Although there is a large body of scholarship on historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), their governance practices have been underresearched. What little research that is available on the topic points to campus climates that are "president-centric" and hierarchical structures that do not encourage faculty governance. However, Spelman College--founded in 1881 and one of only two historically black colleges for women--has made much progress in faculty governance over the past twenty years. In this article, the author describes how the school has probed the barriers or resistance on campus to greater faculty involvement in institutional decision making, and how it has created opportunities for more candid dialogue about shared governance. The author also relates how the school's administrators have helped to foster a campus culture that encourages junior and senior faculty alike to become more active in their roles as academic leaders.