Praising Black colleges for their historic role in instilling hope and expanding educational opportunity for African Americans, President Obama proclaimed this week National Historically Black College and University (HBCU) Week. “This week, we celebrate the accomplishments of HBCUs and look to the future with conviction and optimism,” Obama said. “These institutions will play a key role in reaching our ambitious national education goals, including having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. As our Nation strives toward this goal, we invite HBCUs to employ new, innovative, and ambitious strategies to help the next generation of Americans successfully complete college and prepare themselves for the global economy. During National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week, we recommit ourselves to never resting until equality is real, opportunity is universal, and all citizens can realize their dreams.” The president noted that such luminaries as W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington, to Langston Hughes and Thurgood Marshall graduated from HBCUs before going on to shape the course of American history. “For generations, education has opened doors to untold opportunities and bright futures,” he said. “Through quality instruction and a personal commitment to hard work, young people in every part of our nation have gone on to achieve success. Established by men and women of great vision, leadership, and clarity of purpose, historically Black colleges and universities have provided generations of Americans with opportunity, a solid education, and hope.” For more than 140 years, HBCUs – situated in 20 States, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands – have served hundreds of thousands of students from every background, contributing to the expansion of the African-American middle class, the growth of local communities, and the nation’s overall economy, Obama said. “HBCUs have released the power of knowledge to countless Americans … and offer us a window into our nation’s past as well as a path forward,” he said.
