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Monday, April 15, 2013
history of HBCU's.
Black history first 365 days #76, history of HBCU's.
Glenn R. Chavis
High Point, NC 27260
Historically black colleges and universities
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the black community.
There are 105 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the United States, including public and private, two-year and four-year institutions, medical schools and community colleges. Most are located in the former slave states and territories of the U.S. Notable exceptions include Central State University (Ohio), Wilberforce University (Ohio), Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, Lewis College of Business (Detroit, Michigan), Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), and the former Western University (Kansas).
History
Most HBCUs were established after the American Civil War. However, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, established in 1837, Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), established in 1854, and Wilberforce University, established in 1854, were established for blacks prior to the American Civil War.
The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, defines a "part B institution" as: "...any historically black college or university that was established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of black Americans, and that is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association determined by the Secretary [of Education] to be a reliable authority as to the quality of training offered or is, according to such an agency or association, making reasonable progress toward accreditation." Part B of the 1965 Act provides for direct federal aid to Part B institutions.
In 1862, the Morrill Act provided for land grant colleges in each state. Some educational institutions in the North or West were open to blacks since before the Civil War. However, 17 states, mostly in the South, generally excluded blacks from their land grant colleges. In response, the second Morrill Act of 1890 was passed to require states to establish a separate land grant college for blacks if blacks were being excluded from the then existing land grant college. Many of the HBCUs were founded in response to the Second Morrill Act. These land grant schools continue to receive annual federal funding for their research, extension and outreach activities. The Higher Education Act of 1965 established a program for direct federal grants to HBCUs, including federal matching of private endowment contributions.
Other educational institutions currently have large numbers of blacks in their student body, but as they were founded (or opened their doors to African Americans) after the implementation of the Sweatt v. Painter and Brown v. Board of Education rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court (the court decisions which outlawed racial segregation of public education facilities) and the Higher Education Act of 1965, they are not historically black colleges, but have been termed "predominantly black."
Starting in 2001, the libraries of several HBCUs began a conversation about ways to pool their resources and work collaboratively. In 2003, this partnership was formalized as the HBCU Library Alliance, "a consortium that supports the collaboration of information professionals dedicated to providing an array of resources designed to strengthen historically black colleges and Universities and their constituents."
Current status
In 2004, the US Department of Education published a study of HBCUs that found that, as of 2001, HBCUs accounted for 13% of black higher education enrollment.
In 2007, the Thurgood Marshall College Fund published a study of minority recruiting practices by Fortune 400 companies and by government agencies that found that 13% of the college graduates were recruited from HBCUs and 87% were recruited from non-HBCU schools.
The 2009 Stimulus Bill included more than $1.3 billion of additional federal support for HBCU campuses.
Of the 105 HBCU institutions in America today, 27 offer doctoral programs and 52 provide graduate degree programs at the Master's level. At the undergraduate level, 83 of the HBCUs offer a Bachelor's degree program and 38 of these schools offer associate degrees.
The portion of Bachelor degrees awarded to black students by HBCUs has steadily dropped from 35% in 1976 to 21.5% in 2001. From 1976 to 2001, total HBCU enrollment grew from 180,059 to 222,453, with most of this increase being attributable to the growth of female black enrollment from 88,379 to 117,766.
In 1975, Jake Ayers Sr. filed a lawsuit against Mississippi for giving more financial support to its predominantly white public colleges. The state settled the lawsuit in 2002 and agreed to direct $503 million to three historically black colleges, collectively, over 17 years.
Following the enactment of Civil Rights laws in the 1960s, all educational institutions that receive federal funding have undertaken affirmative action to increase their racial diversity. Some historically black colleges now have non-black majorities, notably West Virginia State University and Bluefield State College whose student body has been over 80% white since the mid-1960s. Many non-state-supported HBCUs are struggling financially, due to the increased cost of delivering private education to students and declining financial aid for students.
