Aiisha G. Herring-Miller
Aiisha Herring-Miller is a native of Harrisburg, PA and has lived in Philadelphia, PA, since 1998. For 16 years, Aiisha has worked for the City of Philadelphia focusing on community and economic development initiatives. She is currently the Director, Economic Development Zones for the Department of Commerce. She is responsible for leading efforts for the Empowerment Zone’s legacy program, the Neighborhood Funding Stream, a $31 million endowment that provides resources for commercial and industrial development, business development, financial literacy, and job creation. Read More
The nation’s historically Black college and universities (HBCUs) play critical role in the economic mobility of African Americans. These institutions were created during the 1800s, at a time when educating Black students was not encouraged in this country.
Pennsylvania is home to the nation’s two oldest HBCUs – Cheyney University and Lincoln University. “Prior to the Civil War, higher education opportunities were virtually nonexistent for nearly all Black Americans,” Monica Anderson, a research associate at Pew Research Center wrote in February 2017 Fact Tank analysis. “In the years following the war, more colleges sprang up to meet the educational needs of the newly freed Black population. As desegregation, rising incomes and increased access to financial aid resulted in more college options for Blacks, the share of Blacks attending HBCUs began to shrink.
By fall 1980, 17% of Black students enrolled in degree-granting institutions were enrolled at an HBCU. By 2000, that share had declined to 13%, and it stood at 9% in 2015.” A U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report indicates that HBCUs are credited with creating the African American middle class.
The reports states that HBCUs have produced 40% of African American members of Congress, 50% of professors at predominately white institutions, 40% of engineers, 50% of lawyers and 80% of judges. Many of these institutions provide low income, minority, rural and inner-city students with the opportunity to obtain college degrees.
“HBCU’S have been historically fundamental in changing an individual’s own trajectories from a socioeconomic standpoint,” said Brenda Allen, president of Lincoln University. “They were the primary institutions where African-Americans could even receive a college degree and so that in and of itself has had a tremendous impact on creating a black middle class.
” “I think that if we look at who the Black middle class are today, the majority of them got their roots in HBCUs and even as affirmative action opened up opportunities for people of color and women to go to other places, HBCUs continue to produce a disproportionately greater amount of Black people who go on to get college degrees and even more of a percentage relative to their proportion of higher ed in this country – those who go on to get advanced degrees in medicine, in law and Ph.D’s,” she continued.
Cheyney and Lincoln have had a positive impact on the economic circumstances of their graduates. The study titled The Equality of Opportunity Project: The best Pa. colleges to take you from the bottom of the income ladder to the top, found that Lincoln University ranked first and Cheyney University was sixth among Pennsylvania colleges in moving low income graduates into economic security and prosperity.
A 2017 landmark study commissioned by the UNCF – indicates that the nation’s 101 accredited HBCUs generate $14 billion in total economic impact for their local and regional economics. The report titled HBCUs Make America Strong: The Positive Economic Impact of Historically Black Colleges and Universities finds that HBCU graduates can expect work-life earnings of $130 billion throughout their lifetimes – 56 % more than they could expect to earn without their degrees or certificates.
HBCUs account for 3 % of all U.S. colleges, however they produce 17 % of African Americans with bachelor’s degrees and 24 % of African Americans with STEM bachelor’s degrees. Despite their positive economic impacts, many HBCUs are facing financial struggles as they grapple with lagging government funding, leadership challenges and reduced enrollment numbers.
