[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 124 (Wednesday, September 11, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H10216-H10225]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[[Page H10216]]
HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Roth). Under a previous order of the
House, the gentleman from Louisiana [Mr. Fields] is recognized for 60
minutes.
Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, tonight I am joined by one of
our colleagues, the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Jackson], who will
talk along with me on the subject of HBCU's, historically black
colleges and universities.
Mr. Speaker, on September 23 of this year, historically black
colleges and universities all across the country will celebrate Black
College Day, and on that day many colleges across the country will
recognize some of the great contributions of historically black
colleges and universities. But to put this whole discussion of HBCU's
in the proper perspective and the proper context, I would like to talk
about the history behind historically black colleges and universities.
HBCU's are defined as any historically black college or university
established prior to 1964 whose principal mission was and is the
education of black Americans and is accredited by a nationally
recognized accrediting agency or association determined by the
Secretary of Education.
There are 103, Mr. Speaker, historically black colleges and
universities; only 3 percent of all colleges and universities in this
country. They are located in the Southeast, in the District of
Columbia, and the Virgin Islands. They include 41 public 4-year
colleges and universities, 8 public 2-year universities, 46 private 4-
year schools, and 8 private schools with 2-year curriculum.
Most of our colleges are more than 100 years old. Cheyney University
of Pennsylvania being the oldest, founded in 1837. Historically black
colleges and universities enroll only 16 percent of African-American
undergraduate students, however they graduate about 30 percent of all
African-American students nationwide.
To show the contributions that these schools, colleges, and
universities have had and the impact they have had to the African-
American community and to societies as a whole, with marginal resources
HBCU's have been able to accomplish a lot. Federal moneys for research
and development to HBCU's in 1990 was $101 million; only 1.1 percent of
the total Federal money dedicated to research and development across
the Nation. But yet in spite of the lack of resources, these colleges
and universities still were able to produce doctors and lawyers and
scientists and engineers.
However, with limited resources, 37 percent of all the students
attending HCBU's come from families with incomes of less than $25,000.
Retention and graduation rates at HCBU's are higher than non-HCBU's in
this Nation. Enrollment has grown, Mr. Speaker, at historically black
colleges and universities from 70,000 overall in 1954 to 200,000 in
1980, and from 239,000 in 1988 to 257,000 in 1990. So you see the trend
of HCBU's, the enrollment rather, on these colleges and universities.
HCBU's also noted an increase in transfer students from other
institutions. Seventy-three percent of all transfer students in the
fall of 1993 went to historically black colleges and universities. This
shows the quality of these schools across the country. Many students
are transferring to these colleges and universities across the country.
On the graduate level, from 1977 to 1990, the amount of doctoral
degrees awarded by HCBU's increased by 214 percent. In sciences, 44
percent of the bachelor degrees awarded to blacks were from
historically black colleges and universities; 41 percent of the math
degrees awarded were awarded from HCBU's; 38 percent of the computer
science and life sciences degrees; and 25 percent of the engineering
degrees were awarded to blacks by HCBU's.
In my State, Xavier University in New Orleans ranked second in
placing black students in medical school. In fact, over the last 10
years, 93 percent of all of Xavier graduates who entered medical school
received their medical degrees.
Remembering that HCBU's enroll only 17 percent of all black college
students nationwide, this statistic is very encouraging. Moreover,
HCBU's maintain low tuition. The average tuition with fees in 1992 and
1993 was $5,008, less than half of the average cost of private colleges
and universities nationally.
Historically black colleges and universities educate almost 40
percent of the country's black college graduates, 75 percent of all
black Ph.D's, 46 percent of all black business executives, 50 percent
of all black engineers, 80 percent of all black Federal judges, 50
percent of all black attorneys, 75 percent of all black military
officers, and 85 percent of all black doctors.
So you see the impact of HCBU's as relates to the medical community
and the black community as well as engineers, doctors, lawyers, and
military officers alike.
For example, many individuals who serve in government today, in
public office, graduated from HCBU's. In the Congressional Black
Caucus, for example, 16 of the Congressional Black Caucus members in
this Congress serving today graduated from historically black colleges
and universities.
The gentlewoman from Florida Corrine Brown, graduated from Florida
A&M, the gentlewoman from North Carolina, Eva Clayton, North Carolina
A&T; the gentleman from South Carolina, James Clyburn, graduated from
South Carolina State; the gentleman from Maryland, Elijah Cummings,
Howard University; the gentleman from Tennessee, Harold Ford, Howard
University; the gentleman from Florida, Congressman Alcee Hastings,
graduated from Florida A&M and Howard University; the gentleman from
Alabama, Congressman Earl Hilliard, graduated from Morehouse College as
well as Howard University; the honorable distinguished colleague who is
with me tonight, the gentleman from Illinois, Jesse Jackson, Jr.,
graduated from North Carolina A&T; the gentleman from Louisiana,
Congressman William Jefferson, graduated from Southern University; the
gentleman from Georgia, Congressman John Lewis, Fisk University; the
gentlewoman from Florida, Congresswoman Carrie Meek, graduated from
Florida A&M University; the gentleman from Mississippi, Congressman
Bennie Thompson, Tougaloo College and Jackson State University; the
gentleman from New York, Congressman Ed Towns, graduated from North
Carolina A&T; the gentleman from Maryland, Congressman Albert Wynn,
Howard University; and, of course, I graduated from an HCBU as well. I
graduated from Southern University in Baton Rouge, which so happens to
be the largest historically black college in the entire country, with a
system of over 14,000 students with colleges located in Baton Rouge,
Shreveport and New Orleans.
It is the largest historically black college in the country. And in a
real sense, for all of the public HCBU's, Southern University to some
degree set the tone in terms of what will happen to other colleges and
universities as relates to Federal funding and as relates to State
funding as well.
I am pleased tonight to be joined by a very distinguished colleague
of this House, Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., who graduated from North
Carolina A&T, who will enter into a colloquy with me to further talk
about the need to preserve historically black colleges and universities
and I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Let me
first begin by congratulating the distinguished gentleman from the
Fourth Congressional District of Louisiana, who I had the privilege of
meeting in 1983 while he was a student at Southern University in Baton
Rouge, LA, and I was a student at North Carolina A&T State University.
We prided ourselves, as aggies, in our ability to beat Southern
University in football and every other possible athletic endeavor that
we engaged in.
There is a serious camaraderie that exists amongst those of us who
are graduates of historically black institutions, and I want to take
this opportunity as a product of those institutions to certainly engage
in this colloquy and in this special order with the gentleman from
Louisiana, Congressman Cleo Fields.
Many Members of this institution probably do not know that while
Congressman Cleo Fields is the youngest African-American to have ever
had the privilege of serving in this institution,
[[Page H10217]]
he served the people of the Fourth Congressional District of Louisiana
with great distinction and will not be in the 105th Congress due to
attacks on the Voting Rights Act and gerrymandering in the State of
Louisiana that has undermined the Fourth Congressional District of
Louisiana.
The people of the Fourth Congressional District of Louisiana have
been served with great distinction. Young African-American men,
including myself, have been inspired by the example that Congressman
Cleo Fields has laid for all of us.
I saw Congressman Cleo Fields during special orders, while I was the
field director of the Rainbow Coalition, knowing that he was the
president of the Student Government Association of Southern University
who subsequently ran for State senate while he was a student his senior
year, and was elected by the people of that particular district to
serve in the State senate, having just finished his senior courses at
Southern University.
He served in the State legislature with great distinction and then
subsequently earned his way on to the reapportionment committee in the
State of Louisiana, and consistent with the 1965 Voting Rights Act, was
able to enfranchise literally hundreds of thousands of people in the
State of Louisiana who had been heretofore without representation.
{time} 1830
So Congressman Cleo Fields, as the youngest African-American, has
earned his place in history, but it is really a larger statement about
the quality and the caliber of leadership that historically black
colleges have created.
The first African-Americans arrived in this Nation on slave ships in
1619. There was a century's old struggle to end racism in our Nation
and certainly racism that was legally enforced by law, the institution
known as slavery. The very foundation of our Nation was a Civil War, a
very bloody war between north and south over whether or not we should
be individual States or united as a Nation.
After the Civil War, in 1863, when President Lincoln signed the
Emancipation Proclamation, ushered in a period known as First
Reconstruction. During that period, 131 historically black colleges
were founded to educate the newly freed slaves.
I might add, Representative Fields, during First Reconstruction, 22
African Americans were elected to serve in this institution, between
1863 and 1896. There was a direct relationship between their
participation in this Congress and in State legislatures all across our
country that made it possible for African-Americans to come to
institutions like this Congress and fight for the kind of resources
that would educate those who had historically been denied education in
these institutions.
As Representative Fields has already indicated, more than 40 percent
of all college graduates who are African-American still come from the
remaining 102 or 103 institutions that presently exist. That was really
the commitment that our Nation had made to newly freed slaves in our
Nation. I might add that you indicated that in 1964, since 1964, that
officially ended the period of officially designating colleges as
historically black colleges and universities, not one historically
black college or university has been founded since that reconstruction
period.