Racial diversity at HBCUs
As colleges work harder to maintain enrollment levels and because of increased racial harmony and the low cost of tuition, the percentage of non-African American enrollment has tended to climb. The following table highlights HBCUs with high non-African American enrollments:
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Lawmaker raps Obama for lack of diversity in top posts
A black House member from Mississippi says President Obama has shortchanged blacks who backed him in 2008 and 2012 by not making diversity a higher priority in his administration.
WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi called out the Obama administration Wednesday for what he said is a lack of diversity in high-level posts, including the Cabinet.
Thompson, who is black, chided President Obama for not nominating more African-Americans to top administration jobs.
"Four months into his second term, we look to the president's Cabinet appointments only to find that he has once again overlooked his most loyal constituency,'' Thompson said.
He made his comments while delivering the Congressional Black Caucus' weekly radio address on the American Urban Radio Network, which is African-American owned and has listeners across the country.
"Many of my colleagues and I are disturbed by the president's lack of attention to diversity in his Cabinet and administration,'' Thompson said.
White House officials say Obama is committed to diversity and noted that the selection process for his Cabinet is not complete.
"He believes that diversity is valuable because it enhances the decision-making process in the Cabinet, and it's important within his senior staff for the same reason,'' Jay Carney, a White House spokesman, said at a press briefing last month.
Obama's recent nominations include Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Ernest Moniz to lead the Energy Department and Thomas Perez to head the Labor Department. None of those nominees is black.
Remaining top-level posts include transportation secretary, commerce secretary and head of the Small Business Administration.
David Bositis, a senior analyst with the Joint Center for Economic and Political Studies, noted that during Obama's first term, blacks — including EPA administrator Lisa Jackson and Attorney General Eric Holder — held key posts.
"Obama has to be circumspect, both in terms of someone who is going to be effective, someone who is going to work well with him (and) someone who is going to get through the Senate,'' Bositis said.
He said Obama could still nominate more blacks to key posts — including black women — to help with his goal to diversify his staff.
"It's not like the president needs somebody in his Cabinet to give him the black point of view,'' Bositis said.
Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Ohio, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, complained in a letter to Obama last month that his recent Cabinet nominees "have hardly been reflective of this country's diversity.''
CBC members have recommended more than 60 African-Americans for Cabinet-level posts, but none have been nominated, said Ayofemi Kirby, a spokesperson for the caucus.
Caucus members are especially angry based on "the overwhelming support you've received from the African-American community,'' Fudge wrote to Obama.
Thompson said Obama has selected the lowest number of African-American Cabinet members in 38 years. He noted that George W. Bush, Obama's Republican predecessor, nominated four African-Americans to Cabinet posts.
Bush's nominations were over two terms, Bositis said.
Thompson said Congressional Black Caucus members and minority groups worked hard to help re-elect Obama. Black voters overwhelmingly supported Obama in 2008 and 2012.
"This is not a time to stand idly by... this is an opportunity to act,'' Thompson said of Obama. "Neither I nor the Congressional Black Caucus will rest until African-Americans are represented throughout the administration.''
Thompson, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, also has pushed for more diversity at the Department of Homeland Security.
Diversity in the federal government is a caucus priority. Some caucus members and civil rights groups also complain the administration has not done enough to address African-American concerns, particularly the high unemployment rate among blacks.
"The absence of diverse voices leads to policy and programs that adversely impact African-Americans,'' Fudge wrote in her March letter.
Fudge has since heard from Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor to Obama, who assured her the administration is committed to diversity, Kirby said. Jarrett also met earlier this year with the Congressional Black Caucus.
Fudge is "confident that the administration is committed to diversity,'' Kirby said. "She's waiting to see what the remaining appointments will be.''
Friday, April 5, 2013
Friday, March 29, 2013
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Monday, March 25, 2013
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Friday, March 15, 2013
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Bobby Seale : Biography
Bobby Seale, was one of the three children born to his mother, a homemaker, and his father, a carpenter. He was born in Dallas, Texas, on 22nd October, 1936. During the Second World War the Seale family moved to Oakland, California.
