eBook

Stand and Prosper

Henry N. Drewry, Humphrey Doermann

2012

Overview

Stand and Prosperis the first authoritative history in decades of black colleges and universities in America. It tells the story of educational institutions that offered, and continue to offer, African Americans a unique opportunity to transcend the legacy of slavery while also bearing its burden. Henry Drewry and Humphrey Doermann present an up-to-date and comprehensive assessment of their past, present, and possible future. Black colleges fully got off the ground only after the Civil War--more than two centuries after higher education formally began in British North America. Despite horrendous obstacles, they survived and even proliferated until well past the mid-twentieth century. As the authors show, however, the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling inBrown v. Board of Educationbrought them to a crucial juncture. While validating the rights of blacks to pursue opportunities outside racial and class lines, it drew the future of these institutions into doubt. By the mid-1970s black colleges competed with other colleges for black students--a welcome expansion of choices for African-American youth but a huge recruitment challenge for black colleges. The book gradually narrows its focus from a general history to a look at the development of forty-five private black colleges in recent decades. It describes their varied responses to the changes of the last half-century and documents their influence in the development of the black middle class. The authors underscore the vital importance of government in supporting these institutions, from the Freedman's Bureau during Reconstruction to federal aid in our own time. Stand and Prosperoffers a fascinating portrait of the distinctive place black colleges and universities have occupied in American history as crucibles of black culture, and of the formidable obstacles they must surmount if they are to continue fulfilling this important role.

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Subject: Academic degree / Affirmative action / African American universities and colleges / African Americans / Alumnus / American Missionary Association / Attendance / Bachelor's degree / Black school / Brown v. Board of Education / Career / Clark Atlanta University / College Board / Curriculum / Desegregation / Dillard University / Doctor of Philosophy / Doctorate / EDUCATION / EDUCATION / General / Faculty (academic staff) / Federal Student Aid / Financial endowment / Fisk University / Freedman / Fundraising / Graduate school / Graduation / Hampton University / Harvard University / Higher / Higher education / Historically black colleges and universities / History / Howard University / Income / Institution / Johnson C. Smith University / Liberal arts education / Medical school / Morehouse College / National Association for the Advancement of Colored People / Normal school / Oberlin College / Of Education / Percentage / Private school / Private universities and colleges / Private university / Public university / Racial segregation / Salary / Scholarship / Secondary education / Secondary school / Slavery / Spelman College / State school / Stillman College / Student / Student loan / Students' union / Talladega College / Teacher / Texas College / Title III / Tougaloo College / Tuition payments / Tuskegee University / Undergraduate education / United States / University / University of Chicago / Vocational education / W. E. B. Du Bois / Year
• ISBN: 9781400843176, 1400843170, 0691116326, 9780691116327