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What a difference a summer makes! In the few weeks since announcing her candidacy for president, Vice President Kamala Harris has ignited a level of hope and optimism not observed within the American electorate since Barack Obama’s run for president in 2008.
As I listened to her speech in Philadelphia introducing her running mate Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota widely known as Coach Walz, I found myself thinking about the role historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have played throughout U.S. history, and still play, in producing leaders who’ve added immeasurably to the quality of American life in all spheres — including but not limited to economic, political, social, educational, and religious among others.
Just as HBCUs have an irrefutable record of creating the Black middle class, they have an equally strong record of producing graduates whose leadership helped strengthen American democracy and expand opportunities for historically marginalized people irrespective of race, ethnicity, gender, or geography.
For the more than five decades now, I have had a front row seat as an observer of developments at HBCUs. Not only did I graduate from an HBCU, but I have also had the privilege of serving as a faculty member, administrator, advocate, consultant, and investor in this venerable sector of the academy. The fact that HBCUs have an enviable record of positively impacting the lives of their graduates, as well as the American society broadly, has been well documented.
In May, Harris announced a $16 billion investment in HBCUs. While African Americans must continue to have access to postsecondary institutions of their choice, reconfiguring and reorienting HBCUs to identify and directly address community concerns could potentially accelerate the realization of racial parity.
Now is the time for another Great Awakening, led by HBCUs and their graduates as leaders in their communities. Despite funding shortfalls and political marginalization, the historic record of HBCUs provides a demonstrable track record of educating students across the preparatory spectrum, essentially by emulating the interests, concerns, and designs of their mainstream counterparts.
In May, the vice president also surprised countless HBCU graduates around the country with a congratulatory video, met with joy and applause. It has been shown at more than half the 101 HBCUs in the U.S., according to the White House.
“As a proud HBCU graduate, I know firsthand the value of attending an institution like yours,” she said in her pre-recorded video. “You leave here having been taught that you can do and be anything. And that you have a duty be excellent. To work to uplift the condition of all people. And to fight to protect our most fundamental rights and freedoms.”
While Harris currently has the highest profile of HBCU graduates, the way for her was paved by other graduates who dared to challenge American-style apartheid at great personal risk. Even the briefest search reveal the names of many of those stalwart leaders who challenged America to take more seriously the ideal of becoming a more perfect union.
Mary McLeod Bethune, Dr. W. E. B. Dubois, Dr. John Hope Franklin, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr. Ruth Simmons, Dr. Howard Thurman, Pauli Murray, Oprah Winfrey, Medgar Evers, Douglas Wilder, Alma Adams, Dr. David Satcher, Dr. Kenneth Clark, and Thurgood Marshall are just a few of the HBCU graduates who used their intellect, commitment, passion, agency, and energy to drive change that helped transform America into the world’s leading democracy and economy.
Many of the leaders produced by HBCUs in the past and even today may not make headlines, but they are the ones serving as K-12 teachers and principals, preachers and pastors, school board members, county commissioners, city council people, state legislators, judges, business owners, and congressional and corporate leaders among other roles.
Not only have HBCUs been vital in creating a burst of fresh momentum for Harris, so have the historically Black service organizations founded at HBCUs, such as Alpha Kappa Alpha, established at Howard in 1908, of which Harris is a proud member. AKA is the oldest sorority established by Black college women and has nearly 400,000 members around the world.
Throughout her career as a public servant, Harris has consistently stated that joining AKA at Howard transformed her life. At a recent gathering of 20,000 AKA members in Dallas, Harris proclaimed, “We know when we organize, mountains move. When we mobilize, nations change. And when we vote, we make history.” Around the world, her message is resonating.
While HBCUs are not the only institutions that lay claim to maintaining a culture of caring, such a culture is the sine qua non of the overwhelming majority of HBCUs. This culture of caring, perhaps more than anything else — even the size of a university’s endowment, accounts for the success of HBCUs in educating students whom many Predominately White Institutions would even consider admitting. The HBCU culture of caring is reflected in a spirit of “you can do it” conveyed to students almost universally by faculty, staff, and administrators.
The HBCU culture of caring is reflected in an HBCU commitment to provide what my late colleague, Dr. Elias Blake, President of Atlanta’s Clark College, described as a “psychologically supportive environment.” No matter how many photos of students of color are included on a university’s website, or in its recruitment materials, having spent more than three decades as a faculty member and administrator at PWIs, I know from experience that these institutions cannot fake caring.
A culture of caring is the glue that holds us together. Only in America is a Harris-Walz ballot possible. We are a nation of neighbors, not enemies. Freedom, opportunity, and the promise of America are on the ballot, and the leaders produced by HBCUs are its purveyors. Like Vice President Kamala Harris, they lead by example, and they challenge America and each of us to be better versions of ourselves. A culture that lifts people up, instead of knocking them down, is what will lead the U.S. and the world into a better future. May we have the courage to take this historic leap forward together, with a culture of caring as our beacon.
Dr. Charlie Nelms is a veteran higher education administrator and chancellor emeritus of North Carolina Central University.