Many distinguished artists and leaders graduated from America's Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Above, a student from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
Thurgood Marshall, center, walks with Autherine Lucy, who sued the University of Alabama in 1956. It was one of many school segregation cases Marshall argued.
In his State of the Union address, President Obama urged American lawmakers to support innovative research and educational opportunities.
More and more U.S. colleges and universities are pledging to cut greenhouse gases. Above, students at Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Arizona collect recyclables.
Community colleges excel at training students for jobs in emerging fields.
Remembering the Little Rock Nine
Ernest Green was one of the "Little Rock Nine," the first African Americans to attend all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. He graduated the following year.