African American Education Research Paper

Introduction

Studies show that minorities, especially African Americans, are largely under-represented in post-secondary education. The majority of African American society has not taken full advantage of Historically Black Colleges and Universities that were built on the emphasis of black improvement. The basis for this might be personal, financial, or even geographical reasons. It might even simply be that all other races had a 400 year head start while we were busy being people’s personal property and kept in ignorance for fear of uprisings and other racial worries of no longer considered being superior above our race.
Whatever the case might be, we as African Americans are struggling to climb the “corporate ladder”, simply because
we fail to attend post-secondary schooling, and even if we do attend, we are less likely to finish than any other minority including Hispanics. It’s almost shameful that we, as a people, came together long ago to help uplift the African American race by building institutions of higher learning, only to tear those dreams down by not even attending the very institutions that were built especially for us.
Because of this, I am writing to put information in front of the race that doesn’t even realize how far we’ve come only to have faltered because of a generation that only does not care about the past, but seemingly is doomed to repeat it. In this research paper I will discuss what exactly Historically Black Colleges and Universities are, social changes in the African American education since we’ve been in the Americas, statistics of African American and post-secondary education, and finally influences in the African American society.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Historically Black Colleges and Universities are schools that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the African American community. The first Historically Black College was founded in 1837, years before slavery ended. Richard Humphrey was the founder of this first institution and named it “Institute for Colored Youth”. It was located in Philadelphia and eventually was moved to Cheney, where it then became known as Cheney University. The main focus of the institution was to train free blacks to become teachers.
There are over 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the 20 of the states located in United States of America, Washington D.C., and the Virgin Islands today. Historically Black Colleges and Universities are very diverse. They differ in many aspects. Several are public, while others are private; a number are two year, while some are four-year colleges; some are large, while others are quite small. There are even Historically Black Colleges and Universities where the student population is predominantly white. It all depends on which Historically Black College and University, you attend or research.
Don’t get Historically Black Colleges and Universities misconstrued with predominately black colleges and universities. Yes, the basis of Historically Black Colleges and Universities are to focus on the population of the African American students, but the school also has to comply with the sole purpose of advancing black students, along with other requirements stated previously.
There are many advantages of attending a Historically Black College. Attending a HBCU exposes you to the culture of African American life. This culture includes all black fraternities and sororities, a different environment of the Student Unions, step shows, and other aspects that you might not fully experience if you attended a predominately white institution (PWI).

Social Changes in African American Education

Considering the social changes in our society over the past 400 years, the black person is still in economic slavery. The black person is dependent upon the other races to do for them probably because of the independency blacks developed during slavery times. But, never the less, whites depended on us also, probably in the same sense of dependency. But with our dependency comes despondency and with despondency comes lack of knowing of self and what we can do as a people.
During slavery, African Americans yearned to learn how to become literate and do arithmetic.
Slaves risked their lives daily just to sneak newspapers and learn from their young masters who loved to play “school”. As the years went on and society changed, it became okay for African Americans to learn, just not in the same environment as “whites”. We were given torn down shacks for schools, hand-me-down books, for literature, and less educated teachers than the white schools. We had no money and no comforts of the white schooling and yet we were more dedicated to earn what they had taken away from us for so long. We built institutions of higher learning with our blood, sweat and tears so that we, as a race, could be considered, in some form or fashion, equal. Now that we have everything at our expense (not to say we still aren’t struggling), we are dismissing our education like it wasn’t ought for by our ancestors. It defeats the purpose,
huh?

Statistics:

Number and percentage of students enrolled in degree-granting institutions and, for each racial/ethnic group, the percentage distribution of students by their racial/ethnic enrollment concentration at the institution attended, by student race/ethnicity and type of institution: Fall 2002
Racial/ethnic percentage of total enrollment at degree-granting institution2
________________________________________

Student race/ethnicity1 and
type of institution Number of students enrolled Percent by type of institution Percent of total enrollment Less than 10.0 10.0–
19.9 20.0–
29.9 30.0–
39.9 40.0–
49.9 50.0–
59.9 60.0–
69.9 70.0–
79.9 80.0–
89.9 90.0 or more
Black 1,978,746 100.0 11.9 24.5 24.1 15.2 9.8 5.6 3.1 1.8 3.3 5.8 6.7 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)4 244,442 12.4 82.6 0.1 1.3 0 0.4 # 0.2 1.7 10.6 34.1 51.5 Non-HBCU 1,734,304 87.6 10.6 28.0 27.4 17.4 11.1 6.4 3.5 1.8 2.3 1.8 0.4

Number and percentage of students enrolled in degree-granting institutions and, for each racial/ethnic group, the percentage distribution of students by their racial/ethnic enrollment concentration at the institution attended, by student race/ethnicity and type of institution: Fall 2002

Racial/ethnic percentage of total enrollment at degree-granting institution2
________________________________________

Student race/ ethnicity1 and type of institution Number of students enrolled Percent of total enrollment Less than 10.0 10.0–
19.9 20.0–
29.9 30.0–
39.9 40.0–
49.9 50.0–
59.9 60.0–
69.9 70.0–
79.9 80.0–
89.9 90.0 or more
________________________________________
Black 1,978,746 11.9 24.5 24.1 15.2 9.8 5.6 3.1 1.8 3.3 5.8
6.7 Doctoral 420,915 8.8 39.5 32.7 14.2 1.7 0.9 0 0 1.6 5.1 4.3 Master’s 518,983 12.7 23.3 21.8 12.6 10.2 3.5 0.2 2.1 4.0 10.3 12.1 Other 4-year 179,779 14.7 17.7 13.1 9.9 6.7 9.4 5.5 1.3 3.3 9.6 23.5 2-year 859,069 13.2 19.3 23.6 18.4 14.2 8.4 5.9 2.7 3.7 2.6 1.1
White 11,140,240 67.1 0.2 0.6 1.3 2.3 4.9 7.7 13.9 23.9 28.5 16.7 Doctoral 3,290,568 69.2 # 0.1 0.7 1.0 4.0 8.3 20.0 32.1 28.7 5.1 Master’s 2,884,664 70.4 0.2 0.4 0.9 2.3 4.1 5.0 8.4 20.3 35.4 23.0 Other 4-year 878,542 71.6 0.2 0.6 0.9 1.0 2.2 4.4 7.1 17.7 29.7 36.1 2-year 4,086,466 62.6 0.2 1.1 2.1 3.7 6.9 9.8 14.4 21.2 23.0 17.4

Why Are We Like This?

Previously stated, there are many reasons why our values of higher education have dwindled. The effects of the social non-acceptance of our race, the personal inhibitions, and financial disabilities all affect the ability for young African Americans to attend college. Generations of African Americans were regularly denied equal employment opportunity. Blacks with school credentials comparable to those of their white peers were not hired for similar jobs, were not paid equal wages, were not permitted to advance on the basis of education and ability. By denying minorities equal opportunity to enter the labor force, American society discouraged whole generations, especially involuntary minorities, from investing time and effort in education to maximize their educational accomplishments.
This has discouraged African Americans from continuing a strong tradition of striving for academic achievement. Along with this, teachers have lower intellectual standards for minorities, including African Americans. This leads to having African- Americans placed in special classes, lowering the quality of education the student achieves in secondary school, and decreases the chance for that student to continue on to post-secondary schooling.