One of the reasons I commend you and commend other members of the
Congressional Black Caucus and Progressive Caucus and Members of this
institution who continue to fight to sustain these institutions is
because they know that the products of these institutions, once people
become educated and become integrated, if you will, through that
education in the society, they can then continue the desegregation of
the society which really was a testament to this movement.
Sixteen Members of Congress are presently graduates of historically
black colleges and universities. Eva Clayton and Adolphus Towns are
graduates of North Carolina A&T, where I had the privilege of attending
that institution. I might add, Congressman Fields, that it is really
the mission of historically black colleges to train, to educate, and
provide the kind of environment during the formative years of students
through which they can learn.
I remember I went to a predominantly white high school here in
Washington, DC. While I had tremendous professors who worked very hard
toward my academic development, when I went to predominantly white high
schools, and I have nothing against predominantly white universities or
colleges or high schools, I attended several of them myself, but for me
as a young African-American male in this society, to have Dr. Liston as
a psychology teacher and to have professors who were African-Americans,
to see African-Americans who could be chancellors or universities and
heads of math departments and Dr. Quiester Craig at North Carolina A&T
as the head of the business department, to see Dr. Howard as a
mathematician who worked in the business department at A&T State
university during my formative years between 18 and 21 years old, for
me to be able to see African-Americans who had achieved at universities
all across this country, it really fought stereotypes in my own mind
about what I could be. And so I set at an early age, as a result of the
mission of those institutions really to train its leadership, to allow
it to have the free voice to move beyond the stereotypes and say that
we can really make it, that we can really achieve.
This is really what the mission of historically black colleges has
been. I would certainly hope that Members of this body would continue
to support historically black colleges and universities. They represent
the very best that our community has to produce. I am honored to have
this opportunity to engage in a colloquy with the distinguished
gentleman from Louisiana.
Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. I thank the gentleman for his comments. The
gentleman is right, not only is one inspired at an HBCU or can be
inspired at an HBCU, but taking a moment of personal privilege, it also
builds leadership. I often wonder today, had I not had the opportunity
to attend Southern University and had the opportunity to be freshman
class president and president of an entire student body and had to
manage a budget in excess of $150,000 as a young college student, or
had the opportunity to travel abroad, representing a student body of
10,000 students and then having the opportunity to compete to serve on
the board of regents as the student representative, but for that
foundation at Southern, I do not know if I would have had the
opportunity to serve in the State senate at a very young age and serve
now in Congress at a very young age.
Southern, that HBCU was a place to prepare me to be a young leader or
to be a person who was able to be elected to public office, and the
same thing it did to you and for you and for other Members of the CBC.
That was really my first elected office. We had to run a campaign and
you had to be responsive to constituents, the students, and that was a
learning place for me.
That is why I would like to see CBC Members, you and I, as we have
worked with the CBC, Congressional Black Caucus, to make this HBCU day,
the 23d of this month, make it a significant day not just having a good
program on a black college in this country but also show leadership
among students where students register to vote in the hundreds of
thousands across this country on September 23.
I am glad that this gentleman decided to initiate this program with
the Congressional Black Caucus. I am glad that members of the
Congressional Black Caucus, through your leadership and others, will be
on college campuses across this country on black college day and
certainly I urge SGA presidents, for example, to participate and get
students registered to vote, because you have a civic responsibility on
a college campus and young people who are sitting in a classroom on a
historically black college need to know that there is a responsibility
that goes along with that.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield,
there are some intangibles that come from being a product of a
historically black college, some things we hardly even think of. When I
was at North Carolina A&T, to expect that an African-American could
serve as the president of the student body, that was not like a far-
fetched idea. That was what was kind of expected, that we could run a
student government association.
[[Page H10218]]
On the other hand, when I went to the University of Illinois, where I
very fortunately received my juris doctorate degree, it was not
necessarily expected that an African-American could serve as the
president of the SGA and be responsible for a million-dollar budget in
terms of student activities and student fees or that we could organize
the student body in such a way as to bring about the kind of campus
life that we thought was acceptable to most of the students or bring
about the kind of programs and speakers that we wanted to come to the
university. This is an intangible.
So I left A&T feeling that, yes, I can serve as the president of the
SGA or, yes, I could be the chancellor of an institution. And so the
gentleman is so correct when he says that the African-American
historically black colleges serve as an incubator for African-American
leadership. I look forward to traveling on September 23 to a
historically black college either in North Carolina or certainly in my
district or wherever it is that I am needed in order to articulate the
significance that these institutions have had.
But I think the gentleman raises another very interesting point, that
there is a relationship between the education of those who have been
historically denied, those historically black colleges, and political
participation.
During First Reconstruction, 22 African-Americans were elected to
Congress and to State legislatures, all across our country, the
byproduct of which elected officials whose students voted for at that
time who could come and serve in these bodies and fight for more
resources. When students do not vote, students do not participate in
the process, they cannot elect people to representative bodies across
this great democracy for the purpose of fighting for those resources.
So one of the things I have encouraged students to do, whether they are
Democrat or Republican, really it is a nonpartisan effort, not
promoting one party over the other, in 1996, as a result of the passage
of the motor voter law of 1993, people can simply dial 1-800-register
and fill out the voter registration application card over the phone and
it will be mailed to them, just dial 1-800-register and they are full
participants in democracy.
Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. It is so simple now because of what this
Congress did. It is so simple now to register to vote. There are
organizations like Rock the Vote, for example, who travel all across
the country and have a 1-800 number where a student in a dormitory room
can get on the phone and dial 1-800-register and be a registered voter.
The motor-voter law did so much to encourage participation,
particularly young participation in the process where young people
could register to vote. So certainly a part of our effort with the CBC
members traveling all across the country on September 23, actually
participating in black college day, we will urge students to register
to vote.
I will give you a scenario, something that happened to me when I was
student body president at Southern.
Southern's budget, there is so much power in the vote and that
student vote, that vote of 10,000 students sitting idly on a college
campus can impact not only local policy but national policy as well.
College students, HBCU or not, all across America, young college
students can have a serious impact on elections and the outcomes of
elections, if they simply exercise that constitutional right to vote.
When I was president of the student body at Southern University,
there was a bill in the legislature to cut funding at Southern
University by almost 20 percent. It was unbelievable and the student
body, we had a meeting with the student senate and the student senate
met and we all said, what we will do is we will march to the State
capitol and in record numbers. And we will protest on the steps of the
capitol and we will demand our legislators to come out of the session
and speak to us and address this issue of higher education, not only at
Southern but colleges all across Louisiana were being cut because the
budget was tight and lawmakers saw fit to fund other areas and cut
higher education across the board.
So we marched, about 5,000 students, and other college campuses met
us on the steps of the capitol. We had 7,000 students on the steps of
the State capitol in Louisiana protesting and demanding that
legislators come out and address our concerns and also reconsider this
across-the-board cut on higher education. We could not get a legislator
to come out and address us.
And when we regrouped at the end of the day, college students and
college presidents from all over the State, and we talked, why would
not legislators address us, because politicians we thought look at
three things, reelection, reelection and reelection. And then it dawned
on us, how many of us are registered to vote? Of the 7,000 students we
marched from all across the State to the capitol, we probably had 200
of them registered to vote. So we were talking loud and saying nothing,
because we failed to use the power of the vote.
So what we decided to do was to think smart. We decided to have
massive voter registration drives on all college campuses across the
State of Louisiana and eventually presidents and Greek organizations,
if they had a party, they had the party for a purpose, you had to be
registered to vote to enter. We registered thousands upon thousands of
students. Then it was not that easy because you had to actually take
students, according to Louisiana law, back then to the registrar of
voters office to actually register the student to vote.
So we had to use resources like buses and use moneys to rent buses to
take students to register to vote. We registered 5,000-some odd
students just on Southern's campus alone. And then the Governor and the
legislators started calling the SGA presidents and wanting to know what
they wanted in the appropriations bill.
{time} 1845
So it just goes to show you the power in the student vote. Had we not
exercised that power to vote we still would be marching, talking about
saying nothing.
So you know I am just so excited that you are part of this HBCU Day
where we encourage young college students on Black College Day, on the
23d, not just to have a program and talk about the significance of
black colleges and universities in this country, but have the gall to
be willing to protect them and stand by them by registering to vote and
using that significant power by voting in all the elections. I mean
that is just something that students all across this Nation should and
must do.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. If the gentleman would yield, I would like
to share a brief story I had experienced while I was at North Carolina
A&T State University, a story that is similar to the one that the
distinguished gentleman from Louisiana has mentioned. I was the vice
president along with a good friend of mine by the name of Rick Bradley
who was the president of a group that we founded on North Carolina A&T
State University campus called Students United for a Free South Africa
[SUFAFSA], and one of the things that we did outside of protesting
various banking institutions in North Carolina that were still involved
in doing business with South Africa, fighting for disinvestment or
divestment of these various institutions, trying to get North Carolina
A&T and the North Carolina school systems to divest their pension funds
from businesses that were doing business in South Africa, we did a lot
of research on South African issues. And it was not very long before
international focus turned to more domestic issues, when we found
ourselves fighting against apartheid in South Africa, but also as the
most politically astute and aware group on campus with issues that
affected us domestically.