After leaving Oakland High School he joined the United States Air Force. Seale served for three years until being court-martialed for disobeying the command of a colonel at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.
In 1962 Seale entered Merritt College in Oakland, California. While a student he head Malcolm X speak at a public meeting. Influenced by what he heard, Seale joined the Afro-American Association and became active in the civil rights movement.
In 1966 Seale joined with Huey Newton to form the Black Panther Party (BPP). Initially formed to protect local communities from police brutality and racism, it eventually developed into a Marxist revolutionary group. The Black Panthers also ran medical clinics and provided free food to school children.
The activities of the Black Panthers came to the attention of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. Hoover described the Panthers as "the greatest threat to the internal security of the country" and in November 1968 ordered the FBI to employ "hard-hitting counter-intelligence measures to cripple the Black Panthers".
The Black Panthers had chapters in several major cities and had a membership of over 2,000. Harassed by the police, members became involved in several shoot-outs. In 1967 Huey Newton was found guilty of killing a police officer but his conviction was overturned 22 months later.
On 6th April, 1968 a carload of BPP members, including Bobby Hutton and Eldridge Cleaver, was ambushed by the Oakland police. A shoot-out lasted for over an hour before the Panthers surrendered. Soon afterwards the police shot Hutton more than twelve times.
In 1968 Seale was one of the radicals charged with conspiring to incite riots around the Democratic Party Convention which endorsed Hubert Humphrey as its presidential candidate to take on Richard Nixon. Seale's fellow defendants included David Dillinger (Liberation), Tom Hayden (Students for a Democratic Society), Rennie Davis (National Mobilisation Committee) and Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin of the Youth International Party). When Seale repeatedly interrupted court proceedings the judge ordered him to be bound and gagged. Seale was found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison for 16 counts of contempt of court.
While in prison Seale was charged with murdering Alex Rackley, a former Black Panther suspected of being a police informer. On 25th May, 1971, the trial ended in a hung jury and the judge ordered all charges against Seale to be dropped.
After being released from prison in 1972, Seale renounced political violence and concentrated on conventional politics. In 1973 Seale ran for mayor of Oakland and came second out of nine candidates with 43,710 votes.
Over the last twenty years Seale has worked on a variety of community projects and published several books including Seize the Time (1970), an autobiography, A Lonely Rage (1978) and Barbeque'n with Bobby (1987).
(1) Bobby Seale, Seize the Time (1970)
One Monday morning Huey Newton called me up and said, "Bobby, come over to the house right quick." I went over to the house. Huey showed me the papers. He said, "Look here, Mulford is up in the legislature now, trying to get a bill passed against us. We don't care about laws anyway, because the laws they make don't serve us at all. He's probably making a law to serve the power structure. He's trying to get some kind of law passed against us." He said, "I've been thinking. Remember when I told you we have to go in front of a city hall, in front of a jail, or do something like we did in Martinez, to get more publicity, so we can get a message over to the people?" This was Huey's chief concern, getting the message over to the people.
So Huey says, "You know what we're going to do?" "What?" "We're going to the Capitol." I said, "The Capitol?" He says, "Yeah, we're going to the Capitol." I say, "For what?" "Mulford's there, and they're trying to pass a law against our guns, and we're going to the Capitol steps. We're going to take the best Panthers we got and we're going to the Capitol steps with our guns and forces, loaded down to the gills. And we're going to read a message to the world, because all the press is going to be up there. The press is always up there. They'll listen to the message, and they'll probably blast it all across this country. I know, I know they'll blast it all the way across California. We've got to get a message over to the people."
