A Historically Black College or University (HBCU) is any accredited college or university established prior to 1964 with the principal mission of educating African Americans. The term is enshrined in the Higher Education Act of 1965, a pillar of President Johnson Great Society. He signed the law expanding federal funding for higher education in a ceremony at his alma mater, Texas State; a school that didn’t admit African Americans until 1963—a prime example of why HBCUs were so necessary.

Before the Civil War, when the majority of African Americans in the U.S. were enslaved, educational opportunities for African Americans in the South were virtually non-existent, particularly for higher education. Those like Frederick Douglass who pursued an education in spite of it being illegal, were forced to study informally and often on their own. By the time he purchased this home, Douglas had risen to international prominence as an abolitionist, publisher, orator, and government official.

Schools dedicated to the advancement of African Americans appeared prior to the Civil War. In 1837 a group of Philadelphia Quakers, seeing African Americans in the North struggle to compete for jobs against an influx of immigrants, created the Institute for Colored Youth—the first institution of higher learning for African Americans. Here Fanny Jackson Coppin envisioned a future for her people beyond the failures of Reconstruction, empowered by “the enduring grace of intellectual attainments.”

There was a great push to open universities between the Civil War and WWI, mostly through government “land-grants”—but few accepted African Americans. They had to spearhead their own higher-education movement. Supported by the American Missionary Association and the Freedmen’s Bureau, seven black colleges were founded by 1870. Many of these—including Fisk University (1866), Howard University (1867), Claflin University (1869), and Dillard University (1869)—are still graduating students today.

As Black colleges moved into the 20th century, racial responsibility and the significance of service were dominant principles underpinning the HBCU experience. Black colleges provided an enclave that nurtured leaders. They served as laboratories of dissent, stimulating race consciousness and equipping Black youth with the intellectual skills to counter and deconstruct white supremacy. W.E.B. Du Bois advocated for Black nationalism and Pan-Africanism from his post at (Clark) Atlanta University.

The militancy of the post-World War I era resonated on Black college campuses in what became known as the New Negro Movement. It was not uncommon for prominent leaders such as Paul Robeson, Max Yergan, Carter G. Woodson, or Mary McLeod Bethune (seen here) to appear before crowds of eager students at HBCUs, and thus radically shape their worldview. Black colleges also played critical roles in reasserting and redefining the Black aesthetic in what became known as the Harlem Renaissance.

Established with different educational and training goals, in various regions of the country, most HBCUs are coeducational and public. The majority began with a few buildings, offering specialized training in religion, education, agriculture, and industrial arts, as seen here. Today, they boast a full range of academic programs, with varying campus sizes, student enrollment, and academic rigor. Click "Find out more" to visit the Department of Education’s list of accredited HBCUs.

HBCUs are educational pillars, beacons of opportunity, and institutional reminders of African American achievement. HBCUs offer a rich cultural experience, strong academic programs, and platforms for social activism. Students and educators have promoted change within their institutions and in broader society. Faculty like Jo Ann Robinson played significant roles in expanding political consciousness in their students. She and other ASU scholar-activists sparked the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott.

A vital and recurring role of HBCUs is nurturing social movements that reshape American democracy. HBCUs served as “shelters in a time of storm”—safe spaces to strategize as racial violence and domestic terrorism were normalized when Reconstruction faltered and Jim Crow flourished. In 1960, four students from North Carolina A&T sat down at the "whites only" Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, NC, demanded service, faced down violence, and sparked a movement that spread across the country.

Through the late 60s and 70s HBCUs cultivated and embraced the Black Power Movement. Student radicalism was increasingly suppressed as Black colleges fell victim to violence from Army National Guard Units and local law enforcement who killed activists on the campuses of South Carolina State, North Carolina A&T State, Jackson State and Southern University. As a new hip-hop generation emerged at the turn of the 20th c., students found their voices in voting rights and Black Lives Matter movements.