Our struggle against apartheid in South Africa encouraged us and
forced us to look at the role that our congressman, who represented
North Carolina A&T State University at that time, was playing in South
Africa, the free South Africa movement, and we found at that time that
our representative did not represent the position of our organization,
and we began registering people to vote on our campus. We would not let
the Deltas, the Q's, the Alphas, Sigma Gamma Wu's, we would not let any
organization on North Carolina A&T State University's campus host a
party or an event on the campus unless they were registered to
[[Page H10219]]
vote and the students on that campus could prove that they were
registered to vote, and as a result we registered of the 4,200
students, of North Carolina A&T State University's campus we registered
more than 3,600 aggies to participate in the political process. And on
election day, while we came very close to defeating that Member of
Congress, we were only 60 votes away in the general election, and I
will leave the gentleman's name anonymous for the purposes of my
discussion, but when I was sworn into the 104th Congress as the 91st
African-American to ever have the privilege of serving in this
institution, that Member of Congress came up to me, congratulated me
for my electoral victory, gave me an embrace, a hug, and said, ``You
know, I am very familiar with you. You almost beat me on that day.''
And we were within 60 votes of beating that Member of Congress. As a
result of that again I graduated in 1987. Students across the State of
North Carolina were registered to vote and participate in the political
process. The end result was a census taken in 1990, a reapportionment
plan in 1991, the implementation of that reapportionment plan in 1992,
and the by-product of which in 1996, the 12th Congressional district is
now represented by Congressman Mel Watt, who represents North Carolina
A&T as well as Winston-Salem and I believe as many as 6 other
historically black colleges.
So it is possible, and I will yield back to the gentleman in just
about 30 seconds.
Very few people know that they can register where they live. Students
do not live in New York if they are at A&T. They do not live in Chicago
if they are at A&T. They live in Greensboro, NC.
According to the law, you can register wherever you spend the last 3
nights in a row. That is home. If your name has changed, you are now an
unregistered voter. If you just got married, your name was Smith last
week, you married a Williams last week, you are now an unregistered
voter because your name has changed, and as a result of efforts of many
who fought and died in this country, Wiola Wheatson, a white woman, got
her brains blown out at point blank range trying to register students
to vote.
Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bobby Kennedy and others have died
trying to reduce the age from 21 to 18. As a result of their efforts,
you can now dial 1-800-REGISTER and become a full participant in this
democracy, and I might add those who are interested in doing it ought
to do it soon because the election is approaching.
Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. Absolutely, and you know this whole voter
registration among young people is really catching on.
I do not know if you are familiar with the shows called the Tom
Journal Morning Show. It is a show that is on every morning on many of
the syndicated shows on many of the ministations all across America.
I mean I was sitting in--I was driving in the car the other day, and
I heard Tom Journal that morning talking about how people, particularly
young people, need to register to vote, and he started this thing: You
know, register five people to vote and call their names in and I will
announce them over the air. And people were actually registering people
to vote, and he was announcing the names over the air.
I just think that is so encouraging because a lot of people do not
wake up in the morning, young people for example, who is about to go to
a biology lab, who is on a college campus, not thinking about voting
per se, interested in the future, interested in the outcome of
elections, but not registered. As you stated, many college students,
when they leave from Illinois and go to Los Angeles to register for
college, they may be registered back home, but the likelihood of them
going back to Illinois from California to vote on election day is not
all that great. And so it is incumbent upon them to register to vote at
that college, at that university because they are going to be there 4
to 5 years on the average.
So that is really home. That is where they are going to be during the
local and State and perhaps Federal elections. So that is where they
ought to exercise the power. They should never go powerless.
And I was just impressed with Tom Journal. I think that is the name
of the show, the Tom Journal Morning Show. You know, encouraging people
to register to vote.
I will give you an example.
Yes, we talk about, you and I debate night and day, for student loans
and grants, Pell grants, to make sure that those opportunities are
available to students today as they were available to us when we were
in college. Why is it? I mean people that asked the question why is it
that legislators would move on college tuition and raise college
tuition or vote to cut higher education so that schools and board of
directors have to raise college tuition and cut Pell grants and student
loans and things of that nature? I mean let us look at it from a
political perspective and preserve seniors on the other hand. Let us
look at it from a political perspective.
If you look on the voter register rolls and you see most of the
registered voters in this country are of the age of 55 to 65, and the
fewest number of registered voters are between the ages of 18 and 35,
then of course you are more likely to move on that age group than you
are likely to move on the age group that is most registered to vote,
but not just registered to vote, but more likely to go to the polls and
vote on election day. Because it is one thing to register to vote, but
it is another thing to actually go out and use the power by voting.
So college students--I mean we can fight. You and I and other Members
of this Congress on both sides of the aisle, we can fight night and day
about, you know, we need to keep student loans, we need to keep
opportunities available to elementary, secondary, and higher education,
but if we do not have students out there--they get enough of ire
education, they get enough of a Pell grant, they thinking enough of
student loans, that they are not exercising a power that they
rightfully have by going to the polls and vote, especially after we
passed this easy, easy, easy voter registration process.
I mean this bill that we have passed in this Congress. We passed a
bill, as you stated, where a student government president, for example,
can walk into a classroom and register every student. A teacher rather,
a professor in a class at an institution, can say all right, first day
of school, the first question:
How many of you all are registered to vote right here at this
college?
And have the forms there. It is legal. OK, register to vote.
Do not have to dictate how you register, Democrat or Republican; that
is irrelevant for registration purposes, or how you vote or who you
vote for. You know, I am not going to advocate teachers do that. But it
should be part of the learning process.
You talk about personal responsibility? One of the first basic
personal responsibilities that individuals have is to claim citizenship
by registering to vote, and then that teacher, that professor--I mean
just think about if every college campus--just think about HBCU's, just
take black colleges, for example, on Monday, the 23d. If every
professor say, OK, what we will do this day is we will register every
student in this class. When you walk into my class, you have the
opportunity to register to vote the first 5 minutes, and I will
personally turn these forms in. And the 100 percent voter registration
on college campus, the kind of power, and not just HBCU's, historically
black colleges, but all college students can have if they only exercise
that constitutional right, and it is so easy to do.
I mean some can right now in their dormitories just dial 1-800-
REGISTER and be registered to vote.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. If the gentleman would yield, and I thank
the gentleman for yielding once again, you know this is a democracy. We
claim to be the largest democracy in the world, the oldest democracy in
the world, the most practicing and the most functioning democracy in
the world, but nothing could be more tragic than to realize that fewer
and fewer people are voting in our local, State, and national
elections. There seems to be some kind of disconnect between the
people's participation in this democracy and what takes place in the
halls of this Congress and the State legislatures around our country.
And so when one even talks about voter registration, the reality is
we
[[Page H10220]]
have sufficient enough technology in our country today. Whenever you
get pulled over by a police officer, get pulled over by a state trooper
or any law enforcement official, he can take your drivers license, and
they can determine whether or not you are guilty or wanted of a felony
or a misdemeanor in any of the 50 States. Because many of those police
computers are connected to Interpol, we can find out within moments
whether or not you are wanted for an international crime including
terrorism or some international conspiracy. And so within moments we
can find out whether or not you are guilty or wanted of some offense
against this Nation or any nation around the world.
And yet to participate in this democracy there still remains so many
barriers, including a 30-day cut off before the Federal election or the
local election.
One of the States in our country that has the highest participation,
which has absolutely no registration whatsoever, is the State of North
Dakota. There is no voter register required. You just show up on
election day, prove that you live in the State of North Dakota, can
vote and keep right on about your business.
So even voter registration, which is obviously important for
political purposes, is really an outdated method for including and
encouraging people to participate in the political process.
But the gentleman touched upon something else that I want to, if he
would not mind, allow me the opportunity to talk about for a moment,
and that is the whole issue of why vote at all? Why participate in the
political process?
When I was teaching political organizing classes and political
education classes for the Rainbow Coalition before I became a Member of
this body, I used to teach that there were really three types--two
types of material power, but really three types of power. Spiritual
power is obviously an important power, but it is not a material power.
So for the purposes of this discussion we will leave spiritual power
out; really two types of material power:
One is economic, and the other is political, and by definition poor
people, disenfranchised people and increasingly growing body of
students in our Nation, because they take student loans out to go to
school, but at the end of school they cannot find a job, they cannot
get the kind of employment that addresses the debt that they have
received as a result of being a student; by definition poor people and
disenfranchised people and students do not have economic power. What is
available to them? The alternative is available. Political power.
And why is political power so important? Political power and the
political system really is the distribution system for the economic
system. It is in this institution and in State legislatures around this
country that we determine how the economic system in our Nation is
distributed. Some of us on one given day may talk about tax cuts;
others may refer to them as entitlements for the poor.
