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Defense Department awards Howard University first-of-its-kind research contract

Jan 24, 2023
HBCUs like Howard often lost out on research grants due to systematic underfunding. Now there’s a push to fund more research at HBCUs.
The Pentagon's $90 million contract with Howard University comes during a larger push to fund more research at HBCUs.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Pay to play: More HBCUs are being paid to take on powerhouse football teams

Oct 12, 2022
Some see this as a long-overdue opportunity. But are historically Black colleges and universities being paid enough?
The FAMU Marching 100 performs at the school's game against Chapel Hill on Aug. 27.
Mitchell Northam

Getty Images helps historically Black colleges digitize and archive their photographs

Aug 9, 2022
The partnership is meant to help preserve important historical records of Black Americans' lives.
Archivist Andre Vann of North Carolina Central University handles a 1964 photo of the homecoming queen and her attendants, to be included in the HBCU Getty Images collection.
Leoneda Inge

Historically Black school enrollment is rising, propelled by the Black Lives Matter movement

Jun 3, 2022
Many HBCUs were established in the years following the Civil War to educate Black people. Now, many are seeing an increase in applications.
Morgan State's freshman class nearly doubled last fall from the previous years. Above, students walk through the Baltimore campus in May.
Stephanie Hughes/Marketplace

Historically Black colleges and universities are chronically underfunded

Nov 18, 2021
HBCU advocates say funding shortfalls mean less scholarship money and financial aid for students and can lead to lower graduation rates.
From 1957 to 2007, Tennessee State University, an HBCU, received far less money than it was due by virtue of its federal land-grant designation.
Damon Mitchell/WPLN News

Howard U hopes to "put a major dent" in Hollywood's diversity problem

Jun 1, 2021
The HBCU is naming its reestablished school of fine arts after late actor and Howard alumnus Chadwick Boseman.
Howard University has made several moves in recent years to try to make Hollywood more diverse. In 2019, it launched a partnership with Amazon Studios. Pictured: Howard President (second from left) and Amazon Studio's Global Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Latasha Gillespie (second from right).
Brian Stukes/Getty Images for Amazon Studios

Historically Black colleges and universities face new financial hurdles

Jul 24, 2020
The pandemic has reduced HBCUs' enrollment, affecting tuition revenue. Even before this year, many struggled financially.
Pictured: Graduates of Bowie State University, an HBCU in Maryland, attended ceremonies with messages on their mortarboard hats in 2013.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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The pipeline problem for Black women in economics

Jul 1, 2020
Kai Ryssdal talks with Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman, CEO of the Sadie Collective.
Graduates of Spelman College in Georgia, a historically Black women's college, attend commencement ceremonies in 2002.
Erik S. Lesser/Getty Images

Morehouse gift highlights philanthropy ... and black student debt

May 20, 2019
Billionaire tech investor Robert Smith surprised Morehouse graduates by promising to pay off their student loans. Black students are more likely than white students to graduate with student debt, according to research.
Billionaire philanthropist Robert Smith pledged up to $40 million to pay off Morehouse College graduates' student loans at commencement on Sunday.
Morehouse College

We're still figuring out how to desegregate higher education

May 25, 2018
What Mississippi's historically black colleges and universities teach us about centuries-old inequities
A view of the State Capitol in Jackson, Mississippi.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images