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October 1, 2022 by Staff
Filed under BM, Education, Opinion, Politics, Weekly Columns
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(ThyBlackMan.com) For many of you who don’t know the history of HBCUs, you see them only as progress. And yes many of them have turned out awesome African Americans who will go on to change the world. But just as every coin has three sides, so does the foundation of HBCUs. And one side is not at all what most people of color think. So while the truth hurts, I do not say this to shoot down our young leaders of the future. Nor to stereotype all African American academic institutions of higher learning. I write this article to expose agendas, culprits and perpetrators in the hope that the truth will cause African Americans to step up and make the changes ourselves from within. To make our academic institutions for us / by us. Most people won’t do that unless they know the truth and even when they do, many people will still do nothing.
Before we get into the historical facts, you must understand a key principle. No matter how something looks, the root of a thing will always tell what it is actually made out of and what it was designed or created to do. So no matter how good the apples on a tree may look, if the root is poison then the tree is poison, the limbs are poison and so is the fruit. And we cannot afford to disavow that principle when it comes to African American history. If we live in denial based on lies and hidden agendas of other people , we can never break through to unleash our full potential. If we shortchange ourselves, we shortchange the future of our youth, one day their children and their children’s children in a perpetual cycle of ignorance.
Here is a clue you must remember or you will miss the deception. Timing can tell you quite a bit about why people do what they do, regardless of how it appears.
Some would say the first unofficial HBCU was created in 1837 by Richard Humphreys and called Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. In the 1850s there were at least 3 other informal HBCUs – Lincoln University (1854), Wilberforce University (1856) and Harris-Stowe University (1857). Yet only one of these was run by African Americans (Wilberforce), so you have to wonder who was directing “black” education. Hmmmm. Others would say HBCUs came about around the time of the legal abolition of slavery, the same year (the 13th Amendment in 1865) to be exact. During that time Shaw University of Raleigh, North Carolina, was reportedly the first HBCU. Founded when? In 1865 after the civil war.
Ironically the progress of African-Americans seemed to have stumbled (or been pushed) backwards as time went forwards. Now do you really think the south which wanted to keep slavery in place was anxious to help “black” people achieve higher learning? The same south that would fund and found the Klan and later vote against the civil rights act? The same south that stood on Jim Crow and Willie Lynch? The same country that is home to millions of Trump racists today? The same country that continues to lie about Abraham Lincoln who would have kept slavery and the Union in place if he could have kept both? Wake up people!
And while it has been said HBCUs before 1890 were funded largely through or by black churches, it is not that simple. Then why weren’t these “black” schools being run by blacks? Especially since the civil war had devastated the racist south and had not exactly caused black churches to prosper during that time. So you have to ask where did the rest of the support for the HBCUs come from and why? That is an unpopular question with an even more unpopular answer. And why so much confusion about who started what first? Confusion or implanted deception straight from the plantation “think tank”?
A century after the abolition of slavery, the big push for the implementation of historical black colleges and universities came about when? Again look at the timing. In 1965 with Title 3 of the Higher Education Act. Timing yet again reveals exactly what was happening and proves my point. Racists in power knew they could not stop the inevitable (de-segregation). And just as with the 1865 abolition of slavery, racists knew what the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution would usher in. Yet America in both time periods did not care anymore about the education, equality and academic welfare of “blacks” than the millions and millions of racist Trump followers do today. The American racist idea of making “America great again” is to put you far out into the cotton field until dark physically and in the dark mentally.
Not coincidentally, both of the key time periods you need to notice (1865 and 1965) are significant because they have a commonality often overlooked by much of the “black” community. And because of what happened those years in particular.
Both the concepts and the implementation of historical black colleges and universities such as Morehouse (1867), Spelman (1881), Clark (1933) and Howard (1867), for example, were set up by Caucasian people for a reason. And again, the timing gives you huge clues. HBCU academic institutions, I contend, were not set up to help African-Americans nearly as much as they were to keep African-Americans from sitting next to white girls and boys at white mainstream universities. The strategy was simple. If white people created schools for black people, then black people would stay out of white schools. And like the covert strategies of Willie Lynch, this largely worked – even to this day. Black people were so happy to have their own that it didn’t matter to them what the real agenda was. Just like black people were so happy to have Obama in office that hardly anybody looked at his voting record when he was a senator. Just like Black people were so happy to have Kamala that most black people never looked at her record of locking up black men faster than you could count.
By now you should be able to see an undeniable strategy and pattern repeatedly at work. If you cannot see it, then it’s only because you don’t want to. The black community, perceived as different from African-Americans, has been content in excepting crumbs off the master’s table every since slavery began in America. So whether it was HBCUs, EBT food stamps or Section 8, welfare or WIC, the point is the same and so is the agenda. Blacks depends on white America.
