This is a call for chapters for a forthcoming volume examining Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) tentatively titled Cross Road Blues:  HBCU’s and Cultural Paradigm Shifts in Higher Education.

Call for Chapters

Since their inception, the mission of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) has been to provide a quality education to African Americans who, because of their socio-economic and political condition in the United States of America, would not normally have had access to institutions of higher learning.  However, the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in 1954 forced the desegregation of Traditional White Institutions (TWIs).  Over time, these institutions began to compete with HBCUs for African American students and professors, and the caché of HBCUs began to decline. 

Some argue that while HBCUs, many of which are over a century old, have made great contributions in all fields of human endeavor and have graduated some of the African American community’s best and brightest, a sobering reassessment of HBCUs and their role in higher education is needed in light of the fact that some HBCUs have a reputation for declining academic quality, face low student enrollment, struggle with financial instability, and suffer from poor management. Others point out that in the face of a current rise in racist rhetoric, the gutting of the voting rights act, and loss of ground in almost every measure of economic, social, and quality of life progress for African Americans, HBCU’s are needed now more than ever to provide current and future generations of marginalized students access to higher education. Affirmative Action, a program designed in part to ameliorate decades of discrimination in admissions practices and “level the playing field,” continues to suffer attacks even from those who benefitted from it, yet the majority of African Americans who persist to graduation still come from HBCUs. 

It is our contention that the various issues regarding the purpose, survival, progress and future of HBCUs must be addressed.  What is the place of the HBCU given an educational paradigm shift pushed by technological and demographic change? How is the HBCU to compete for funding in an environment increasingly hostile to and suspicious of higher education in general?

 HBCU’s are at a crossroads and the direction taken can mean the difference between existence for another 100 years or extinction. Therefore, we are compiling a book of original (unpublished) essays/articles that demonstrate the breadth and depth of the HBCU and its place in higher education African American/American history and culture—past, present and future.  Where has it been, where is it now, where is it going?   In appealing to scholars and audiences that are interdisciplinary, we welcome all areas of scholarly inquiry and all methods and/or approaches. We are looking for chapters that focus on but are not limited to the following:

HBCUs: History and Legacy

HBCUs in Popular Culture

HBCUs, Protest, and the First Amendment

The Impact of Other Minorities and Hispanics on HBCUs

The Function(s) of HBCUs in a Post Millennium World

HBCUs and the Brain Drain of the Black Professorate

HBCUs and the Talented Tenth

The Politics of the HBCU        

HBCUs and African American Cultural Identity

HBCUs and Black Leadership

HBCUs—Personal Experience Essays

HBCUs as Refuge

HBCUs and Public/Private Funding

HBCUs in the Technological Age

HBCUs and the Rise of the Black Middle Class

The Sociology of HBCUs

HBCUs and Obsolescence

HBCUs in Literature

 

HBCUs and Race