Sign up for our daily briefing
Make your busy days simpler with Axios AM/PM. Catch up on what's new and why it matters in just 5 minutes.
Stay on top of the latest market trends
Subscribe to Axios Markets for the latest market trends and economic insights. Sign up for free.
Sports news worthy of your time
Binge on the stats and stories that drive the sports world with Axios Sports. Sign up for free.
Tech news worthy of your time
Get our smart take on technology from the Valley and D.C. with Axios Login. Sign up for free.
Get the inside stories
Get an insider's guide to the new White House with Axios Sneak Peek. Sign up for free.
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Catch up on coronavirus stories and special reports, curated by Mike Allen everyday
Want a daily digest of the top Denver news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Denver
Want a daily digest of the top Des Moines news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Des Moines
Want a daily digest of the top Twin Cities news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Twin Cities
Want a daily digest of the top Tampa Bay news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Tampa Bay
Want a daily digest of the top Charlotte news?
Get a daily digest of the most important stories affecting your hometown with Axios Charlotte
Kamala Harris hugs Mara Peoples, Executive Vice President of the Howard University Student Association, beside Amos Jackson III, Executive President at Howard University. Photo: Al Drago/Getty Images
Vice President Kamala Harris, the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, is the first graduate of a historically Black college or university to enter the White House — and her background reflects the changing demographics at HBCUs.
Why it matters: Harris‘ accession highlights the often overlooked legacy of HBCUs, which have educated Black students for generations. Today, the schools also attract Latino and Asian American students, as well as students from immigrant families, amid a transforming nation.
By the numbers: Non-Black students make up around a fourth of HBCUs’ student populations, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
- In 1976, non-Black students were only 15% of the HBCU student population.
- Today, 25% of students at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University are Hispanic, many coming from South Texas.
- There are 101 HBCUs in the U.S. that were founded before 1964, when segregation laws prevented Black students from attending most schools.
"Because Kamala is elected, no one is going to tell me anymore I can't do something because I graduated from an HBCU. Not a single soul," said Erika Neal, a California health care worker and recent graduate of Virginia State University,
- She said she was told repeatedly that her HBCU political science degree wouldn't get her anywhere.
Between the lines: HBCU officials say the institutions' survival rests on recruiting students like Harris, who graduated from Howard University in 1986, and attracting a more diverse student body to stave off enrollment declines.
- The number of HBCU students fell from 327,000 in 2010 to 292,000 in 2018.
What they’re saying: "Latinx students and immigrant students see Black schools as a safe space with the rise of Fascism and xenophobia," said Patricia Williams Lessane, associate vice president for academic affairs at Morgan State University.
- Lessane said HBCU faculty and administration also tend to be more diverse than traditional mainstream colleges, making all students of color feel welcome.
- "HBCU is a model of how diversity should be done in this country."
The intrigue: The jump in enrollment from non-Black students of color comes as the nation's public schools return to pre-Civil Rights Movement segregation levels, placing Latino and Black students together.
- Black teachers who are HBCU graduates are mentoring some Latino students and letting them know HBCUs are options, said Melanye Price, Endowed Professor of Political Science at Prairie View A&M University.
- Latino and Asian American students then embrace the focus on Black life and history at HBCUs, Price said.
- "It encourages them and empowers them to think about their own racial experience, their own history...We help them fill in their part of the story," Price said.
Yes, but: Some fear the rapid increase of non-Black students in HBCUs might change original missions away from helping Black students.
- Maurice Mitchell, director of the Working Families Party and a Howard graduate, said it's a real concern, especially because HBCUs for years have stressed that students have a greater calling to help the Black community.
"At the same time, I'm encouraged because students are seeking out HBCUs. They aren't stumbling upon them," Mitchell said.