Across the U.S., graduate students' debts have grown significantly in recent years. They have been among the first victims as state support for universities fell off in the early 2000s, as some federal grants have flatlined, as operating costs have burgeoned, and as campuswide enrollments tick upward. Among doctoral programs, money often flows first to the so-called "highly fundable" fields of science and technology. For many students in other fields, borrowing is the only way forward. The toll on black doctoral students has been especially severe. Not only do African-Americans enter universities with more economic hardships, but the academic fields that have faced the greatest financial strains in the past 10 years--and hence have generated the heaviest doctoral debt burdens--are also those with the highest African-American enrollments: the social sciences, the humanities, and, above all, education. The situation is particularly grim for young black scholars in education, not because their average debt is the highest--it is not quite--but because the field is home to so many of them. Many African-Americans see their presence in education as a proud legacy--a sign that those who have succeeded academically are turning their attention back to a sector where others have failed. However, it is a legacy that brings serious costs for its inheritors, and there are no comparable lines of ascent into other fields. Moreover, history shows that the earliest generations of black scholars did not venture into education entirely of their own accord. Often it was simply where they were welcome. Often it was where they were pushed. Details of the history of African-Americans in education and the modern realities are presented.