{time} 1900
Some of us may refer to them as welfare benefits. Others of us look
at tax breaks for the wealthy. So it is called tax breaks if you are a
wealthy person in this country, but if you are receiving a Federal
benefit, it is called welfare. So even how it is labeled and what it is
called in our society is the by-product of how we define it
politically.
So when people begin to see the relationship between their vote, it
is easy to cut welfare in an election year. It is easy to attack the
most vulnerable in an election year, because those who do not vote
cannot defend themselves. Those who do vote will get a tax break. Those
who do not vote will get their Federal benefits withdrawn, or even
their constitutional rights violated or undermined, and I mean that by
Democrats or by Republicans. We have to acknowledge that all of us, and
many of us, have a political weakness when it comes to those vulnerable
political, commercial type issues that could affect our reelection to
this institution.
So once people understand and begin to appreciate that the political
system is really the distribution system for our economic system, I
might add that they begin to participate in great numbers. No long ago
one of the Presidential candidates had suggested that, for example, he
would propose an across-the-board 15 percent tax cut.
The next question I ask as an elected official is how is he going to
pay for that tax cut. There is only one way to pay for it, do what
General Powell said, eliminate the entitlement state as we know it.
What are those entitlements? Those entitlements would be Medicare,
Medicaid, and ending Social Security as we know it. That is really the
only way to pay for a 15 percent across-the-board tax cut.
Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. Or what about education?
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. We talked about one of the President's plans
to rebuild schools, the physical infrastructure, and leverage that
money, $5 billion, leverage it four times, to $20 billion, to $23
billion, to rebuild the infrastructure of our public school systems.
But if in fact we are not paying what we should be paying in terms of
taxes and making sure that those resources are not going to an over-
bloated military budget, but are being directed in a way that can help
the average American to help change the quality of their lives, not for
the rich but for those who are most vulnerable.
Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. You are a former student leader on your
college campus. How did you and your colleagues encourage young people
or get young people at North Carolina A&T registered to vote? Let us
face it, there are a lot of students who are not from North Carolina,
who really do not care about the local politics of North Carolina, some
not even concentrating on national politics, either. They are at North
Carolina A&T just to get an education. When I was at Southern, that was
one of the big things I had to face, trying to encourage students to
register to vote, though they were not from the State.
What did you do to encourage nonresidents, so to speak, though they
are residents once they register for school, to take an interest in
registering to vote and actually vote on an election day?
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. One of the campuses in North Carolina, right
in front of the library has a statue, a statue of a famous North
Carolinian. On that statue there is a placard that reads ``This Nation
is democratic in direct proportion to its people's education.'' I
remember that from 11 years ago when I was a student at North Carolina
A&T. ``This Nation is democratic in direct proportion to its people's
education.'' And guess what, the converse of that statement is also
true: This Nation is undemocratic in direct proportion to the level of
literacy and intelligence and education or lack of education thereof of
its people.
So one of the things that I found most valuable for getting students
to participate is education. I simply tell them that they are the first
generation of Americans who are graduating with a college degree,
graduate with a college degree, and if they decide to go to graduate
school, 3 years for law school or 4 to 8 years, however long it may
take to get a medical degree, where they have so many student loans as
a result of their college education that it fundamentally affects their
career options and their alternatives.
I chose public service. Fortunately, I went to North Carolina A&T
State University. I played football for North Carolina A&T State
University for a year or so before I received an academic scholarship.
I left college not owing any money, so my genuine desire to become a
public servant was directly related to me not owing $80,000 or $90,000
in bills that are associated with my college education. Had I owed
$100,000, $110,000, $120,000 as a result of graduating from the
seminary and graduating from law school, I quite probably would have
had to have assumed a role in private, in the private sector or in
private America, just to make the kind of salary that would address
these bills.
I share that with students, that when they graduate from college,
that they are the first generation of Americans who are more than
likely moving back home with their parents. Their moving back home with
their parents is part of the political process. Many of them who are
incubated by their college environment, when they leave college, they
are finding for the very first time that there are more unemployed
people
[[Page H10221]]
in this Nation with college degrees and Master's degrees than at any
other point in time in our Nation's history.
They then engage the political system, and if they stop complaining
about what they do not have and just start using what they have got,
pick up their vote early one morning and exercise it, exercise it in an
intelligent way, not just vote for exercise but exercise their right to
vote and make a sound decision, this country will become more
democratic.
Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his
comment. There are so many creative ways we used, so many creative ways
to register young people to vote on a college campus. We used all kinds
of techniques. We got all the professors involved, professors
encouraged students to get on a bus. At that time we had to take the
bus.
That is why I cannot even comprehend why a student is not registered
to vote, because in 1994 when I was SU president, in 1984, rather, when
I was SU president, you had to take students to register. I could not
walk up to a student in Louisiana and say, or anybody, are you
registered to vote; no, I am not. I could not register that student.
But this Congress passed legislation where you can do that now.
If I was SU president I would walk around with voter registration
cards in my pocket. For every student I came in contact with, I would
ask the question, are you registered to vote? Because they empowered me
as their student representative on the board of regents, their student
representative as president of the student body, to speak with force
to legislators to protect the institution and protect higher education
statewide. Going back to talking about it and saying nothing, we can
always complain about the problem, but you are part of the problem if
you are not participating.
I was not as fortunate as you. Look at me, I am a little smaller than
you. I could not play football, could not play many sports. I did not
have an athletic scholarship. I had a book scholarship, a small
academic scholarship, a book scholarship that only lasted 1 year that I
received from the American Legion.
My family, my mom and my dad died when I was young, 5 years old. My
mom raised 10 of us. There were 10 of us. I could not even afford to
take out a student loan, to even entertain the thought of taking out a
$5,000 student loan each semester. I could not even see how one could
pay $5,000. At the end of the day, $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 after you
graduate, I could not understand that.
I had the opportunity to participate in the Government's Pell Grant
Program. I was able to get BEOG, the basic educational opportunity
grant. Without that BEOG, quite frankly, since I did not have an
athletic scholarship, I had a small academic scholarship that only took
care of my books, so I do not know if I would have been able to attend
college.
It would have been irresponsible of me as a recipient of the BEOG, a
Government grant for higher education to assist me, because I did not
have the kind of resources that other students may have had, to not
vote. I wanted to protect my BEOG. Every time I heard of fights in
Washington, DC, about cutting the BEOG and cutting Pell grants, I
wanted to register even more students, because I wanted to make sure
that this program was protected, because it is a program that gave
benefits to so many students who, through no fault of their own, just
did not have the resources and parents did not have the resources to
send them to school.
Without it, I would not have gotten a higher education. Mr. Speaker,
that is why it is so important. I am going to give a list of members of
this Congressional Black Caucus who will attend Black College Day on
the 23d of this month. I just think that is outstanding. I want to
thank you for your leadership, that every member of the CBC, every
last, every individual member of the CBC, the Congressional Black
Caucus, will be at an HBCU on Monday, September 23, celebrating Black
College Day, and encouraging young students to register and vote on all
college campuses across America.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. If the gentleman will yield, Mr. Speaker, it
is really amazing when we talk about this process. I want to thank the
distinguished gentleman from Louisiana for his leadership, and the
leadership that he has shown oftentimes by himself on the floor of this
Congress, toward trying to get young people to participate in the
process.
Today, we passed in the U.S. Congress a bill under suspension of the
rules called the Student Debt Reduction Act, which will go a long way
toward reducing the debt of students who have taken out these various
loans.
I might add, Mr. Speaker, that we did not pass the Student Debt
Elimination Act, which would totally wipe out the debt of every student
who has ever had a student loan in this country. We can afford it. We
are the richest Nation in the history of the world, we can afford it.
If we education is a real priority, we can pass a student debt
elimination act. But you know what, students are going to have to be
mad enough about student loans as a collective body, a spirit is going
to have to sweep across the Nation where students are calling for the
elimination of debt. Because our Nation can afford to put children
through college.
The President has a program for 2 years, others have proposed 4-year
programs for students who desire to go to college. We can afford it if
we consider education to be a National Defense Act. If our country is
democratic in direct proportion to our Nation's education, then the
defense of this democracy, education, must be seen as the defense of
this democracy.
Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. Let me just tell the gentleman where many of
our colleagues will be on September 23. The gentleman from Georgia,
Sanford Bishop, will attend Albany State College. I just think this is
history making, having every member of the CBC at a historically black
college in this country to talk about, listen, it is time to not just
have a program, but to register to vote.
The gentlewoman from Florida, Ms. Corrine Brown, will be at Bethune
Cookman College and Edward Waters College, as well; the gentleman from
Missouri, Mr. William Clay, Lincoln University; the gentlewoman from
North Carolina, Eva Clayton, Fayetteville State; the gentleman from
Maryland, Mr. Elijah Cummings, a new Member of this body, Morgan State
and Coppin State University; the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Chaka
Fattah, Lincoln University; the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Alcee
Hastings, Florida A&M; the gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Earl Hilliard,
will be at Alabama State University; the gentlewoman from the District
of Columbia, Ms. Eleanor Holmes Norton, will be at Howard University;
the gentleman from Louisiana, Mr. William Jefferson, Xavier University
in New Orleans; the gentlewoman from Texas, Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson,
the Paul Quinn College; the gentlewoman from Texas, Ms. Sheila Jackson-
Lee, Texas Southern University; the gentleman from Georgia, Mr. John
Lewis, AU Center; the gentlewoman from Florida, Mrs. Carrie Meek, will
be at Florida Memorial College; the gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Bobbie
Scott, Norfolk State University; the gentleman from Mississippi, Mr.
