|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
| Moderated by: Saida.M, safetyblitz, Raven, Miss Brighter Days, LadyDay, Kunjufu, Kibibi, Happiness, Dillinger, Breadfruit, Backatya |
|
|
| Author | |
|---|
Burning Spear
Villager
| Joined: | Monday May 17th, 2004 |
| Location: | Washington DC, USA |
| Posts: | 3033 |
| Photo: | |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: |   |
Click here for your Black Profile
Search for Black Sites
|
Posted: Tuesday August 15th, 2006 12:29 |
|
More Black Males Entering and Graduating College: HBCU’s Growing Lure
http://www.blackvoicenews.com/content/view/39818/4/
Friday, 11 August 2006
By Chris Levister
Picture this: Morehouse running back J.D. Washington strolling across the stage to receive his college degree his proud papa shouting ‘That's my boy.' The May 2006 graduation was emblematic not just for two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington and wife Pauletta but for the battered image of America's Black male.
"We're coming back," exalted J.D. pushing back tears and tossing his black mortarboard into a sea of more than 600 fellow graduates.
Amid the almost daily barrage of media headlines about the dearth of Black men in higher education there are some bright spots. Two key studies released in July show more and more African-American males are attending and graduating from college. Increasingly many of them are choosing one of America's historically Black colleges and universities, or "HBCUs."
"Where the Boys Are." In May HBCU Morehouse College graduated 600 Black males -- it's largest class ever.
Morehouse College is one of the nation's top degree producing institutions for African-American males. This year the college graduated its largest class ever - more than 600 graduates compared to less than 500 a year earlier.
A new report from the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (JBHE) states that in 2004, the latest year for which complete data is available, there were 758,400 Black males enrolled in higher education compared to 603,032 in 2000. This is the highest level of enrollments for African American males in history. Black males made 4.4 percent of all enrollments in higher education. The JBHE report notes that about 28 percent of foreign-born Black men in the U.S. have a four-year college degree. This is very close to the educational attainment figures for native-born white men in America.
Dr. Walter E. Massey, president of Morehouse College says, "At Morehouse developing young men is our only business. We build an expectation of success from our students. We give students a sense of themselves, not only as men, but also as human beings. We provide and encourage mentoring practices. We provide non-threatening options and ways for men to ask for and receive help. The Morehouse and HBCU advantage is we set high standards, so that there is a sense of confidence upon graduation."
Most of the nation's HBCUs were founded in the 1800's as a result of the Civil War's end and the recognized need for educational institutions for freed slaves and Native Americans. People such as Martin Luther King, Jr, W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington, Thurgood Marshall and California Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally all graduated from HBCUs.
Thirty-eight percent of the Black male students receiving bachelor's degrees in science and engineering in 2004 received their degrees from an HBCU. Half of the 26 institutions that awarded the largest number of liberal arts bachelor's degrees to Black men were HBCU's according to the Status Report on Minorities in Higher Education 2004-2005, issued by the Washington D.C. - based American Council on Education (ACE).
Redlands accountant and 2005 Howard University graduate, Allen Redmond knows the value of attending an HBCU. "The odds are in your favor." Redmond was raised in predominately white Claremont in the shadow of the Claremont Colleges, a cluster of some of America's most prestigious schools. "I always thought I was to attend one of those schools. They were close to home. I knew a lot of their alumni. But when it came time for me to select a college my father took me to visit three highly recommended schools, all were HBCUs. I was shocked. The faculty, student and campus atmosphere was amazing. It felt like home. It felt like the faculty and staff wanted me there."
Redmond says he missed home and worried about his family. "They sacrificed to pay my college expenses. I was very lonely at first. I struggled academically early on. I almost flunked out." Redmond says male counselors and tutors mentored and encouraged him one on one. "I had no excuse for failure. The classes were small. It felt good to see a Black male standing in front of the class for a change. By the time I graduated I had developed a sense about who I was as a man - not just a Black man. The friends I made, the relationships I formed with my professors and other Black males left a lasting impression on me. Looking back I not only earned a higher education but also gained a sense of identity and heritage," he said.
"Expect to see enrollment and overall growth of HBCUs increase says William R. Moss III, co-founder of http://www.hbcu-central.com Graduates of these institutions (particularly Black males) now have the Internet to help spread the word about there experience at HBCUs. "We have designed a website that started as a way for fellow alumni to keep in touch but that has turned into a HBCU support system," said Moss.
Black men have experienced a starling reversal of fortunes in the span of one generation. In 1980 African-American men ages 18-24 enrolled in higher education outnumbered those incarcerated by a quarter million. According to the U.S. Justice Department, in 2000, Black men ages 18-55 behind bars exceeded those on campus by 188,000 - reflecting the nation's growing and aging prison population.
