WASHINGTON — Well before the nation’s first total solar eclipse dominated the headlines of every news organization in America, it was affixed to the mind of Jamese Sims. Jamese Sims meterologist, engineer, and scientist for NOAA pictured with the Goes-16. (Photo courtesy/scijinks.gov) Sims, a native of Meridian, Miss., graduate of two historically black universities and one […]
Category: HBCU
Posted inNational News
Tenn. Lawmakers Seek to Strengthen Relationship with State HBCUs
Tennessee’s historically Black colleges and universities will soon have a team of advocates and an executive director in the state’s capital of Nashville. Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam’s signing of the new Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities officially created an office within the Tennessee Higher Education Commission to represent those institutions. “Governor Bill Haslam’s signing of the HBCU initiative […]
Posted inNational News
Fate of Annual HBCU Cuba Programs Unclear
With President Donald Trump enacting a new Cuba policy that aims to, among other things, curb tourism to the communist island, educators running journalism programs at Howard University and Morgan State University need more time to digest how the changes could affect their annual school trips to Cuba. For now, faculty at both schools are […]
Posted inNational News
HBCU Plaintiffs Present Powerful Closing Arguments in Equity Lawsuit against State of Maryland
Challenge State’s Meager Attempts to Provide Viable Solutions to Address Racist Practices (Updated 06/16/2017) – Lawyers representing students and alumni from Maryland’s four HBCU’s ended last week’s HBCU equity trial with powerful arguments justifying the methods and costs to dismantle Maryland’s discriminatory system of higher education before U.S. District Court Judge Catherine C. Blake. Attorney […]
Posted inCommentary
History is on the Side of HBCUs
Almost eleven years ago the lawyers for The Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education filed a class action suit against the Maryland Higher Education Commission. The Coalition represents students and alumni of the four Maryland HBCUs: Bowie State University, Coppin State University, Morgan State University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Lawyers for […]
Posted inBaltimore News
‘Tell Them We Are Rising’ Examines America’s HBCUs
Recently, the Trump White House released a signing statement connected to a federal funding measure, which has advocates for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) more than a little nervous about future funding of these institutions. “My Administration shall treat provisions that allocate benefits on the basis of race, ethnicity, and gender (e.g… “School Improvement […]
Posted inBaltimore News
HBCU Night in Annapolis Focuses Fight on Additional Funds
All roads led to Annapolis for HBCU alumni, students, supporters, and Legislative Black Caucus members across the state this week. This year’s Legislative Black Caucus sponsored HBCU Night focused on rallying support for SB-712, The Blount-Rawlings-Britt HBI Comparability Program. The bill would give additional state funds to Maryland’s four HBCU’s in an effort to make […]
Posted inBaltimore News
LBC Hosts HBCUs Night in Annapolis
On March 21, the members of the Legislative Black Caucus will be hosting the “HBCUs Night in Annapolis” starting at 6 p.m. in Conference Room West of the Miller Senate Building, 11 Bladen St, Annapolis, Md. 21401. The event will be attended by Presidents, students, and alumnus of Maryland’s four HBCUs: Morgan State University, Coppin […]
Posted inCommentary
Increasing Funding to HBCUs is Essential to Ending Educational Inequality
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have been a safe haven for Black students to express themselves without judgement from their white counterparts. In fact, Shirley Caswell wrote in the Washington Post that a 2015 Gallup report measured five elements of well-being — social, purpose, financial, community and physical — and found that black HBCU […]
Posted inBaltimore News
HBCU Advocates Take to Annapolis to Plead for Equality
HBCU students, alumni and advocates across the state packed the Senate Office Building in Annapolis this week to testify on behalf of SB-712, a bill to guarantee supplemental funding to the state’s four public HBCUs. “I’ve been fighting this battle a long time,” Senator Joan Carter Conway said to members of the Senate’s Budget and […]
Posted inBaltimore News
Timeline of the Maryland HBCU Equality Lawsuit
By Deborah BaileyAFRO Contributing Editor The remedial phase of the Maryland HBCU equity lawsuit being heard in federal district court is coming to end. Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education et al. v. Maryland Higher Education Commission, originally filed in 2006 by a community-based group composed of alumni from Maryland’s four historically […]
Posted inCommentary
The Rich History and Current Relevance of America’s HBCUs
On Jan. 9, the remedial phase of The Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education, et al. v. The Maryland Higher Education Commission, et al. kicked off in Baltimore. This lawsuit, originally filed by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Kirkland & Ellis in 2006, alleged that the state of […]
