On the night of Feb. 8, 1960, J. Charles Jones, then a student of religion and psychology at Johnson C. Smith University, knew instinctively what it was he needed to do for his generation. He first met with a handful of other classmates and friends, letting them know what he had just learned on the radio--other Black students in neighboring…

Since their founding in segregation, the nation's historically Black colleges and universities have been studies in resourcefulness, contrasts, resoluteness, possibilities and miracles. But have the past 20 years marked the worst of times for these venerable, public and private institutions? Despite their problems--fractured budgets, ailing and…