There’s a lot of attention—and money—being lavished upon America’s historically Black colleges and universities right now. Affectionately known as H.B.C.U.’s, they’ve educated America’s Black elite for nearly 200 years. Alumni include Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who graduated from Howard University in 1986 with degrees in economics and political science; former surgeon general Dr. Joycelyn Elders (Philander Smith, ’52); Nobel Prize–winning novelist Toni Morrison (Howard, ’53); and my own grandparents.
Just this month, for instance, Michael Bloomberg donated $600 million to a quartet of H.B.C.U. medical schools, including Howard, a gift that followed the former New York City mayor’s previous pledge of $100 million in 2020. Nine-figure donations have also been recently bequeathed to Spelman College, in Atlanta, and the United Negro College Fund, reflecting the renewed focus on H.B.C.U.’s since George Floyd’s murder, four years ago.
