The percentage of students receiving Pell Grants at a given college or university is a useful, though short of perfect, measure of economic diversity within a student body. The Pell Grant percentage also provides some clues about racial diversity and the economic characteristics of black students in a particular college or university's student…

Describes the experiences of a white faculty member who was hired to teach in the Black Studies department at Fordham University in 1970, examining how the department reacted to a white applicant, how the teacher worked to gain the trust of a very diverse group of students, and how these students reacted to a white educator teaching black studies.…

Presents a collection of articles on blacks in higher education, including such topics as: older black students; blacks in academic nursing; black medical school enrollment; blacks in academic psychology; black colleges being ignored by the Rhodes Scholarship Committee; school desegregation in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Louis Farrakhan as a GOP…

The percentage of black faculty at high-ranking U.S. colleges and universities is up slightly from percentages seen in previous surveys, comprising 3.6 percent of 40,747 full-time faculty overall. Liberal arts colleges are more successful in attracting black faculty than large research universities. Tenured black faculty make up 2.5 percent of all…

Discusses the nationwide impact of Harvard University president Lawrence Summers' controversial words on affirmative action and the impact of this controversy on Harvard's continuing ability to attract the best African American students and academics. Explains that the fundamental issue is of institutional legitimacy. (SM)

Recent research shows that the SAT II test is a much better predictor of college success than the standard SAT. In recent years, black students appear to be making progress in closing the racial scoring gap on the wide variety of academic subjects (particularly chemistry, world history, and biology) that are measured by the SAT II test. (SM)

Presents statistics on the status of African Americans in U.S. institutions of higher education, examining the following issues: the black-white higher education equality index, the state of racial inequality, state-by-state projections of African American college enrollments for 1995-2015, and the history and status of African Americans in higher…

Discusses what has happened to black enrollment at flagship state universities and graduate schools in five states in which race-neutral admissions have been mandated by law (Washington, Georgia, Texas, Florida, and California). Suggests that under a nationwide ban on affirmative action, black students would be largely eliminated from top…

Presents the opinions of a professor (the author) from the University of Michigan who leads the campaign against racial preferences in higher education, focusing on such topics as his feelings about the situation, why he challenged the university's admissions policies, peer reactions to his efforts, the reaction of black students in his classes,…

While the number of blacks earning bachelor's and master's degrees has risen significantly since 1985, and the number of black doctoral degrees rose 110 percent, the percentage of all degrees awarded to blacks at all levels is far lower than the black percentage of the U.S. population. Black women earn 65.7 percent of all doctorates awarded to…

Presents the story of Charles Hamilton Houston, an African American legal scholar who led a crusade focused on equal educational opportunities and facilities for African American students. He used the courts to force Americans to listen to his message about racial subjugation, segregation, and lynch law. (SM)

When Anita Hemmings applied to Vassar College in 1893, Vassar did not know she was an African American passing for white. In August 1897, the college discovered that she was black, and it took another 40 years for Vassar to open its doors to another African American student. Discusses the phenomenon of African Americans passing as white to gain…

Describes how the racist academic consensus was established at Harvard University, focusing on two professors, Samuel George Morton and Louis Agassiz, who worked to convince U.S. scholars of the inherent inferiority and subhuman status of the black race. Morton published data on the inferiority of the black race based on analysis of his collection…

One of the reasons that the college participation rate is so low for young blacks is the very large high school dropout rate among black students. Compares black high school graduations by state, black and white high school graduation rates by state, and high school graduation rates in selected cities. (SM)

Several historically black colleges produce greater percentages of graduates who go on to earn doctoral degrees than do many of the nation's highest-ranked colleges. However, when examining Ph.D. productivity in the sciences and mathematics, black colleges do not fare as well. Among the black colleges, Fisk University is the leader in Ph.D.…