On college campuses across the county, racial tensions have been boiling over. From coast to coast, demonstrations are taking place at Ivy League schools like Yale and Columbia, and big state schools like the University of Kansas. Administrators have resigned at the University of Missouri and Claremont McKenna College in California due to widespread student accusations that they were indifferent to concerns about their schools’ racial climates.
In light of these stories, WNYC’s Jami Floyd wondered whether these recent controversies would lead more African-American students to consider attending one of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges, or HBCUs. They were created in the aftermath of the Civil War with the intention of serving the black community. Howard University and Tuskegee University are among the best known HBCUs, but there are more than 100 in the country.
