No Need to Overhaul America’s Black Colleges

To the Editor:

“A Multidimensional Challenge for Black Colleges” (The Chronicle, September 18) is an old story with a new twist. All the examples that John Silvanus Wilson Jr. gives in the article suggest that historically black colleges need a substantial overhaul in order to compete in a highly competitive growing global economy. This is far from the truth. Like most universities in America, historically black institutions have their share of problems; however, no one can deny that with a fraction of financial support that the predominantly white universities receive, historically black colleges are doing more than their share.

For example, in the areas of agriculture, biology, mathematics, and physical sciences, historically black institutions account for more than 40 percent of all bachelor degrees earned by African-Americans. This means that historically black colleges are a strategic resource for the higher education of African-Americans.

The article hints at an old ideological debate over who would control the socialization and training of hundreds of thousands of African-Americans who chose to attend historically black colleges. From the end of Reconstruction until the end of the civil-rights and Black Power eras, much of African-American higher education was in the control of the same corporate and philanthropic entities that the author suggests African-Americans now embrace for advancement. During those earlier periods, Northern business tycoons not only controlled the ebb and flow of black higher education, they also encouraged African-Americans to be subservient to white authority and emphasized that African-Americans should not pursue their own self-interest.

The author’s call for historically black colleges to partner with business and industry could mean that once again African-American education would be in the control of those who have historically denied African-American pursuit for self-determination and access to full citizenry. If this is done, African-American higher education as we know it could be a thing of the past.

Jahi Issa
Assistant Professor of History and Africana Studies
Delaware State University
Dover, Del.