More than $1 billion has flowed to historically Black colleges and
universities (HBCUs) through the Higher Education Act Title IIIB
program since its passage in 1986. One billion dollars worth of federal
support is an occasion to celebrate.
Common sense and survival instincts require that we take time out to
examine the benefits of the past ten years and to plan for increases
and improvements in the next ten years. A strategy to overcome new
threats is also vitally necessary.
The tenth anniversary of this targeted delivery of dollars also
presents a prime opportunity to answer those who foolishly accuse the
Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) of being a low-achieving body. Title
IIIB was a masterful political coup engineered by the CBC with enduring
benefits for a needy, deserving, and pivotal constituency.
Unprecedented unity within the Congress, in concert with the African
American higher education community, produced this lasting cash
monument.
The institutional recipients of these appropriations are spread over
twenty-one states and the Virgin Islands. Alabama, with fourteen HBCUs,
has the largest number; North Carolina is second with ten. The 1996
list of allocations shows that Texas Southern University received the
largest annual grant, $2.5 million; Grambling State University received
$2.4 million: and Florida A&M University received $2.3 million.
The schools are not all located in the deep South. Pennsylvania has
Cheyney and Lincoln Universities; Ohio has Central State and
Wilberforce Universities: Missouri has Harris-Stowe State College and
Lincoln University; and Oklahoma has Langston University.
Some of the better financially endowed schools with high national
visibility are also recipients: Tuskegee, Clark-Atlanta, Hampton.
Spelman, Morehouse, and the Morehouse School of Medicine.
That this crown of diverse jewels geographically spread over a large
number of congressional districts has great potential political clout
is self-evident. The CBC has consistently protected the HBCUs from
extreme punitive actions related to student loan defaults. Even the
budget-cutting zealots pushing the “Contract with America” were kept
away from these appropriations.
