Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) have traditionally held an important role in the higher education of African American students. There are over 100 HBCUs currently in operation in the United States, seven are located in Mississippi. This presentation discusses what qualifies an educational institution as an HBCU. It highlights the history of HBCUs before and during the height of the Jim Crow years as well as the continued relevance of HBCUs as both educational institutions and repositories of Black history and culture.
Speakers Expertise:
Jean Greene is co-director of the Utica Institute Museum & Archives on the Utica campus of Hinds Community College. She is the retired director of the William H. Holtzclaw Library where she served for 19 years. Greene served as co-director of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant entitled "William Holtzclaw and The Black Man's Burden." This research project created a humanities course taught across disciplines to give students a broader understanding of William Holtzclaw and his pioneering efforts in African American education in rural Mississippi. She is currently researching information related to the schools spawned by Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute to create a repository of data about these "Little Tuskegees."