Huey understood a revolutionary culture, and Huey understood how arms and guns become a part of the culture of a people in the revolutionary struggle. And he knew that the best way to do it was to go forth, and those hungry newspaper reporters, who are shocked, who are going to be shook up, are going to be blasting that news faster than they could be stopped. I said, "All right, brother, right on. I'm with you. We're going to the Capitol." So we called a meeting that night, before going up to the Capitol, to write the first executive mandate for the Black Panther Party. Huey was going to write Executive Mandate Number One.
(2) Bobby Seale, interviewed by CNN in August 1996.
I knew they (FBI) were watching us.... They heavily focused in on us when we started to grow so rapidly. We began to grow rapidly really after Martin Luther King was killed.... With Martin Luther King's death, by June, my party was jumping by leaps and bounds. In a matter of six months, we swelled; in 1968, from 400 members to 5,000 members and 45 chapters and branches.... Our newspaper swells to over 100,000 circulation. By mid-1969, we had a 250,000 circulation.
Why did the FBI come down on us? We started those working coalitions with other organizations at the beginning of 1968. Those coalitions solidified themselves. We had the Peace and Freedom Party working in coalition with the Black Panther Party; SDS: Students for a Democratic Society, all the anti-war movement people; numerous other organizations. In late 1968, we had a working coalition with the Poor People's March through Rev. Ralph Abernathy, with SCLC; we had a coalition with the Brown Berets, the Chicano organization, Cesar Chavez and others in the farm labor movement; AIM: American and Indian Movement; Young Puerto Rican Brothers, the Young Lords - we coalesced with everybody, you see. Because remember, we were dealing with "all power to all the people," not just black power....
So, with the Breakfast for Children Program spreading across the country, getting a lot of media play, the Preventative Medical Health Care Clinics, the doctors, the medics - I mean, this is authentic medicine, preventative medical health care clinics, the people donating their time. We got 5,000 full-time working members in the Black Panther Party, mostly college students; these were college students: I would say 60 percent of them were college students from after Martin Luther King was killed, because they were so upset and so mad that they killed Martin Luther King, they postponed their college education and said, "I'm joining the Black Panther Party."
(3) Bobby Seale, interviewed by CNN in August 1996.
Marxism didn't even come into play with our organization until we picked up a red book one day. But the Black Panther Party had nothing to do with it; it didn't evolve out of Marxism.... From 1962-1965, the Black Panther Party was based on a complete study and research of African and African-American people's history of struggle. That's truly what it came out of. If you notice, in our 10-point platform and program we make no Marxist statements.
In terms of the concept of economics at that time, what I developed best was a concept of community-controlled cooperatives in the black community, which largely I picked up from W.E.B. Dubois. So I mean, I sort of got there from W.E.B. Dubois and a few other reads. But Marxist-Leninism per se was really a latter development: not until 1968 that we really considered the Red Book required reading.
Bobby Seale (Documentary)
Staggerle: A Conversation with Black Panther Bobby Seale
Detroit Black Journal - Bobby Seal
Co founder of the Black Panther Party Bobby Seale - From The Sixties To The Future.
Black Panther Co Founder, Bobby Seale
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Black In Latin America'
Between 1502 and 1866, 11.2 million Africans disembarked from slave ships in the New World during the Middle Passage. Of those 11.2 million people, only 450,000 came to the United States. The rest of the African slaves who survived the journey were taken to the Caribbean, Latin America and South America.
"Brazil got 4.8 million slaves alone," says historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. "When I was growing up, I thought to talk about the slave trade was to talk about the experiences of our ancestors here in the United States. But it turns out that the real 'African-American experience' — judging by numbers alone — unfolded south of our borders."
That world, says Gates, is the one he wanted to explore in Black in Latin America, a book and four-part documentary series airing on PBS, which traces the cultural history and the lasting impact of the millions of slaves who arrived in Brazil, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Mexico and Peru.
"The average American — and even the average academic and the average journalist — has no idea of the huge number of black people who landed south of the United States over the course of the slave trade," he tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.
A Spectrum Of Race
The descendents of slaves brought to Latin and South America, says Gates, don't identify as white or black the way many Americans do. In Brazil, there are 134 categories of blackness to describe someone of African descent.
