Phillip Terrill Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Bringing Dreams to Reality
Historically Black colleges and universities are the keystone to advancing African American education. Prior to the beginning of the Civil War, the perception of having s post-secondary institution for African-Americans was not prevalent or logical. Very few people during this time period, such as Fredrick Douglass, who received schooling, but were learning in unfriendly territory and others, had to teach themselves. It was due for blacks to have a place where they could learn in peace and that became true in 1837 with the Institute of Colored Youth, which later renamed itself to Cheney University. Cheney University is the oldest Historically Black College and University, and is home to late great, 60 minutes television host, Ed Bradley.As Historically Black Colleges and Universities continue to move toward the forefront in premier education, they continue to instill the black heritage of a people and impress the importance of getting a good, quality education.The various Historically Black Colleges and Universities located all over the country are places of extended community and family, and when you step foot on Historically Black campuses, or “the yard”, you immediately feel the struggle that came prior for you to attend the school, such as slavery, Plessey vs. Ferguson and “separate but equal”, The Dred Scott Decision, and also the triumphs such as the Morrill Land-Grant Act, which gave federally allocated funds to states to open black institutions, Brown vs. Board, The Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the case of Adams vs. Richardson which found ten states in violation of supporting desegregated schooling. With the troubling times of court, the Second World War, and the Great Depression, left these historical schools in a financial trouble, but because of the various court meetings that were triumphant, the HBCU’s and the black people prospered and move forward.Historically Black Colleges and Universities are ready to cultivate and nurture the flurry of incoming students and build them up for a better tomorrow and brighter future. In the end, the Historically Black Colleges and Universities will last forever because as an African American male getting ready to attend Tuskegee University, the memories, the education, pride, and the history invested in me will live on and matriculate out into the world because as my presence liberates myself, it automatically will liberate others. Fredrick Douglass, a man who educated himself once proclaimed during a speech of his on August 3rd, 1957 that,” If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must pay for all they get. If we ever get free from all the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and, if needs be, by our lives, and the lives of others”. From the words of Fredrick Douglass, to today, and the future, we have progressed and Historically Black Colleges and Universities will continue to bring the hopes and dreams of the deterred before us into reality, forever and ever. That is their legacy. Thank you
