The History and Relevance of HBCUs

Why We Still Need Them in 2025

Photo by Walter (Slim) Fisher

HBCUs came into being because Black people were denied an education. Taxes paid by all were being used to educate only white people. Rather than let us into their colleges and universities. Separate but definitely unequal institutions were created, often by religious institutions, to provide an education to those who otherwise would go without. I won’t recreate the wheel as I’ve written these stories previously in celebration of Black History Month. I’m providing them together in a different format because it’s a history we need to know.

The Story of Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) don’t begin with the founding of what is now Cheney University in 1837, twenty-eight years before the…