Eighteen years after the Supreme Court rendered its decision in Fordice, many states have complied somewhat or not at all to its mandates. This has been particularly evident in Maryland, where the presidents of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are pressuring the state to fulfill its commitment with the Office of Civil Rights…

In this article, we provide an overview--a primer--of the rise of Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) as context for understanding the contemporary place of these institutions in our broader system of higher education. We also demonstrate how the emergence and the evolution of MSIs stem from our nation's struggle to provide equal educational…

This article focuses on three separate historical case studies in the 1940s and 1950s in order to challenge common assumptions about who has been active, and when, in the struggle for racial equality in U.S. higher education. Although scholars have traditionally argued that the late 1950s represent the beginning of the activities and naming of the…

The Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, is one of only four predominantly Black medical schools in the United States. Among its illustrious alumni are surgeons general of the United States, medical school presidents, and numerous other highly regarded medical professionals. This book tells the engrossing history of this venerable…

On February 6, 2009, the president of Clark Atlanta University, an historically black institution in Atlanta, Georgia, terminated 55 full-time faculty members without notice. Many of these faculty members had tenure. These individuals, some of whom had worked at the university for over 15 years while making $45,000 a year as associate professors…

Explores the ways in which academic freedom, civil liberties, and civil rights clashed in the dismissal of Lee Lorch, accused of being a communist, during the administration of Charles S. Johnson as president of Fisk University. Examines the traditions of historically black universities related to academic freedom. (SLD)

In spite of the euphoria of the "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas" decision outlawing segregation, Black leaders and presidents of the member colleges of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) understood that this critical point in history brought both opportunities and challenges to Black higher education. The "Brown" decision…

In the 1950's, Charles S. Johnson, the first black president of Fisk University (Tennessee), greatly expanded the institution's international program, attracting many foreign students to the school and creating a milieu that gave American blacks the benefits of integration. This paper examines how the presence of outsiders and outside influences…