Historically Black colleges and universities play a vital role in the education of African Americans in the United States.  For nearly 150 years, these institutions have trained the leadership of the Black community, graduating the nation’s African American teachers, doctors, lawyers, and scientists.  Despite the wealth of new research on Black colleges, there are topics that remain untouched and accomplishments that go unnoticed by the scholarly community.  The chapters in this edited volume focus on topics that deserve further attention and that will push students, scholars, policymakers, and Black college administrators to reexamine their perspectives on and perceptions of Black colleges.

Marybeth Gasman is Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Her most recent book is Envisioning Black Colleges: A History of the United Negro College Fund (2007).  Christopher L. Tudico is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania.  He is interested in the history of Mexican American higher education.

Introductory Essay--Marybeth Gasman and Christopher Tudico * For Alma Mater and The Fund: The United Negro College Fund’s National Pre-Alumni Council and the Creation of the Next Generation of Donors--Noah D. Drezner * On Firm Foundations:  African American Black College Graduates and Their Doctoral Student Development in the Ivy League--Pamela Felder Thompson * Bennett and Spelman Colleges: Creating Black Female Ph.D.s in the Sciences--Shannon Gary * Social Justice, Visionary and Career Project: The Discourses of Black Women Leaders at Black Colleges--Gaetane Jean-Marie * McCarthyism and its Impact on Two Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Pennsylvania: Cheyney and Lincoln Universities--Patricia C. Williams * The Forgotten GI:  The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act and Black Colleges--Meghan Wilson * Race, Social Justice, and the Jackson State Shootings--Mark S. Giles * On Opposite Sides of the Track:  New Orleans’ Urban University in Black and White--Valera T. Francis and Amy E. Wells * The Impact of a Federal Civil Rights Investigation on Central State University of Ohio, 1981–2005--Kristin Safier * The Retention Planning Process at Texas Southern University:  A Case Study--Jacqueline Fleming, Albert Tezeno, and Sylvia Zamora * Color and Class at the Black College: The Promulgation of Elitist Attitudes at Black Colleges--Bianca Taylor * Not a Laughing Matter: The Portrayals of Black Colleges on Television--Adam Parrott-Sheffer * Sexual Behavior Patterns and Sexual Risk-taking among Women and Men at a Historically Black University--Nelwyn B. Moore, J. Kenneth Davidson, Sr., and Robert Davis