A brief history of HBCUs through conversations with five scholars about the second curriculum which informs movement for Civil Rights in the midcentury US, segregation scholars and the long withholding of post-baccalaureate education from HBCUs [40:00], the aspirational Black University Concept in W.E.B. DuBois and Vincent Harding [75:00], and the challenges facing HBCU students today [84:00].
Cast (in order of appearance):
Jelani Favors is Henry E. Frye Distinguished Professor of History at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University and Director of the Center of Excellence for Social Justice. He is the author of Shelter In A Time of Storm (UNC Press, 2020).
Crystal Sanders is Associate Professor of African American Studies at Emory University and the author of A Forgotten Migration (UNC Press, 2024)
Andrew Douglas is Professor and Chair of Political Science at Morehouse College and the co-author of Prophet of Discontent (U. Georgia, 2021). He is also author of “Modern Money & The Black University Concept” for Money On The Left.
Jared Loggins is Assistant Professor of Black Studies & Political Science at Amherst College and the co-author of Prophet of Discontent (U. Georgia, 2021).
Dominique Baker is Associate Professor of Education & Public Policy at University of Delaware. She has published extensively on intersections of race, political economy, and education funding.
Matt Seybold is Associate Professor of American Literature & Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College, as well as resident scholar at the Center For Mark Twain Studies and executive producer of The American Vandal Podcast.
Soundtrack:
All music for this season of The American Vandal Podcast comes from the Tennessee-based roots ensemble DownRiver Collective. Most of the tracks come from their most recent EP, Off The Shelf. You can purchase it direct from the band here. It’s also available on Spotify and Apple Music.
Tracks featured in this episode include “Steam Whistle,” “Dead To Me,” “Walls,” “As It Was,” and “Wasted Time.”
Narration:
Excerpts from Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner’s The Gilded Age come from the audiobook edition produced by SNR Audio and narrated by Nathan Osgood. Available at Audible, as well as other audiobook retailers. SNR has an extensive catalog of professionally-narrated adaptations of 19th-century Anglophone fiction, including The Complete Mark Twain Collection.
Nathan Osgood is an actor and voice artist who has being appearing in films, scripted television, video games, podcasts, and audiobooks since the mid-’90s. In 2018, he played Mark Twain in the Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly vehicle, Holmes and Watson.
Excerpts in this episode come from chapters eighteen and twenty.
Episode Bibliography:
Ayana Archie, “State-Run, Land-Grant HBCUs Are Owed More Than $13 Billion, The White House Says” NPR (September 18, 2023)
Dominique Baker et al, “Expanding The Student Persistence Puzzle to Minority Serving Institutions: The Residential Historically Black College & University Context” Journal of College Student Retention (February 2021)
Dominique Baker & Tolani Britton, “Hate Crimes & Black College Student Enrollment” Education Finance & Policy (Spring 2024)
Dominique Baker, “A Case Study of Undergraduate Debt, Repayment Plans, & Postbaccalaureate Decision-Making Among Black Students at HBCUs” Journal of Student Financial Aid (June 2019)
Harry Belafonte, “Why Can’t Our Children Find Us?” SNCC 50 (April, 2010)
Andrew Douglas, “Modern Money & The Black University Concept” Money On The Left (April 19, 2024)
Andrew Douglas & Jared Loggins, Prophet of Discontent: Martin Luther King Jr. & The Critique of Racial Capitalism (U Georgia P, 2021)
Andrew Douglas & Jared Loggins, “The Lost Promise of Black Study” Boston Review (September 28, 2021)
W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (1903)
W.E.B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America, 1860-1880 (1935)
W.E.B. Du Bois, “The Field & Function of the American Negro College” (1933)
W.E.B. Du Bois, The Education of Black People: Ten Critiques, 1906-1960 (1973) [2001 Monthly Review Edition]
Jelani Favors, Shelter In A Time Of Storm: How Black Colleges Fostered Generations of Leadership & Activism (UNC Press, 2020)
Vincent Harding, “Toward The Black University” Ebony (August, 1970)
Kendrick Lamar, “Not Like Us” (Interscope, 2024)
Joshua Myers, Of Black Study (Pluto, 2023)
Crystal R. Sanders, A Forgotten Migration: Black Southerners, Segregation Scholarships, & The Debt Owed to Public HBCUs (UNC Press, 2024)
Denise A. Smith, Nourishing The Nation While Starving: The Underfunding of Black Land-Grant Colleges & Universities (The Century Foundation, 2023)
Albion W. Tourgée, Bricks Without Straw (1880) [2009 Duke UP Edition]
Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure & Anti-Structure (Routledge, 1969)
Mark Twain & Charles Dudley Warner, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) [2006 Modern Library Edition]
Booker T. Washington, “Atlanta Exposition Speech” (1895)
The Black University Concept & The Second Curriculum (A Tale of Today, Episode #6)