So to recap, as slavery came to an end, the white racist knew it was a matter of time before he could no longer stop integration. And the same thing was true just as segregation in the south winded down and the civil rights movement came about. One more time. The white establishment wanted to create black academic institutions in order to keep Black people out of the white academic institutions which would have more funding, newer books and better education. Is this true of every historical black college and university? No. But again let’s go back to the principle of foundations in order to understand the hidden agenda. The reason these “elite” historical black colleges and universities were made private was two-fold. First to give an air of upscale academics but really to keep blacks away from whites and drain the black dollar in the process. And the high cost of tuition, even today, has students coming out of the schools in six-figure debt, starting off in a hole. That was part of the original agenda.
Fortunately today there are historical black colleges and universities like Fort Valley which are state schools. The lower cost allows more African-Americans to take a vantage of such academic education while also benefiting from outside funding. And that is a good thing. As long as you remember that the world is not all one color and the sooner African Americans can learn to function confidently at peak performance around any ethnic group and excel, the better. A little research of dates, times founders, outcomes and origins will verify what you have just read. But I’m not going to do all your homework for you. This article is about making you think, identify agendas and uncover the facts, not about making you agree. So if you plan to dig only to contradict what I’m saying, you have missed the entire point.
But wait before you clap for today’s HBCUs. Not so fast. A strange thing happened. More and more the educators on staff started to change colors, if you know what I mean. And so did student enrollment (https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2015/07/24/10-most-diverse-historically-black-schools). So what are HBCUs becoming now? Or did you even notice?
Then where do we go from here? Onward and Upward, I hope. First you need to wake up to the revelation that the white man is neither your master, your parent nor the person who determines your future and your status in life. That says a mouthful, and I am not being a racist to state the facts. Next you need to understand that integration is not a bad thing and you or your family members have the right to attend any school you qualify to attend. Keep in perspective that academics should never be based on the haves and the have nots. And you don’t fix racism with reverse racism.
In the real world in which we live there is segregation, separation, assimilation, integration and infiltration. We know segregation did not / does not work. We know that separate but equal never ends up being equal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc6VkDSjuuU). We know that assimilation causes people to lose sight of who they are, just as slavery taught brown people of African descent to believe you are “black”. We know that integration is inevitable. And as for infiltration, I will leave that concept to your own perceptions in the strategic fight for equality in America. You decide, but decide while you are awake to the truth, not asleep in denial.
Staff Writer; Trevo Craw
A Free Thinker, who loves to talk about Politics, etc. Also, all about uplifting the Black Community even if it doesn’t fit your mindset. One may hit me up at; TrevoCraw@ThyBlackMan.com.
Whoa. Now hold your horses my wonderful, articulated brothers/sisters. I am a 1978 graduate of Cheyney University located outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I grew up in the Washington, D.C. suburbs proudly named Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Information you clearly need to know: 1) Cheyney State College was founded by Quakers. Yes the original abolitionists. If you remember the Quakers fled England for freedom of religous expression. They did not believe in slavery thus assisting with the Underground railroad harboring slaves seeking freedom. Cheyney was established to educate and enable freed slaves to develop businesses and live just lives. As a Cheneyite I love the constant debate with my fellow HBCU brothers who think Lincoln University was first!. I’m so glad yet sad that too many of us…graduates of such beautiful history do not support economically our illustrious struggling history, Cheyney University.
Jews never let Nazi’s educate their kids!
You’ve never met me, but you hate me so much. Why would I ever want you for my neighbor?
HBCU were created for a purpose. The empowered white people of that time may have an agenda for one thing but God had a purpose for another. Today I encourage all my childeren to attend an HBCU because they are quality schools that meet the needs of my children. Xavier university put more black students in medical school than any other institution. My daughter attends Claflin University she is doing very well there she is studying Biochemistry. She was accepted PWi’s and Other HBCU’s and she will be graduating this spring ready to attend medical school or enter the workforce. She has recieved an excellant education. I am tired of our children thinking that we can not teach our own and we are inferior the sad part is that somehow we believe that in a racist country like this that segregation does not exist. It exist in public and private K12 schools, in gated communities , in the boardroom, and in churches.
Please stop your racist “White/Black” attempt to destroy African families. The fact is that it was African men and women that gave you soap, and taught you to take a bath. It was your “Christian church” that made it a sin to take a bath. It was this same “brotherhood at its best”, church that approved the rape, murder, and genocide of native people across the world. Yet, I have never read an article in “Thy Black Man” about these facts. – African Talk
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