Bennie Thompson, Jackson State University; the gentleman from Maryland,
Mr. Albert Wynn, Bowie State University.
I can go on and on. Every member of the CBC, and you are trying to
make your alma mater, A&T, or North Carolina A&T, and a college in
Illinois, in your district. There is so much energy among CBC members
who want to participate, who want to be at a college on that day to get
your people registered to vote. But the SGA presidents have a
responsibility and the Greek presidents have a responsibility, and all
the civic and social organizations have a responsibility. They have a
responsibility to say, by the end of the day, we will register 100
percent of our student body. Professors have a responsibility.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. An achievable goal.
Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. College presidents have a responsibility.
Most colleges, when I was going to school, we had what you call a
convocation, and freshmen had freshmen seminars, something they had to
attend every week. Every student had to attend convocation. You
attended convocation.
What would happen if a college president said, OK, at this
convocation, for the first 15 minutes, I want every student to be
registered to vote; pass out
[[Page H10222]]
the cards, not influencing students as to how to vote or how to
register in terms of party affiliation, but if you choose to register,
you have 15 minutes to do so right now.
I passed a bill in Louisiana where registration, college
registration, will incorporate voter registration, when the registrars
or voters office has to be present during college registration on
college campuses in the State of Louisiana; a way to register students
to vote when they register for college.
You worked when you were a kid on a piece, and I remember talking to
you, I was at Southern and you were at A&T, talking about registering
students to vote when they graduate from high school; if they graduated
with a diploma in one hand and the voter registration card in the
other. I remember that, and that worked. I went back to Louisiana and I
tried to institute the same thing. I said, OK, when you graduate from
high school, you have to have a diploma in one hand.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Knowledge in one hand and empowerment in the
other hand, that is correct.
Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. Knowledge and power. I cannot overemphasize
how important this is. For the 23d, it is HBCU, historical black
colleges and universities, but listen, every college students,
irrespective of what college they attend, ought to register to vote.
SGA presidents have their responsibility.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. The old adage is true, if you do not vote,
do not complain; really, do not complain if you are not voting, if you
are not participating in the political process. The reality is that if
you do not vote, you do vote. You vote by definition for the person you
do not want to win. That is not a Democratic or Republican statement,
that is just a statement of political reality. If you do not vote, you
cannot complain. If you do not vote, you got what is coming to you that
is coming to you, because it is coming to you.
Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. Or if you use the excuse that I am not from
Illinois or from Chicago, I am only here for school.
{time} 1915
You live there, and you will be living there for the next 2, 3, 4
years.
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Nor can you use the excuse that ``I don't
trust politicians, I don't like politicians.'' Run yourself. Come up
here and try some of this. If you want to engage in a debate, if you
want to engage in some discourse about the future of our Nation and the
future of our community. Don't vote for the politician of your choice.
You run and find out how difficult it is to talk hope into people who
are dispirited, to talk hope into the disenfranchised, and to bring
them into the political process and see how difficult it is.
If I were a DJ in America, on the radio every morning talking jive,
and you had no substance to your jive, beyond the jive that you are
talking, there is something wrong with that, if you are just
complaining.
I am a graduate of Chicago Theological Seminary, and I speak in a lot
of churches. Just about every Sunday, my pastor, the pastor of the
Salem Baptist Church in Chicago, the Reverend James Meeks, we have
altar call in our church. You would be surprised. I had a meeting with
some of the people at our church who counsel members of our church. And
I asked them some questions about what do people share with them most
to be their problems. Some people are concerned about losing their job
when they come to altar call, some are concerned about their illness,
whether or not they can check into a hospital, whether or not they can
afford to add a burden to their family. People come to altar call to
pray for a whole lot of reasons. Many of these things are resolvable if
they are in the political process.
Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. Let me ask the gentleman a question. If I
were sitting at home tonight and I wanted to register to vote, in my
dormitory, watching television, doing whatever, washing, and I just
want to register to vote, what is that number that I can call right now
if I wanted to register to vote?
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. I would look at that Jaguar from Southern
University who is sitting at home.
Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. What is that number for my edification?
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. 1-800-REGISTER. It is really simple. 1-800-
REGISTER. And ``register'' is spelled R-E-G-I-S-T-E-R. It costs you
nothing. It is free.
Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. I want to make sure I am doing it right. All
I have to do if I go back to my office right now and I wanted to
register to vote is pick up the phone and dial 1-800-REGISTER?
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. That is correct.
Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. That is all I have to do?
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. Unless you are from the State of Illinois.
Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. What will happen? They will send me a
package or something?
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. It is a toll-free call where they prompt,
they ask you for your name, address, phone number, verify who you are
through your State Secretary of State.
Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. They set this up, and then I have to sign it
or something?
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois. That is all you have to do is sign it. It is
postage paid, and returned to you.
Mr. FIELDS of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I include the following
material for the Record:
Appendix--Some Prominent HBUC Alumni
Leaders of the Past
Nobel Laureate Martin Luther King, Jr. (Morehouse), Supreme
Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (Lincoln and Howard),
educators W.E.B. DuBois (Fisk), Mary McLeod Bethune (Scotia
Seminary [Barber-Scotia]), Lucy C. Laney ([Clark] Atlanta),
scientist-educator Booker T. Washington (Hampton), Urban
League leader Whitney Young (Kentucky State), NAACP leader
Walter F. White ([Clark] Atlanta), writer Ralph Ellison
(Tuskegee), poet-lyricist James Weldson Johnson ([Clark]
Atlanta), and activists Medgar Evers (Alcorn State) and Rosa
Parks (Alabama State).
And the Present
Writers: Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison (Howard), Alice
Walker (Spelman), Nikki Giovanni (Fisk), the late Alex Haley
(Alcorn State and Elizabeth City State), and Imamu Amin
Baraka (Leroi Jones) (Howard). Opera singers: Jessye Morman
(Howard and Leonryne Price (Central State). Historians: John
W. Blassingame (Fort Valley State and Howard) and John Hope
Franklin (Fisk).
Political leaders: Jesse Jackson (North Carolina A&T),
former ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young, Jr.
(Dillard and Howard), former Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder
(Howard), former New York Mayor David Dinkins (Howard),
former Atlanta mayor Maynard Jackson (Morehouse), former
Memphis mayor Willie Herenton (LeMonye-Owen), Secretary of
Energy Hazel O'Leary (Fisk), former Surgeon-General Joceyln
Elders (Philander Smith), former Secretary of Health and
Human Services Louis Sullivan (Morehouse), and many others
such as * * * and NAACP leader Benjamin Hooks (Howard).
Enterainers: film director Spike Lee (Morehouse); actor-
television host Oprah Winfrey (Tennessee State); actors Ossie
Davis (Howard), Tim Reid (Norfolk State), Phylicia Rashad
(Howard), director-actor Kenny Leon (Clark [Atlanta]), Esther
Rolle (Spelman); musicians Roberta Flack (Howard), Lionel
Ritchie (Tuskegee), Erskine Hawkins (Alabama State), Billy
Eckstine (Howard), Billy Taylor (Virginia State), and
Branford Marsalis (Southern).
Also journalist Carl Rowan (Tennessee State); astronaut
Ronald E. McNair (North Carolina A&T); architect Tarlee Brown
(Tuskegee); founder of a literary journal, Charles H. Rowell
(Alabama A&M); kidney transplant specialist Dr. Samuel Lee
Kounta (University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff); president and
chief executive officer of Atlanta Life Insurance, Jesse
Hill, Jr. (Lincoln); educator Marva Collins (Clark
[Atlanta]); the first Black woman member of the American
College of Physicians, Dr. Margaret E. Grisby (Prairie View
A&M); jurists Joseph W. Hatchett of the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Eleventh Circuit (Florida A&M) and Henry E. Frye of
the North Carolina Supreme Court (North Carolina A&T), and
coaches John Chaney (Bethune-Cookman), Clarence Gaines
(Morgan State), Art Shell (University of Maryland Eastern
Shore), and Eddie Robinson (Leland).
Military leaders: the late Daniel James (Tuskegee), the
first Black four-star general; Russell C. Davis (Tuskegee),
first Black Air National Guard general; Dr. Marion Mann
(Tuskegee), medical corps general; Air Force Generals Lucius
Theus, Tirus Hall, James F. Hamlet, Rufus L. Billups, and
Charles B. Jiggets (all of Tuskegee); Army generals Eugene R.
