America has woken up to the unique benefits of HBCUs for Black students. Enrollment is up, and, after a century of underfunding, some money has been coming in, from sources both public and private. Suddenly, HBCUs have cultural cachet, thanks to celebrities like Beyoncé, who honored the schools in her 2019 concert documentary Homecoming, and Deion Sanders, who brought Jackson State University’s football team to national prominence before departing last December. Now, a new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonprofit think tank, delves into the many advantages that HBCUs offer and what predominantly white institutions (PWIs) can learn from them when it comes to helping Black students.
The working paper marshals a raft of evidence showing that, despite their historical lack of resources, HBCUs do better for Black students than PWIs in a variety of ways. This is especially remarkable considering that the Black students who attend HBCUs are more likely to have lower academic qualifications and to be from economically disadvantaged families than Black students who attend PWIs. The report cites evidence that, adjusting for this difference, African American students are up to 33% more likely to graduate than African Americans at similar non-HBCUs. Other research referenced in the paper shows that for Black students with initially low-test scores, attending an HBCU is associated with doubled graduation rates.
The advantages appear to extend past graduation. Black students who attend HBCUs receive higher wages and are likelier to experience upward mobility. African Americans from HBCUs scored higher than PWI peers on measures of self-esteem and Black identity and were also more likely to vote. There are even physical benefits—Black HBCU grads were less likely to have warning signs of poor cardiovascular health.
The report also explored how HBCUs manage to do this—to find the recipe of their secret sauce, so to speak. One ingredient, the report finds, is HBCUs’ unique mission—not just to confer degrees, but to build individual and community prosperity, with an eye towards social justice.
Dr. Gregory Price, a professor at the University of New Orleans, and co-author of the working paper
For Black students, there are additional benefits to a predominantly Black environment.
“HBCUs provide a bulwark against the racism that Black students experience in America today,” said Dr. Robert T. Palmer, chair of the educational leadership & policy studies department at Howard University. “Black students at HBCUs can really be themselves and tap into their potential to succeed academically.”
