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The business behind HBCU marching bands

Mar 11, 2024
The marching bands at historically Black institutions can be the face of their schools — pulling in prospective students who may not even join the band.
Prairie View A&M University's marching band performs with excellence, even without proper resources.
Courtesy Marching Storm

Why are HBCUs underfunded?

Jun 22, 2023
While HBCUs provide bright futures for Black students, they aren’t as well funded as other prestige universities.
HBCUs are vital for educating Black professionals, but they remain underfunded.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images

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

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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

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