Experts are cautiously optimistic about the upturn in Black male enrollment. Dr. Geoffery Ajirotutu, educator and author of "Sabotaging America's Black Boys" is among them. "I don't think we should become overly excited right now. If you have a knife six inches in your back and you pull it out three inches you still have a knife in your back - is there progress?"
"This is definitely encouraging news and something to build on, but we're not close to where we need to be." Ajirotutu believes there is much work to do before we see a sustained upturn in Black males graduating from college and competing on a global level. "Our boys are not dropping out in the 12th grade - they're dropping out in the ninth grade. Our society teaches boys can either become an athlete, a rapper, a player or a pimp."
Accountant Redmond agrees "Black males need to see the accountants, the lawyers, the physicians, the bus drivers and computer technicians - if not - we will all pay the price," he says citing James Baldwin's 1970's call for radical change: "These are our children and we will benefit by or pay for what they become."
____________________
 
____________________
Click here for your Black Profile
|
Abissinia
Villager
| Joined: | Friday April 30th, 2004 |
| Location: | London, United Kingdom |
| Posts: | 4576 |
| Photo: | |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: |  |
Click here for your Black Profile
Search for Black Sites
|
Posted: Tuesday August 15th, 2006 15:43 |
|
| It's nice to get positive stories like that regarding AA men. I hope the trend continues and they continue to grow from strength to strength.
____________________
I am powerful and i am loved.
I am powerful and i am loving.
I am powerful and i love it!
____________________
www.blacksearch.co.uk - Helping to promote Black African and Caribbean Websites
|
TheDogon
Villager
| Joined: | Thursday May 11th, 2006 |
| Location: | USA |
| Posts: | 1605 |
| Photo: | |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
Click here for your Black Profile
Search for Black Sites
|
Posted: Tuesday August 15th, 2006 21:01 |
|
Thanks brotha from posting that positive bit of news. I am forwarding this to my nephews. Hopefully, this will strike a chord somewhere.
____________________
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.
http://www.covenantwithblackamerica.com
____________________
Click here for your Black Profile
|
conscious sistah
Villager
| Joined: | Saturday March 11th, 2006 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 205 |
| Photo: | |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
Click here for your Black Profile
Search for Black Sites
|
Posted: Tuesday August 15th, 2006 22:02 |
|
This is good news, at least improvement is taking place.
 love the picture of the young brothas at their graduation ceromony.
____________________
www.blacksearch.co.uk - Helping to promote Black African and Caribbean Websites
|
Saida.M
Super Moderator
| Joined: | Tuesday November 11th, 2003 |
| Location: | RACIST UK |
| Posts: | 3963 |
| Photo: | |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
Click here for your Black Profile
Search for Black Sites
|
Posted: Sunday September 17th, 2006 13:59 |
|
____________________
People readily believe lies before they believe the truth
"One of the heads of the beast seemed to have been fatally wounded, but the wound had healed. The whole earth was amazed and followed the beast".
Good News Bible. Rev. Ch.13 V.3
____________________
Click here for your Black Profile
|
CeeCee
Villager
| Joined: | Monday February 2nd, 2004 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 1301 |
| Photo: | |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
Click here for your Black Profile
Search for Black Sites
|
Posted: Sunday September 17th, 2006 23:57 |
|
Burning Spear,
I'm so happy to hear about the good news about Black males and just Black people in general. Several days ago, I was reading an article( I also like the Black owned paper because they show the postive things about African-Americans) about a young 21 year old black man who spent a year in China doing Business in the country. He said that he liked China and plan on going back there in the near future, but he also said that he had to play Businessman, friend and educator because there are more people in this world who know nothing about Black men or either know only the negatives about them. I was very proud of this brother because he is so young and is not in the mode of Generation X or isn't the stereotypical part of the Black male status Quo. I know everytime I walking around the streets of Atlanta, I see more Black males going to school, going the college, and living out their dreams more than them not doing so. Even if they aren't doing anything, they are dreaming about it and that is what enlightens me about them. For each time I read statistics about them, I look out on the road and remind myself how untrue that is and would tell my sons( if I had any) look away form the newspapers and TV and think about your own abilities.
____________________
www.blacksearch.co.uk - Helping to promote Black African and Caribbean Websites
|
stick-upKid
Villager
| Joined: | Wednesday August 10th, 2005 |
| Location: | United Kingdom |
| Posts: | 1328 |
| Photo: | |
| Status: |
Offline
|
| Mana: | |
Click here for your Black Profile
Search for Black Sites
|
Posted: Tuesday September 19th, 2006 17:46 |
|
I just looked at that picture and I smiled...
Nuff said.
____________________
They want you to Forget History.
They want you to Forgive Injustice.
____________________
Click here for your Black Profile
|
|
|
Current time is 20:36 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Join the
Blacknet
mailing list
|
|
