Chapter 13: Labor Market Outcomes For Hbcu Graduate Students

Overwhelmingly, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have been credited with successfully providing educational opportunities for Black students (Allen, Jewel, Griffin, & Wolf, 2007; Gasman, Lundy-Wagner, Ransom, & Bowman, 2010; Palmer & Gasman, 2008). From a historical perspective, HBCUs embraced aspiring Black collegians and set out with a purposeful mission of serving these students during an era when Blacks were overwhelmingly prohibited for seeking advanced educational training (Palmer & Wood, 2012). Many HBCUs also have an ancillary mission of fostering economic and community development in their regions (in general) and among the Black community as a whole (Richmond & Maramark, 1996). Contemporarily, these institutions continue to serve Black students, enrolling and graduating a disproportionate percentage of Black students (Allen et al., 2007), facilitating greater levels of post-baccalaureate study for Black graduates (Palmer & Gasman, 2008), fostering the development and advancement of Black professionals (Brown & Davis, 2001), and producing a Black middle class (Gasman, Baez, Drezner, Sedgwick, Tudico, & Schmid, 2007; Pettigrew, 1971). HBCU successes in these areas are particularly impressive, given that they serve high proportions of students who are first-generation collegians, academically underprepared, and from low-income backgrounds (Buzzetto-More, 2008; Cantey, Bland, Mack, & Joy-Davis, 2011; Constantine, 1995).