Cromarie (Florida A&M), Julitis W. Becton, Jr. (Prairie View
A&M), Edward Honor (Southern), Guthrie L. Turner (Shaw),
Henry Doctor, Jr., James R. Klugh, and George Price (all of
South Carolina State); and Army nurses corps general Clara
Adams-Ender (North Carolina A&M).\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ This list, by no means comprehensive, was compiled from
information obtained by AAUP Committee L from the
institutions listed, and from Christa Brelin, ed., Who's Who
Among Black Americans, 1992-93 (7th ed.). Detroit: Gale
Research, Inc., 1993, and from Leadership and Learning, An
Interpretive History of Historically Black Land-Grant
Colleges and Universities, 99-111.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
[[Page H10223]]
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
alabama
Alabama A&M University
Alabama State University
Bishop State Community College
Concordia College
Fredd State Technical College
Lawson State Community College
Miles College
Oakwood College
Selma University
J.F. Drake Technical College
Stillman College
Talladega College
Trenholm State Technical College
Tuskegee University
arkansas
Arkansas Baptist College
Philander Smith College
Shorter College
University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
delaware
Delaware State University
district of columbia
Howard University
University of the District of Columbia
florida
Bethune-Cookman College
Edward Waters College
Florida A&M University
Florida Memorial College
georgia
Albany State College
Clark Atlanta University
Fort Valley State College
Interdenominational Theological Center
Morehouse College
Morehouse School of Medicine
Morris Brown College
Paine College
Savannah State College
Spelman College
kentucky
Kentucky State University
louisiana
Dillard University
Grambling State University
Southern University and A&M College at Baton Rouge
Southern University at New Orleans
Southern University at Shreveport/Bossier City
Xavier University
maryland
Bowie State University
Coppin State College
Morgan State University
University of Maryland Eastern Shore
michigan
Lewis College of Business
mississippi
Alcorn State University
Coahoma Community College
Jackson State University
Mary Holmes College
Mississippi Valley State University
Rust College
Tougaloo College
missouri
Harris-Stowe State College
Lincoln University
north carolina
Barber-Scotia College
Bennett College
Elizabeth City State University
Fayetteville State University
Johnson C. Smith University
Livingstone College
North Carolina A&T State University
North Carolina Central University
Saint Augustine's College
Shaw University
Winston-Salem State University
ohio
Central State University
Wilberforce University
oklahoma
Langston University
pennsylvania
Cheyney State University of PA
Lincoln University
south carolina
Allen University
Benedict College
Claflin College
Clinton Junior College
Denmark Technical College
Morris College
South Carolina State University
Voorhees College
Tennessee
Fisk University
Knoxville College
Lane College
Lemoyne-Owen College
Meharry Medical College
Tennessee State University
Texas
Huston-Tillotson College
Jarvis Christian College
Paul Quinn College
Prairie View A&M University
Saint Phillip's College
Southwestern Christian College
Texas College
Texas Southern University
Wiley College
Virginia
Hampton University
Norfolk State University
Saint Paul's College
Virginia State University
Virginia Union University
West Virginia
Bluefield State College
West Virginia State University
U.S. Virgin Islands
University of the Virgin Islands
Federal Agencies Supporting HBCUs Under Executive Order 12876
U.S. Departments of:
Agriculture
Commerce
Defense
Education
Energy
Health and Human Services
Housing and Urban Development
The Interior
Justice
Labor
State
Transportation
Treasury
Veterans Affairs
Agency for International Development
Appalachian Regional Commission
Central Intelligence Agency
Environmental Protection Agency
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
National Credit Union Administration
National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Humanities
National Science Foundation
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Small Business Administration
United States Information Agency
TABLE 10.--FALL ENROLLMENT IN HISTORICALLY BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, BY INSTITUTION, CONTROL, AND SEX: 1976 TO 1990
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1976 1978 1980
Institution State Year Control -----------------------------------------------------------------
established Total Women Total Women Total Women
1 2 3 4................... 5 6 7 8 9 10
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total....................... ........ ........ .................... 222,613 117,944 227,797 123,581 233,557 127,170
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
**Alabama A&M University.......... AL 1875 Public 4-year....... 4,564 2,246 4,425 2,056 4,380 2,104
Alabama State University \2\...... AL 1874 Public 4-year....... 4,153 2,455 4,794 2,844 4,066 2,416
Bishop State Community College \3\ AL 1927 Public 2-year....... 1,649 920 1,500 956 1,425 955
C.A. Fredd State Technical College AL 1965 Public 2-year....... ........ ........ ........ ........ ........ ........
Carver State Technical College.... AL 1962 Public 2-year....... ........ ........ ........ ........ ........ ........
Concordia College \4\............. AL 1922 Private 2-year...... 137 70 228 170 243 182
Daniel Payne College, Birmingham AL 1889 Private 4-year...... 346 165 ........ ........ ........ ........
\5\.
J.F. Drake Technical College...... AL 1961 Public 2-year....... ........ ........ ........ ........ ........ ........
Lawson State Community College \6\ AL 1965 Public 2-year....... 1,345 870 1,271 913 1,056 728
Lomax-Hannon Junior College \7\... AL 1893 Private 2-year...... 126 76 160 89 96 42
Miles College..................... AL 1905 Private 4-year...... 1,469 739 1,283 704 1,014 528
Oakwood College \8\............... AL 1896 Private 4-year...... 1,171 652 1,266 654 1,303 751
Selma University.................. AL 1878 Private 4-year...... 650 324 632 371 501 276
Stillman College \9\.............. AL 1876 Private 4-year...... 857 497 607 360 558 317
Talladega College \10\............ AL 1867 Private 4-year...... 625 406 705 481 797 576
Trenholm State Technical College.. AL 1966 Public 2-year....... ........ ........ ........ ........ ........ ........
**Tuskegee University \11\........ AL 1881 Private 4-year...... 3,571 1,797 3,298 1,708 3,736 1,930
Arkansas Baptist College.......... AR 1901 Private 4-year...... 583 173 445 182 296 146
Philander Smith College........... AR 1877 Private 4-year...... 592 249 550 248 590 282
Shorter College................... AR 1886 Private 2-year...... 199 98 172 92 164 72
**University of Arkansas, Pine AR 1873 Public 4-year....... 3,062 1,653 2,998 1,730 3,064 1,750
Bluff \12\.
**Delaware State College.......... DE 1891 Public 4-year....... 1,844 885 2,153 1,031 2,084 1,096
Howard University \13\............ DC 1867 Private 4-year...... 9,815 4,708 10,339 5,066 11,321 5,845
**University of the District of DC 1851 Public 4-year....... 1,322 966 13,661 7,634 13,900 7,698
Columbia \14\.
[[Page H10224]]
Bethune-Cookman College \15\...... FL 1904 Private 4-year...... 1,517 855 1,791 1,045 1,738 1,045
Edward Waters College \16\........ FL 1866 Private 4-year...... 743 417 660 406 836 548
**Florida A&M University \17\..... FL 1877 Public 4-year....... 5,779 2,913 5,882 2,987 5,371 2,726
Florida Memorial College \18\..... FL 1879 Private 4-year...... 412 177 797 428 950 502
Albany State College.............. GA 1903 Public 4-year....... 2,222 1,289 1,750 1,066 1,555 897
Clark Atlanta University \19\..... GA 1989 Private 4-year...... ........ ........ ........ ........ ........ ........
Atlanta University \20\........... GA 1865 Private 4-year...... 1,177 656 1,227 658 1,371 706
Clark College \21\................ GA 1869 Private 4-year...... 1,792 1,135 1,849 1,216 2,107 1,397
**Fort Valley State College \22\.. GA 1895 Public 4-year....... 1,869 910 1,872 973 1,814 983
Interdenominational Theological GA 1958 Private 4-year...... 227 31 288 41 273 36
Center.
Morehouse College................. GA 1867 Private 4-year...... 1,402 0 1,659 0 2,006 28
Morehouse School of Medicine \23\. GA 1978 Private 4-year...... ........ ........ ........ ........ ........ ........
Morris Brown College \24\......... GA 1881 Private 4-year...... 1,579 806 1,684 950 1,611 983
Paine College..................... GA 1882 Private 4-year...... 775 472 817 563 748 473
Savannah State College \25\....... GA 1890 Public 4-year....... 2,847 1,713 2,229 1,291 2,110 1,090
Spelman College \26\.............. GA 1881 Private 4-year...... 1,289 1,289 1,262 1,262 1,366 1,366
**Kentucky State University....... KY 1886 Public 4-year....... 2,389 1,167 2,196 1,045 2,336 1,236
Dillard University \27\........... LA 1869 Private 4-year...... 1,186 875 1,217 891 1,208 902
Grambling State University \28\... LA 1901 Public 4-year....... 4,048 2,144 3,623 1,968 3,549 1,797
**Southern University and A&M LA 1880 Public 4-year....... 8,995 4,970 8,061 4,424 8,372 4,409
College, Baton Rouge.
Southern University, New Orleans.. LA 1959 Public 4-year....... 3,311 1,928 2,710 1,748 2,574 1,733
Southern University, Shreveport- LA 1964 Public 2-year....... 974 580 692 481 723 507
Bossier City Campus.
