'Everybody's Got Your Back': Life at an HBCU During a Turbulent Year

Source: The Chronicle

Covid-19 has disproportionately harmed Black communities. And one year ago, in the midst of the first Covid-related shutdown, George Floyd was murdered. Just before that came the killings of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor.

Since then, Black students have had to grapple with constant, hard-to-process societal conversations about police brutality and racial injustice. This spring, during the trial of Derek Chauvin, the white police officer who was convicted of murdering Floyd, they had to relive the graphic details of his death over and over.

During such a harrowing year, HBCUs have provided a haven. The colleges offer students a sense of familiarity, racial relief, and faculty members who resemble them.

In the past few years, more Black students have chosen to attend HBCUs instead of predominantly white institutions. While enrollment at historically Black colleges declined in the decade from 2006 to 2015, the tide has appeared to turn since then, with dozens of institutions announcing record-breaking first-year classes. In the fall of 2020, as the pandemic led to enrollment declines across much of higher ed, many HBCUs posted enrollment increases.

According to a recent analysis, enrollment of African American first-time college students climbed at historically Black colleges in states where hate-crime reports increased. Researchers speculated in a working paper that the correlation could reflect Black students’ desire to attend colleges with fewer racist incidents.

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