African Americans have long been serious about education. Even when education was denied to black Americans through law, custom, and physical violence, blacks exerted relentless self-determination in the pursuit of literacy. The black church, because of its growth in size, power, and influence, became the logical institution for assisting blacks…

This paper examines the emergence of black progressive organizations and their relationship to public black colleges. Amid violent disfranchisement in the early 1900s, black education activists collaborated with other educators to host conferences, develop programs, and mobilize delegations on broader issues of concern to black Americans,…

Today, higher education is in a state of flux. Changing dynamics, from accreditation to unsustainable economic models, have forced colleges and universities to examine their fundamental principles while also grappling with the changing needs of the national and globalized workforce, including the shift to online learning. At the same time, the…

This study examines leadership efforts that supported the civil rights movements that came from administrators and professors, students and staff at Tougaloo College between 1960 and 1964. A review of literature reveals that little has been written about the college's role in the Civil Rights Movement during this time. Thus, one goal of this study…

In this article we provide a brief history of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) as a part of the sociopolitical context framing this special issue. The aim of this issue is to situate HBCUs as centers of leadership, change, and influence as well as repositories of Black education and the Black American experience through their…

This research study provides an overview of the first 59 years of Hampton Institute development in shaping its curriculum, specifically its teacher education program in preparing Black teachers to teach and take a leadership role in their rural communities. The focus of this research study is in the area of educational reform in exploring…

In this case study, 38 Black and White participants shared their recollections of intergroup contact during the first 15 years of desegregation (1954-1969) at a Historically Black University in a predominantly White Midwestern community. Faculty and alumnae/i candidly evoked their experiences in this unusual desegregation setting and their…

The social and political role of Black college presidents in the 1930s and 1940s via annual radio addresses is a relevant example of how the medium of the day was used as an apparatus for individual and institutional agency. The nationalist agenda of the United States federal government indirectly led to the opportunity for Black college…

This paper is part of a larger study of southern African American women who were awarded fellowship awards by the Julius Rosenwald Fund and the General Education Board (GEB) for the purpose of graduate study at northern universities prior to school desegregation. An examination of their professional histories suggests that the women faced a glass…