Xavier University of Louisiana LA 1915 Private 4-year...... 1,846 1,086 1,895 1,166 2,004 1,277
\29\.
Bowie State University \30\....... MD 1865 Public 4-year....... 2,845 1,598 2,722 1,545 2,757 1,619
Coppin State College \31\......... MD 1900 Public 4-year....... 2,949 2,122 2,874 2,114 2,541 1,838
Morgan State University........... MD 1867 Public 4-year....... 6,254 3,333 5,209 2,891 5,050 2,851
**University of Maryland, Eastern MD 1886 Public 4-year....... 994 451 1,057 462 1,073 543
Shore.
Lewis College of Business \32\.... MI 1874 Private 2-year...... 225 180 560 431 487 392
**Alcorn State University......... MS 1871 Public 4-year....... 2,603 1,476 2,296 1,365 2,341 1,346
Coahoma Community College \33\.... MS 1949 Public 2-year....... 1,446 696 1,425 837 1,394 984
Hinds Community College, Utica MS 1954 Public 2-year....... 994 544 834 492 1,005 575
Campus \34\.
Jackson State University.......... MS 1877 Public 4-year....... 7,928 4,283 7,646 4,274 7,099 4,078
Mary Holmes College............... MS 1892 Private 2-year...... 624 279 655 333 422 218
Mississippi Industrial College MS 1905 Private 4-year...... 314 162 270 150 239 139
\35\.
Mississippi Valley State MS 1946 Public 4-year....... 3,228 1,718 2,899 1,629 2,564 1,461
University.
Natchez Junior College \36\....... MS 1884 Private 2-year...... 19 16 62 56 ........ ........
Prentiss Institute \37\........... MS 1907 Private 2-year...... 139 80 81 50 146 83
Rust College...................... MS 1866 Private 4-year...... 883 555 725 503 715 434
Tougaloo College \38\............. MS 1869 Private 4-year...... 810 541 960 634 886 598
Harris-Stowe State College \39\... MO 1857 Public 4-year....... 1,248 862 1,102 827 1,175 832
**Lincoln University \40\......... MO 1866 Public 4-year....... 2,341 1,037 2,332 1,047 2,651 1,202
Barber-Scotia College \41\........ NC 1867 Private 4-year...... 526 289 401 247 317 191
Bennett College \42\.............. NC 1873 Private 4-year...... 618 618 614 614 620 620
Elizabeth City State University NC 1891 Public 4-year....... 1,651 929 1,584 908 1,488 836
\43\.
Fayetteville State University \44\ NC 1877 Public 4-year....... 1,940 1,114 2,125 1,268 2,465 1,440
Johnson College Smith University.. NC 1867 Private 4-year...... 1,599 805 1,473 766 1,379 740
Livingstone College............... NC 1879 Private 4-year...... 909 400 921 448 879 366
**North Carolina Agricultural and NC 1891 Public 4-year....... 5,515 2,675 5,385 2,580 5,510 2,473
Technical State University.
North Carolina Central University NC 1910 Public 4-year....... 4,782 2,849 4,810 2,919 4,910 3,013
\45\.
St. Augustine's College........... NC 1867 Private 4-year...... 1,641 997 1,762 1,003 1,861 1,063
Shaw University................... NC 1865 Private 4-year...... 1,453 648 1,263 549 1,523 749
Winston-Salem State University NC 1892 Public 4-year....... 2,094 1,277 2,204 1,329 2,220 1,313
\46\.
Central State University \47\..... OH 1887 Public 4-year....... 2,182 1,084 2,414 1,171 3,031 1,554
Wilberforce University \48\....... OH 1856 Private 4-year...... 1,109 493 1,026 473 1,082 558
**Langston University \49\........ OK 1897 Public 4-year....... 1,128 503 942 391 1,179 497
Cheyney University of Pennsylvania PA 1837 Public 4-year....... 2,848 1,289 2,637 1,345 2,426 1,249
\50\.
Lincoln University \51\........... PA 1854 Public 4-year....... 1,104 537 1,132 513 1,294 665
Allen University \52\............. SC 1870 Private 4-year...... 543 275 419 213 410 210
Benedict College.................. SC 1870 Private 4-year...... 1,982 1,267 1,761 1,152 1,426 914
Claflin College \53\.............. SC 1869 Private 4-year...... 1.005 640 852 560 739 481
Clinton Junior College \54\....... SC 1894 Private 2-year...... 208 81 122 34 116 54
Denmark Technical College \55\.... SC 1948 Public 2-year....... ......... ......... 565 239 669 317
Friendship College \56\........... SC 1891 Private 2-year...... 193 56 166 46 343 141
Morris College.................... SC 1908 Private 4-year...... 638 368 637 386 626 372
**South Carolina State College.... SC 1896 Public 4-year....... 3,678 2,127 3,437 1,999 3,929 2,192
Voorhees College \57\............. SC 1897 Private 4-year...... 1,050 617 794 487 613 390
Fisk University \58\.............. TN 1867 Private 4-year...... 1,279 761 1,150 721 1,009 682
Knoxville College \59\............ TN 1875 Private 4-year...... 837 435 713 343 557 205
Lane College \60\................. TN 1882 Private 4-year...... 701 341 673 345 757 378
LeMoyne-Owen College \61\......... TN 1862 Private 4-year...... 1,118 677 990 637 1,063 690
Meharry Medical College \62\...... TN 1876 Private 4-year...... 886 362 1,038 445 817 298
Morristown College \63\........... TN 1881 Private 2-year...... 176 79 149 68 114 45
**Tennessee State University \64\. TN 1912 Public 4-year....... 5,480 2,919 5,537 2,855 8,318 4,435
Bishop College \65\............... TX 1881 Private 4-year...... 1,664 694 1,569 708 945 273
Huston-Tillotson College \66\..... TX 1876 Private 4-year...... 717 268 616 271 692 290
Jarvis Christian College \67\..... TX 1912 Private 4-year...... 526 257 480 237 619 307
Paul Quinn College \68\........... TX 1872 Private 4-year...... 537 236 421 195 438 230
**Prairie View A&M University..... TX 1876 Public 4-year....... 5,118 2,660 5,101 2,667 6,592 3,542
St. Philip's College.............. TX 1927 Public 2-year....... 6,900 2,034 6,782 2,218 6,860 2,308
Southwestern Christian College TX 1949 Private 4-year...... 341 154 471 138 285 146
\69\.
Texas College..................... TX 1894 Private 4-year...... 725 377 468 241 476 218
Texas Southern University \70\.... TX 1947 Public 4-year....... 9,170 4,350 8,802 4,261 8,100 3,564
Wiley College..................... TX 1873 Private 4-year...... 599 293 615 319 664 328
Hampton University \71\........... VA 1868 Private 4-year...... 2,805 1,714 2,808 1,738 3,230 1,930
Norfolk State University \72\..... VA 1935 Public 4-year....... 6,956 4,074 7,283 4,146 7,286 4,324
St. Paul's College................ VA 1888 Private 4-year...... 626 331 615 313 645 322
Virginia College \73\............. VA 1886 Private 2-year...... 242 91 251 88 ......... .........
**Virginia State University \74\.. VA 1882 Public 4-year....... 5,229 2,963 4,475 2,518 4,668 2,645
Virginia Union University......... VA 1865 Private 4-year...... 1,424 704 1,178 618 1,361 682
Bluefield State College........... WV 1895 Public 4-year....... 1,735 774 2,283 1,173 2,742 1,456
West Virginia State College....... WV 1891 Public 4-year....... 4,001 1,813 3,678 1,874 4,353 2,413
**University of the Virgin VI 1962 Public 4-year....... 2,122 1,350 1,848 1,266 2,148 1,533
Islands, St. Thomas Campus \75\.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--Data not reported or not applicable.
**Land-grant institution.
\1\ Preliminary data.
\2\ Founded as the Lincoln Normal School, a private institution. In 1874, became first state-supported historically black college.
\3\ Founded as the Alabama State Branch by Mrs. Fredericka Evans and Dr. H. Council Trenholm, President of Alabama State College. In 1936, the College
began offering a 2-year curriculum as part of the parent institution, Alabama State University. In 1965, the College became an independent junior
college and the name was changed to Mobile State Junior College. In 1971, the name of the institution was changed to honor its first President, Dr.
S.D. Bishop.
\4\ Formerly called Alabama Lutheran Academy and College. In 1981 changed name to Concordia College. Affiliated with the Lutheran Church, Missouri
Synod.
\5\ School closed in 1977.
\6\ In October 1973, Wenonah Vocational Trade School for Negroes (founded in 1949) and Theodore Alfred Lawson State Junior College (founded in 1963 and
known as the Wenonah State Technical Junior College between 1963 and 1969), merged as a result of Alabama legislation adopted June 1972.
\7\ Prior to closing in 1984, the school was affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
\8\ Is owned and operated by the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists.
\9\ Affiliated with the Presbyterian Church.
\10\ Was the first school in Alabama to admit students regardless of race.
\11\ Founded by Booker T. Washington. Formerly called Tuskegee Institute.
