Chapter 5: An Examination Of The Participation Of African American Students In Graduate Education Without Public Hbcus

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the significance of public historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and illustrate the critical contribution they have made to graduate education for African Americans.¹ Specifically, this chapter will provide insight into this issue by examining access to graduate education for Blacks if public HBCUs were nonexistent or merged. This chapter will first provide some preliminary information on HBCUs, which will be inclusive of students they currently serve. Subse-quently, this chapter will discuss current issues in graduate enrollment, edu-cation, and outcomes at HBCUs as well as focus on graduate degrees conferred on Black students at HBCUs. Furthermore, using extant literature, this chapter will focus on the historical development of HBCUs in general and graduate education specifically. Finally, this chapter will illustrate how public HBCUs are vital for African Americans to engage in higher educa-tion, particularly graduate education, by discussing how the elimination of public HBCUs would impede Black graduate enrollment.