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213736/original/file-20180408-5603-1reqxgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/213736/original/file-20180408-5603-1reqxgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chance The Rapper has been selected as 2018 commencement speaker at Dillard University.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Obama-Summit/46b44cf7ff0440f39412ff42ad404ae4/45/0">Charles Rex Arbogast/AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Queen Latifah was one of the first hip-hop artists to give a commencement address in 2004 at Delaware State University. Since then we have seen <a href="http://art.adelphi.edu/au_news/chuck-d/">Chuck D</a>, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/pictures/geeg45edief/sean-diddy-combs-deliv/#dac0018661ef">Sean “Diddy” Combs</a>, <a href="https://hbculifestyle.com/hbcu-commencement-speakers-2015/">David Banner</a>, <a href="http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/05/02/rapper-common-delivers-commencement-speech-for-city-colleges/">Common</a>, <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/ct-kanye-west-saic-commencement-speech-20150511-story.html">Kanye West</a> and <a href="http://time.com/4782808/pharrell-williams-nyu-new-york-university-commencement-speech/">Pharrell Williams</a>. A great deal of thoughtful music has been made by this group. This year, <a href="https://www.business2community.com/us-news/queen-latifah-deliver-2018-commencement-speech-rutgers-university-newark-02009990">Queen Latifah</a>, <a href="http://variety.com/2018/music/news/black-eyed-peas-will-i-am-commencement-usc-jimmy-iovine-andre-young-academy-1202746573/">will.i.am</a>, and at my institution, <a href="http://www.complex.com/music/2018/04/chance-the-rapper-to-bless-dillard-university-grads-with-commencement-speech">Chance The Rapper</a>, will share their thoughts to graduates. Most are thoughtful people, not simply performers.</p>
<p>Chuck D of the group Public Enemy is famous for saying <a href="https://ndsmcobserver.com/2006/02/chuck-d-raps-on-racism-music/">celebrity is the drug of choice</a> in America. Universities should ask themselves how we make sure the drug is a stimulant to inspire innovation and initiative, rather than a depressant that numbs the senses. Hip-hop artists can be that stimulant, using their celebrity to instigate action.</p>
<h2>More could step to the mic</h2>
<p>I don’t expect schools to abandon the CEO, politician, journalist or author as commencement speakers. But there is a message within <a href="https://nyulocal.com/questlove-comes-to-nyu-plus-a-most-excellent-stevie-wonder-playlist-courtesy-of-dj-spinna-41c11bbffd92">Questlove</a> or <a href="https://revolt.tv/videos/black-thought-recites-toni-morrison-speech-mlk-2018-0030ebce">Black Thought</a>, <a href="http://hiphopwired.com/462172/mc-lyte-dillard-university-board-of-trustees/">MC Lyte</a> or <a href="http://www.rap-up.com/2013/02/26/video-j-cole-speaks-to-students-at-harvard-university/">J. Cole</a>, <a href="https://www.essence.com/celebrity/roc-nation-rapsody-music-women-working-together">Rapsody</a> or <a href="https://madmimi.com/s/bc93f4">Dee-1</a>, <a href="http://www.themsuspokesman.com/2018/03/05/morgan-invites-kendrick-lamar-to-campus/">Kendrick Lamar</a> or <a href="https://topcollegedegrees.net/jay-z-georgetown-university-course/">Jay-Z</a>.</p>
<p>And if we gave her a chance, former community college student Cardi B might allow us to <a href="https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/cardi-b-invasion-of-privacy/">invade her privacy</a> and speak to us about how one might live their “<a href="https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/cardi-b-and-chance-the-rapper-are-living-their-best-life-new-song.1978048.html">Best Life</a>.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94647/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Walter M. Kimbrough does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While hip-hop is often viewed through its problematic elements, Dillard University President Walter Kimbrough explains why rap artists are ideal commencement speakers.Walter M. Kimbrough, President of Dillard University, Dillard UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/944582018-04-05T10:46:05Z2018-04-05T10:46:05ZHoward University student protest: 3 questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/213311/original/file-20180404-189816-b34gd1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students have been protesting conditions at Howard University for several days.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_University#/media/File:Howard_University_logo.svg">en.wikipedia.org</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: In order to gain more perspective on the underlying issues of the student-led protest at Howard University, which is now in its seventh day, The Conversation reached out to Marybeth Gasman, a leading scholar on historically black colleges and universities, commonly referred to as HBCUs. What follows is a brief Q&A with Gasman</em>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"979799588440870918"}"></div></p>
<p><strong>HBCUs are often portrayed as more <a href="https://medium.com/@DrMichaelLomax/6-reasons-hbcus-are-more-important-than-ever-6572fc27c715">nurturing environments</a> for black students than predominantly white institutions. But the current student protest at Howard University, one of the nation’s most prominent HBCUs, seems to seriously call that rosy portrayal into question. Among other things, students at Howard are complaining about issues that range from lack of housing to indifference to sexual assault on campus to financial malfeasance. Why is there so much trouble in paradise?</strong></p>
