Leron Thomas is one week away from the start of his junior year at Morehouse College, but the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native has no idea where he’s going to live. This would be Thomas’ fifth semester at Morehouse — and his first with no housing. He entered the school’s housing draft but wasn’t among the […]
Higher Education
Posted inHigher Education
How Black College Students in Atlanta Are Reacting to Affirmative Action Ruling
Black college students in Atlanta are not mincing words after last month’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling to end affirmative action in higher education. They say the decision — which limits colleges from considering race in admissions — is just another in a long list of challenges keeping scholars of color from gaining access to colleges […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Higher Education, Policing
Why Atlanta College Students and Professors are Chanting, ‘Stop Cop City’
At a rally on Emory University’s quad earlier this week, Maresah Malcom, a senior from Decatur, joined just over 100 fellow students in protesting the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, also known as “Cop City.” Malcom said she came to the Stop Cop City demonstration because the facility is being built in the area where […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
How Morehouse College Is Challenging What It Means to Be a Black Man
A culture shift is underway at Morehouse College. The 156-year-old men’s college — among the nation’s most-selective historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) — was built upon the image of a serious, contemporary Black man fit within a uniquely American mold. But now, students, faculty members, and administrators are reconsidering what it means to be a […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
How a New President, Alums, and Current Students Kept Morris Brown Going
Julian Ross did not need to think twice about his decision. The lure of an education in a music department led by Sharon Willis, the first Black woman to own her own opera company, is what attracted the Baltimore native to Morris Brown College. When he enrolled for his freshman year in 2019, Ross, the […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
HBCU Stereotypes ‘Dampen the Light.’ Here’s What People Get Wrong.
Too often, media coverage of historically Black colleges and universities centers on tropes or repeats falsehoods. The reality is that HBCUs are a powerful and historically undercovered sector of higher education. And in recent years, the sector has notched some critical victories: a surge in applications, additional federal funds aimed at addressing inequity, and a […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Violence Isn’t New for Black People Trying to Get an Education
Black educators are on edge amid a flurry of political attacks and violent threats on the institutions, curricula, and books at the center of their work. From the bomb threats on Black college campuses to the legislative bans on teaching “critical race theory,” the assaults on Black learning are raising uncomfortable ghosts of historical efforts […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
For Black College Students, AUC Was Their Safe Space. Now That’s Threatened, Too.
When Mikayla Sharrieff got her acceptance letter from Spelman College two years ago, she was extremely emotional. “I just remember feeling so proud to call myself a Spelmanite,” she said. “I even cried because I felt like all of my hard work paid off.” The junior engineering major chose Spelman because she wanted to experience […]