[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 39 (Monday, September 29, 1997)]
[Pages 1384-1385]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7025--National Historically Black Colleges and Universities 
Week, 1997

September 19, 1997

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    We are a few short years away from the dawn of the 21st century, yet 
much of the challenge and change we have been anticipating is already 
upon us. We are competing today in a truly global economy, an economy 
based on information and technology as well as agriculture and industry. 
We are living in the age of the information revolution, the era of the 
World Wide Web, of daily advances in communications technology where a 
universe of knowledge is only a keyboard and a modem away. We are 
crossing the frontier into a new world, and our only map and compass in 
that world will be education.
    We must build an educational system that prepares our young people 
for the jobs of the future. We must empower them with the values, 
experiences, and self-confidence to succeed in our diverse society. We 
must provide them with the knowledge and motivation to reach their full 
human potential--and we must leave no one behind. In devising such an 
educational system, we need only look to America's Historically Black 
Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) for a model of excellence.
    This extraordinary network of institutions, more than a century old, 
has created a legacy of unquestioned accomplishment in fostering student 
success. Founded to educate African Americans in a segregated society, 
these colleges and universities have flourished and built an enviable 
record of achievement in educating America's black scientists, doctors, 
teachers, lawyers, artists, entrepreneurs, community and religious 
leaders, and other

[[Page 1385]]

professionals. They have provided generations of students with access to 
highly supportive environments for learning. The experience and 
expertise of HBCUs make them an invaluable resource to our Nation during 
this period of significant change.
    America's Historically Black Colleges and Universities daily 
demonstrate effective leadership in a multitude of ways: they develop 
and practice innovative academic approaches to ensure student success; 
they create campus programs that offer new solutions to critical social 
problems; they produce cutting-edge research with practical 
applications; and they forge strong global relationships from a myriad 
of international activities. Moreover, against formidable financial 
odds, they have persisted in keeping education affordable for the 
constituencies they serve, without sacrificing quality. They have never 
allowed scarce funding, poor educational preparation, or societal 
disadvantage to get in the way of their mission to educate and nurture 
the intellectual potential of the black community.
    Historically Black Colleges and Universities have done more to make 
the American Dream a reality for African Americans than has any other 
set of institutions in our country. These institutions are poised to 
enter the 21st century, ready to build on this tradition of excellence, 
achievement, and reverence for education. We can count on them to 
continue to make vital contributions to our Nation's success and to 
ensure that America lives up to our fundamental values of equality and 
opportunity.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 
21 through September 27, 1997, as National Historically Black Colleges 
and Universities Week. I call upon the people of the United States, 
including government officials, educators, and administrators, to 
observe this week with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities 
honoring America's Historically Black Colleges and Universities and 
their graduates.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this nineteenth day 
of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-seven, 
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 
and twenty-second.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:59 a.m., September 24, 
1997]

Note: This proclamation was released by the Office of the Press 
Secretary on September 22, and it was published in the Federal Register 
on September 25.