Southeast Texas is home to multiple HBCUs, or historically-Black colleges and universities. Those schools are becoming a trendy pick for students looking for a place of higher learning.Historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, have been around since the 1800s, but lately, they've gotten a fresh wind.
Back then, and for many years after, that was the only way the enslaved, freedmen, women, and Black Americans could get a higher education. When HBCUs thrive, America thrives. According to the United Negro College Fund, currently, 25% of Black graduates with STEM degrees come from HBCUs. They're the doctors, dentists, and veterinarians many of us see here in southeast Texas.
"The education is equal. Your professors are outstanding because we had to take the same tests everybody else had to take," Pollard added. "What really sold me on Prairie View is the fact that they're among the top producers of Black engineers," he explained. You don't have to look far to find a notable HBCU alum. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Congressman John Lewis, Spike Lee, Chadwick Boseman, Vice-President Kamala Harris, and even my own mom, graduated from Fisk University in Nashville back in the 70s. It's a legacy that today's HBCU college students carry on.