Black Higher Education: A Historiography of Perseverance and Triumph

Numerous policies and practices undermine Black access, equity, and justice in American higher education today. The Supreme Court recently struck down how race can be used in college admissions decisions, and some state legislatures are attempting to dismantle faculty tenure. Many states are defunding diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and others are banning the teaching of some aspects of Black history at all levels of education, while the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) operate against decades-long underfunding and neglect. These contemporary issues facing Black people and American higher education grow from historical developments in Black education. In this chapter, we analyze the historiography of Black higher education. We first examine how historians and other scholars have studied Black firsts (e.g., students and faculty) on majority-white campuses. Next, we appraise research about HBCUs, demonstrating how the study of these institutions has evolved since the late 1800s. Then, we turn to how historians and others have written about Black struggles for access, equity, and justice in higher education. After appraising more than 100 years of scholarship, in the conclusion we make recommendations for new directions in future research on Black higher education.