Origination of "The HBCU Concept" | DuBois vs. Booker T. | Legal Warfare | A Historic Timeline, from 1837 - 2000 |

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HBCUs would soon face many new challenges, though. The Great Depression and World War II left many black colleges in a financial crisis. Despite improvements in funding in previous years, most land-grant HBCUs were still dismally under-funded when compared to their white counterparts. Private HBCUs were in an even tougher bind. The depression had wiped out many of their sources of philanthropy. Fundraising was becoming very difficult and distracting administrators from issues of improving education. In 1943, Dr. Fredrick D. Patterson, president of the Tuskegee Institute, published an open letter to the presidents of private HBCUs urging them to band together, pooling their resources and fundraising abilities. The next year, the United Negro College Fund began its activities soliciting donations to private HBCUs, with far greater efficacy than any one of its member colleges alone.

Ten years later public HBCUs, and black students across the nation, became the beneficiaries of the Supreme Court's decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education. The court's ruling that "separate but equal" schooling was anything but equal meant that states would be forced to better fund the HBCUs and open their other universities to black students. The case, won by lawyers trained at Howard University, didn't bring immediate relief in many cases, as states protested the ruling. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave the federal government greater power to enforce desegregation.

In 1965, the federal government provided for aid to HBCUs through the Higher Education Act. It was followed by another important judicial decision, Adams v. Richardson. This case found ten states in violation of the Civil Rights Act for supporting segregated schools. The states were ordered to work actively to integrate institutions, so long as that integration was not carried out at the expense of HBCUs, which were deemed to play an important and unique role in the education of African Americans.

The Carter, Reagan, and Bush administrations thought that HBCUs were significant too. President Carter established a program aimed at strengthening and expanding the capacity of HBCUs. Reagan issued an executive order aimed at further reversing the effects of previous discriminatory treatment towards black colleges. Congress supported the Reagan order with increased federal funding to HBCUs. Reagan's successor, George Bush, also issued an executive order, this time building on the Reagan order and establishing a commission in the Department of Education responsible for advising the president on matters regarding historically black colleges and universities.

Another pivotal court ruling came in 1992 with the United States Supreme Court's ruling in United States v. Fordice. The court's decision required that Mississippi do away with the remnants of a dual, segregated system of education. This was similar to the Adams decision, except that no special circumstances were outlined for the treatment of HBCUs. Supporters of black colleges worried that the decision might hurt African-American students in the long run if the support and attention they received at HBCUs was taken away. Desegregation is important, in their view, but should never be viewed a reason for putting black students in a disadvantageous situation. Black colleges provide a unique education for African Americans. Students who attend HBCUs graduate with greater frequency than African-American students at predominantly white universities and get more involved academic and social support. That is why HBCUs must be protected.

Source: CollegeView.com