<p>The research on nurturing and supporting environments at HBCUs pertains to <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674736801">faculty and student relationships and also the relationships between peers</a>. Research also tells us that the area that Dillard University President Walter Kimbrough has long called “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=nOO8RZ5IuwMC&pg=PT27&lpg=PT27&dq=Bermuda+Triangle+and+Walter+Kimbrough&source=bl&ots=osfwqWkB3I&sig=PXuhd5iTJAWLk1bQ7G_Shl8y9DM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwip1uyjoqHaAhUqneAKHSYPBYwQ6AEIXzAL#v=onepage&q=Bermuda%20Triang">The Bermuda Triangle of HBCUs</a>” (the offices of the financial aid, the registrar, and the bursar) and how well those three offices are run is a problematic area for many HBCUs. My own <a href="https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1400&context=gse_pubs">research</a>, and research that I conducted along with <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED527585">Nelson Bowman</a> as well as <a href="https://works.bepress.com/marybeth_gasman/28/">Sibby Anderson-Thompkins</a>, drawing upon interviews with over 4,000 HBCU alumni, finds that problems in this area are the number one reason why HBCU alumni do not give back to their alma maters. It is vital that HBCUs conduct internal and external audits in this area, just as all colleges and universities should.</p>
<p>I also think it is important to not see HBCUs as “paradise.” There are aspects of HBCUs that are wonderful and supportive, but they are complex institutions that are all very different. They are similar in design to all colleges and universities, and thus messy and sometimes complicated; all colleges and universities have problems in various areas. If you look around the nation, you find <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/eight-scandals-that-ended-college-presidencies/2011/11/21/gIQA4diYiN_blog.html?utm_term=.e0588a53a37f">financial aid, sexual assault and financial mismanagement</a> at all types of colleges and universities. In the case of Howard, it is a very prominent HBCU and thus attracts a great deal of attention. In addition, <a href="https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1201&context=gse_pubs">research</a> shows that many people paint HBCUs with a wide brush — blaming what happens at one on all of them. It’s the same thing people do with African-Americans — the actions of one person are used to describe everyone. That’s how racism works and it is often used against HBCUs. We don’t see the problems of one majority institution being used to describe other majority institutions.</p>
<p><strong>Howard University gets <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/programs/howard/funding.html">nearly $200 million</a> in direct funding annually from the federal government and is the only HBCU to get direct federal funding. How could or how should this special relationship with the federal government come into play given the issues that students are currently raising?</strong> </p>
<p>Yes, they receive direct funding from the federal government through Congress, as does deaf-serving <a href="http://www.gallaudet.edu/">Gallaudet University</a>. </p>
<p>If federal financial aid dollars were misused, then Congress or the Department of Education could be involved. That said, it is important that Howard University properly steward the federal funds (or any funds) and this was not the case in the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2018/03/28/howard-university-fires-six-employees-after-investigation-into-misappropriated-funding/">alleged misappropriation of funds at Howard</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Some members of HUResist – the student group that is leading the protest at Howard – have indicated that <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/Howard-U-Sit-In-Could-Be-the/243012">they hope students at other HBCUs</a> will rise up and demand change as well. To what extent do you think that will happen – and also to what extent do you think that is necessary – and why?</strong></p>
<p>I think you are seeing more <a href="https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1160433.pdf">activist and emboldened students at HBCUs</a>. See the <a href="http://www.wral.com/students-outraged-over-conditions-at-hampton-university-frustrations-going-viral-after-town-hall-meeting/17367436/">student voices at Hampton</a>, for example. It’s important to note that with the increased use of social media and protest movements across the nation about various topics (racism, gun control, sexual assault), colleges and universities, including HBCUs, are not immune to protests playing out on their campuses.</p>
<p>One thing I am concerned about is the way that some HBCU alumni and people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds (who did not go to HBCUs) are <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23CALLTYRONE&src=tyah">making fun of</a> or <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HowardUniversity?src=hash">mocking Howard</a> and other HBCUs because of the alleged embezzlement of funds at Howard. This type of behavior doesn’t help Howard or HBCUs even though it may bring laughs on social media. It will be used against HBCUs by those who do not have their best interest at heart.</p>
<p>Instead, people would benefit from researching the situation to get all the facts, meeting with key individuals involved, and working out a plan to ensure this situation doesn’t happen again. If people care about HBCUs, they can be critical, but they also have to take action to make HBCUs stronger and more resilient when these kinds of issues arise.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94458/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marybeth Gasman receives or has received funding from the Mellon Foundation, Kresge Foundation, ECMC Foundation, Educational Testing Service, the University of Pennsylvania, Council for International Educational Exchange, Lumina Foundation, USA Funds, The Helmsley Trust, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation </span></em></p>As the student protest over conditions at Howard University continues, a scholar weighs in on what the fallout means for historically black colleges and universities.Marybeth Gasman, Professor of Higher Education and Director Penn Center for Minority-Serving Institutions, University of PennsylvaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.