[[Page H10225]]
\12\ Founded as Branch Normal College, it continued from 1927 until 1972 as Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical, and Normal College. In 1972, it joined
four other campuses to comprise the University of Arkansas System.
\13\ Founded as a coeducational and multiracial private university in 1867 by an act of the U.S. Congress, the University is named after General Oliver
Otis Howard, Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau.
\14\ The roots of the University of the District of Columbia, the nation's only metropolitan, land-grant institution of higher education stretch back to
1851 when Myrtilla Miner opened a school to prepare black women to teach. In 1976, three public higher education institutions, D.C. Teachers College,
Federal City College, and Washington Technical Institute, were merged into the University of the District of Columbia. This merger caused the apparent
enrollment increase in 1978.
\15\ Upon the merger in 1923 of Cookman Institute for Men, founded in 1872 by the Reverend D.S.B. Darnell, and Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute
for Women, founded in 1904 by Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, the institution became the Daytona Cookman Collegiate Institute and was taken over by the Board
of Education of the Methodist Church. The name was later changed to Bethune-Cookman College.
\16\ Founded as Brown Theological Institute. Edward Waters College is the oldest historically black institute of higher learning in the State of
Florida. Affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
\17\ Designated as a land-grant institution in 1891 and became a university in 1953. Founded in 1887 as the State Normal College For Colored Students.
\18\ Affiliated with the Baptist Church.
\19\ Atlanta University and Clark College merged July 1, 1989, and became Clark Atlanta University.
\20\ In 1929, the college became an exclusively graduate and professional institution, the first with a predominantly black student body; merged with
Clark College in 1989.
\21\ Founded as the first Methodist-affiliated college to serve African Americans.
\22\ The Fort Valley Normal and Industrial School merged with the Forsyth State Teachers and Agricultural College in 1939 to become Fort Valley State
College.
\23\ Morehouse School of Medicine began in 1975 as a medical program within Morehouse College. In April 1985, the school was granted full accreditation
to award an M.D. degree.
\24\ Affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church and is the only surviving college founded by blacks in Georgia.
\25\ Called Georgia State College until 1947, it was established as a school for the training and education of Negro youth. It served as the state land-
grant institution for blacks until this function was transferred to Fort Valley State College. The Regents of the University System changed the name
to Savannah State College in 1950.
\26\ The nation's oldest undergraduate liberal arts college for black women.
\27\ Affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church.
\28\ Founded by Charles P. Adams. Is a multi-purpose, state-supported, coeducational institution.
\29\ The only historically black institution with Catholic affiliation.
\30\ Bowie State University is part of the University of Maryland System. Formerly Bowie State College.
\31\ The only public senior college in the University of Maryland System.
\32\ Founded by Dr. Violet T. Lewis to provide postsecondary business education to urban dwellers unable to obtain training from other institutions.
This school originated in a store front in Indianapolis, Indiana.
\33\ Was established as Coahoma Junior College in 1949. In 1989, the College was renamed Coahoma Community College.
\34\ Founded by Dr. William H. Holtzclaw. Formerly called Utica Junior College and then Hinds Junior College.
\35\ Lost accreditation in 1983 and closed in 1986. Lane College in Tennessee maintains their records.
\36\ School no longer eligible for listing.
\37\ Formerly Prentiss Normal and Industrial Institute. Closed in 1990.
\38\ In 1869, the American Missionary Association of New York purchased a plantation of 500 acres near Jackson, Mississippi, and established on it a
school for the training of young people irrespective of their religion and race.
\39\ Founded in 1857 as the first teacher education institution west of the Mississippi. Was formerly known as Harris Teachers College and Harris Stowe
College.
\40\ A land-grant, comprehensive, multi-purpose institution of higher education founded by members of the 62nd and 65th U.S. Colored Infantry units as
Lincoln Institute in 1866.
\41\ Founded as Scotia Seminary, a preparatory for young Negro women. In 1916 changed its name to Scotia Women's College. Merged with Barber Memorial
College in 1930. In 1932 changed name to Barber-Scotia College and then changed to coeducational in 1954. Historically affiliated to the Presbyterian
Church (USA).
\42\ Founded as a coeducational institution and reorganized as a women's college in 1926. Is affiliated with the United Methodist Church.
\43\ Founded as a Normal School for the specific purpose of teaching and training teachers of the black race to teach in the common schools. Since 1972,
it has been part of the 16-campus University of North Carolina System. Granted its first degrees in 1939 when it was known as Elizabeth City State
Teachers College.
\44\ Began as Howard School in 1867. In 1877 its name was changed to the State Colored Normal School. It is the second oldest state-supported
institution in North Carolina and one of the oldest teacher education institutions in the South. In 1939, the institution began a 4-year program and
became Fayetteville State Teachers College marking the beginning of a 4-year curriculum. In 1972, became part of the University of North Carolina
System.
\45\ Founded by Dr. James E. Shepard. In 1925, became the nation's first state-supported liberal arts college for black people.
\46\ Founded as Slater Industrial Academy. Became Winston-Salem Teachers College, the first black institution in the U.S. to grant degrees for teaching
in the elementary grades.
\47\ Originated as a separate department of Wilberforce University in 1887. Became independent in 1947.
\48\ Founded as the first coeducational college for blacks. Affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
\49\ Was founded as the Colored Agricultural and Normal University. The present name was adopted in 1941.
\50\ Founded by Richard Humphreys, a Philadelphia Quaker. It is the nation's oldest historically black institution of higher learning. Began as a high
school in 1837 and offered its first baccalaureate degree in the 1930s. Formerly known as Cheyney State College.
\51\ The first institution established anywhere in the world to provide higher education in the arts and sciences for male youth of African descent. It
was chartered as Ashmun Institute, an all-male institution, and remained as such for almost 100 years. It graduated its first woman in 1953, but it
did not become fully coeducational until 1965.
\52\ Founded under the auspices of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
\53\ Founded by two Methodist laymen from Massachusetts, William and Lee Claflin.
\54\ School was not eligible for listing in 1988. Affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
\55\ Founded as an all black trade school. In 1969, became a public 2-year branch campus of the South Carolina technical education system.
\56\ Closed in 1982. Formerly known as Friendship Junior College.
\57\ Founded by Elizabeth Evelyn Wright, it is a coeducational, liberal arts college.
\58\ Incorporated under the laws of the State of Tennessee on August 22, 1867. The purpose was the education and training of young black men and women.
\59\ Knoxville College now has two campuses. In 1989, Morristown College merged with Knoxville College. Knoxville was founded in 1875 by the United
Presbyterian Church of North America.
\60\ Founded by the Colored (Christian) Methodist Episcopal Church as the C.M.E. High School, and became Lane College in 1895.
\61\ In 1968 LeMoyne College and Owen College merged.
\62\ Founded as the Medical Department of Central Tennessee College, with the mission of educating health professionals for the black population.
Meharry became an independent medical college in 1915. Meharry Medical College has trained close to one-third of the black physicians and dentists
practicing in the United States today.
\63\ After closing in 1988, Morristown was annexed by Knoxville College in 1989.
\64\ Founded in 1912 as the Tennessee Agriculture and Industrial State Normal School for Negroes. It merged with the University of Tennessee at
Nashville in 1979 and now has two campuses.
\65\ Closed in 1988; was affiliated with the Baptist Church.
\66\ Was formed in 1952 by the merger of Tillotson College (founded in 1875) and Samuel Huston College (founded in 1876). Is supported by the United
Methodist Church and the United Church of Christ.
\67\ A private coeducational college founded in 1912 and affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
\68\ Paul Quinn College began in a one room building in Austin, Texas, by a group of African Methodist Episcopal circuit riders who saw a need for a
trade school to teach newly freed slaves. The college moved to Dallas in 1990 to the campus formerly occupied by Bishop College which closed in 1988.
\69\ Formerly a 2-year institution, but became a 4-year institution offering bachelor's degrees in 1984.
\70\ Founded as the Houston Colored Junior College. Its successor, Houston College for Negroes was transferred to the State of Texas following passage
of a bill creating Texas State University for Negroes. Established as a State University in 1947. The name was changed to Texas Southern University in
1951.
\71\ Founded by General Samuel Chapman Armstrong. Hampton is Virginia's only coeducational, non-denominational 4-year private college. Formerly known as
Hampton Institute and Hampton College.
\72\ Formerly known as Norfolk State College.
\73\ Changed name to Virginia Seminary and College. Closed in 1980.
\74\ The first fully state-supported, 4-year bachelor's degree black college in America. Founded in March 1882, when the Virginia legislature passed a
bill to charter the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute. Formerly known as Virginia State College.
\75\ This is a public, coeducational, land-grant institution that was founded in 1962 by enabling legislation of the Virgin Islands Legislature.
Formerly known as College of Virgin Islands.
Note.--Some schools are estimated on the previous year enrollment on this table.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS), ``Fall Enrollment
in Colleges and Universities'' surveys; and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), ``Fall Enrollment'' surveys. (This table was
prepared January 1992.)
____________________