The Critical Role of HBCUs in Forming Leaders of Character
Across the ECI community, we have seen growing interest in the role of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in character education. We think that character education efforts at HBCUs have been underappreciated. For example, a 1999 book called Colleges that Encourage Character Development included an “honor roll” of colleges and universities deemed to be the best schools for character development. This list included only four of the country’s roughly 100 HBCUs. There is a shortage of discussion on the topic in academic research as well. A Google Scholar search for the phrase “character education” returns over a quarter of a million results. Add “HBCU” to the search terms and only 198 results are returned.
Yet there is a long history of intentional character formation at these institutions. So much so that some have argued that character education is the “raison d’etre” of HBCUs. When recalling her formative years as a student at Shaw University, an HBCU in Raleigh, North Carolina, legendary civil rights activist and organizer Ella Baker proudly asserted, “Where I went to school…you went there to give…the best of yourself to other people, rather than to extract from other people for your own benefit.” Baker was not the only civil rights leader with an HBCU alma mater. Many of the most significant civil rights organizations were overwhelmingly composed of students from southern HBCUs. These young idealists had been trained to give the best of themselves to other people, and later attributed this, in large part, to the character education that they received in college.
We think that the character education movement and HBCUs stand a lot to gain from one another. There is much to be learned from the long history of character education at HBCUs and their practices (e.g., “radical mentorship”), and even the ways in which these schools have struggled in this area. By motivating students to confront our nation’s enduring contradictions, champion justice, and serve as agents of change within their respective communities, HBCUs led the way in the civil rights era and can now serve as models for what character education can be.
By motivating students to confront our nation’s enduring contradictions, champion justice, and serve as agents of change within their respective communities, HBCUs led the way in the civil rights era and can now serve as models for what character education can be.
Accordingly, the ECI Research Team is currently investigating how faculty at different institutions think about the development of students’ character, and how this relates to students’ growth. In publicly available data collected by the Higher Education Research Institute, we found that, between 1989 and 1998, faculty at HBCUs considered the development of students’ moral character to be a more important educational goal than did faculty at other institutions. In ongoing work, we are investigating this question with more recent data and linking these with data from students as well.
We will continue to explore the particular role of HBCUs in educating character and invite interested partners to join the conversation. Our research team is eager to collaborate on this important topic.
We will continue to explore the particular role of HBCUs in educating character and invite interested partners to join the conversation. Our research team is eager to collaborate on this important topic. If you have empirical projects, thoughts, or questions you’d like to pursue together, please contact us. You can reach Dr. Michael Prinzing at prinzim@wfu.edu.
Dr. Jelani Favors is Vice President of the Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute at the United Negro College Fund.
Dr. Emily Hunt-Hinojosa is Associate Director of Partnerships and Senior Research and Assessment Scholar for the Educating Character Initiative at Wake Forest University.
Dr. Michael Prinzing is the Research and Assessment Scholar with the Educating Character Initiative at Wake Forest University.