In this article, we draw from a larger qualitative study to examine how racial encounters are experienced for three non-Black members in a university-based historically-Black student organization. Using the idea of community-as-difference, we present three findings that break open assumptions about racial coexistence: the importance of being…

The retention of African-American male students at predominantly White institutions is an issue that continues to plague colleges and universities in the United States. African-American men have the lowest college graduation rate of any segment of the population. Pointedly, two-thirds of African-American male students who attend public four-year…

Background/Context: Previous research suggested that first- or second-generation African immigrants comprised nearly a third of Black students attending selective U. S. colleges (Massey et al., 2007). While research frames the involvement of Black immigrant collegians as distinctly different from African American peers as it pertains to family…

This chapter presents a new model for fostering effective, collaborative partnerships between academic and student affairs at Minority-Serving Institutions, using an illustrative case study from a historically Black college/university (HBCU) located in Tennessee. After laying the context for collaborations in higher education, the author presents…

The authors investigated cultural resourcefulness among seven Black middle-class families who proactively collaborated to ensure their children's academic excellence in a highly racialized suburban community in southern California. Their children achieved high grades and successfully entered and completed higher education at elite U.S.…

Even though the number of African American students has increased on college campuses, particularly Predominately White Institutions (PWIs), over the last century, they are less likely to graduate than their White counterparts are. They face discrimination, hostile environments, adversity, low or no social or mentoring support, and often feel…

For historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), engagement is not an enhancement of their curriculum but part of their birthright. Founded in the Civil War/Reconstruction era, HBCUs had as their core mission educating freed slaves and other free black people to participate in the economy. Later, during the Jim Crow era, HBCUs educated…