"[They say], 'I'm not black. I'm murano [or] I'm kubuku,' he says. "You could say that these societies have refused to be locked into this ridiculous binary opposition between black and white the way we are here in America, and they've socially constructed race or ethnicity in a more subtle way than we could ever imagine."
In each of the countries Gates examined, there were also policies enacted to "whiten" the complexion of the country soon after receiving an influx of slaves. In Brazil for instance, 4 million white Europeans and 185,000 Japanese immigrants were allowed into the country between 1884 and 1939. Cuba and Mexico also had similar policies in place.
"They were trying to do two things," says Gates. "They wanted to bring in white families so that the white population would increase. But they also assumed, because so many of these indentured immigrants would be men, that interracial sexual liaisons would ensue — and indeed they did. So whitening was to be achieved in two ways — through white people marrying white people — and a browning movement, when a series of racial gradations would be created through interracial sexuality."
In many countries in Latin America, says Gates, race is no longer recorded as part of the census.
"But there's a slight problem with that," he says. "If because of historical reasons, the people who are disproportionately discriminated against happen to be that group of people with dark skin, kinky hair and thick lips, how do you count them if you don't have a census category?"
In both Mexico and Peru, political activists are fighting for the right to have race reintroduced in the federal census.
"Until that's done, political activists can't argue for affirmative action or more equal opportunity because they have no statistics," says Gates. "A great academic told me that he went to the government to complain about the lack of blacks in higher education, and he was told, 'We don't have racism because we don't have races.' And if you can't count the race, then you can't have racism. And that is the pernicious argument that they're trying to fight with this movement to expand the categories on the federal census."
Black in Latin America E03, Mexico and Peru: The Black Grandma in the Closet
Black in Latin America - Episode 1 - Haiti & the Dominican Republic - An Isl
Black in Latin America - Episode 2 - Cuba The Next Revolution
Black in Latin America - Episode 3 - Brazil - A Racial Paradise
Black in Latin America - Episode 4 - Mexico & Peru - A Hidden Race
Friday, February 22, 2013
A wonderful story for you
A wonderful story for you
A woman came out of her house and saw 3 old men with long white beards sitting in her front yard. She did not recognize them. She said "I don't think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please come in and have something to eat." “Is the man of the house home?” they asked. “No," she replied. "He's out." "Then we cannot come in," they replied.
In the evening when her husband came home, she told him what had happened. "Go tell them I am home and invite them in!" The woman went out and invited the men in" "We do not go into a House together," they replied. "Why is that?" she asked. One of the old men explained: "His name is Wealth," he > said pointing to one of his friends, and said pointing to another one, "He is Success, and I am Love." Then he added, “Now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you > want in your home." The woman went in and told her husband what was said. Her husband was overjoyed. "How nice!” he said. "Since that is the case, let us invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth!" His wife disagreed. "My dear, why don't we invite Success?" Their daughter-in-law was listening from the other corner of the house. She jumped in with her own suggestion: "Would it not be better to invite Love? Our home will then be filled with love!" "Let us heed our daughter-in-law's advice," said the husband to his wife. "Go out and invite Love to be our guest."
The woman went out and asked the 3 old men, "Which one of you is Love? Please come in and be our guest." Love got up and started walking toward the house. The other 2 also got up and followed him. Surprised, the lady asked Wealth and Success: "I only invited Love, Why are you coming in?" The old men replied together: "If you had invited Wealth or Success, the other two of us would've stayed out, but since you invited Love, wherever He goes, we go with him. Wherever there is Love, there is also Wealth and Success!!!!!!" MY WISH FOR YOU... Where there is pain, I wish you peace and mercy. Where there is self-doubting, I wish you a renewed confidence in your ability to work through it. Where there is tiredness, or exhaustion, I wish you understanding, patience, and renewed strength. Where there is fear, I wish you love, and courage.
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