Introduction

This report presents a statistical overview of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) from 1976 to 2001. HBCUs are institutions established prior to 1964, whose principal mission is the education of Black Americans.

Although most HBCUs are 4-year institutions in the southern United States, they represent a diverse set of institutions in 19 states, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands. They are both public and private; single-sex and coeducational; predominantly Black and predominantly White; 2-year and 4-year colleges; research universities, professional schools, community colleges, and small liberal arts colleges.

Three colleges for Blacks were established before 1862. Cheyney University of Pennsylvania was established in the 1830s. Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and Wilberforce College in Ohio were established in the 1850s. In 1862, the first land grant college provisions, known as the First Morrill Act, were enacted by Congress. By the late 1860s, Morrill Act funds were distributed to the states, with the intention that they would foster educational opportunity for all students, especially newly freed Blacks. Congress passed the Second Morrill Act in 1890 that required states with dual systems of higher education (all-White and non-White) to provide land-grant institutions for both systems. Nineteen land-grant institutions for Blacks were organized and were initially non-degree granting agricultural, mechanical, and industrial schools. In 1965, Congress introduced its institutional aid program for HBCUs (20 USC 1060). This E.D. TAB report presents tabular data on institution enrollment, degrees conferred, staff and salaries, revenues, expenditures, and student financial aid.