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Historically Black Colleges and Universites Give Separate but Equal Education...or Not

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Since the founding of Cheyney University in 1837 HBCUs have continually been established to give African-Americans an education because they couldn’t attend other institutions. Slavery was the key to whites retaining superiority by preventing African-Americans becoming educated. While some Caucasians did believe in educating African-Americans the majority were against it. The 1860s were when HBCUs started becoming more widespread, although they were hard to keep sustained because the funding generally would have to come from whites. After the abolishment of slavery, laws started to be passed to protect the civil rights of African-Americans, and allow them to get an education. HBCUs became very important after the Supreme Court decision…show more content…
Tyree had started out performing strong, but soon his grades began to fall. He transferred to Howard University and changed his major from pharmacy to journalism. Tyree criticizes his peers still attending Pittsburgh saying “Where many of my African-American peers at Pitt had downsized themselves to just ‘getting along,’ ‘passing the grade’ and ‘rubbing shoulders’ with White America, I still wanted to compete to be the best.” Tyree argues that unlike students at PWIs, students at HBCUs have a more competitive nature because they are focused on academics and do not settle for just a passing grade. He also argues that although people may work just as hard at a PWI as they would at an HBCU, they have more opportunities to succeed, and become better leaders. The faculty at HBCUs provides the students with support they need to perform at a high level. This support results in students interacting with other peers, and also increased GPAs. Also, students at HBCUs are more likely to graduate and have more desire to go on and fulfil a career. Student graduation rates are high considering HBCUs only comprise 2 percent of colleges in the United States. 22.5 percent of all bachelor’s degrees, 11.9 percent of all master’s and 18.9 percent of all professional degrees received by African-Americans are from HBCUs. Since eighty percent of African Americans in college attend PWIs, it
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