The general mission of a historically Black college or university is to provide a quality education to Black students, as many experienced obstacles entering other white institutions in the past. Now, HBCUs are vital for educating Black professionals. According to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, HBCUs have graduated 40% of all Black engineers; 40% of all Black U.S. Congress members; 50% of all Black lawyers; and 80% of all Black judges.

However, these Black institutions still aren’t funded as much as other comparable schools according to a report from Candid and ABFE. Andre Perry, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote a report about HBCU investment, saying, “HBCUs are chronically underfunded due to state underinvestment, lower alumni contributions, and lower endowments. Much of this underfunding represents the effects of systemic racism, both historical and present-day.” Perry spoke to Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal about the legacy of racism in higher education, and what proper investment in HBCUs would look like.

The following is an edited transcript of the conversation.

Kai Ryssdal: Could you give us a quick thumbnail sketch of the current state of HBCU funding in this country, please?

Andre Perry: The 10 largest HBCU endowments in 2020 total just $2 billion compared to $200 billion across the top, primarily white institutions. HBCUs are chronically underfunded, due largely to state underinvestment, lower alumni contributions, and lower Black incomes and wealth. So those endowments really reflect the loss of wealth in Black individuals.

Ryssdal: So given this moment, or the moment we had, I suppose, in 2020, after the murder of George Floyd and the increased interest in Black economic development in this country, are you surprised that HBCUs still are where you point out that they are?

Perry: I’m not surprised because after 2020, there was a lot of philanthropic giving, people wanted to respond to George Floyd’s tragedy by giving essentially sympathy dollars. But that kind of funding is really not the kind of funding that we consider investment. Given the pound-for-pound impact that HBCUs provide to communities, you would think there’d be greater investment, but as a result, the communities are also suffering, the communities that host the HBCUs are also suffering because colleges and universities are by default, are the economic development organizations in those places.

Ryssdal: So there is obviously an element, a sizable element, of structural economic racism in the reasoning behind HBCUs not being as endowed and invested in as they ought to be. But you wrote a piece at Brookings last year, in which you point out that HBCUs — there is a need to understand that story better, and for them to tell the story better.

Perry: Yeah, you know, the HBCUs are doing such a great job of graduating students. And we just need to understand how much that matters to the community overall. The amount of degrees that they produce, the amount of money those graduates produce, are, it’s not reflected in the overall investment in those institutions. And as a result, those institutions are struggling a bit. In addition, HBCUs are treated like Black people. So you don’t see the kinds of investments overall, which leads to less land and property acquisition. You don’t see investments in the sports teams. You saw that during the Jackson State Deion Sanders issues. We’re just not seeing the investment, but it’s in the face of production overall.

Ryssdal: Right, okay, so we talked about George Floyd and what that could conceivably have meant for HBCUs in this economy. I want to take the sort of the flip side of that coin and ask you about the state of Florida and Governor DeSantis, and his efforts to quash and squash DEI in that state and the spread of it to others. It does seem a perilous moment for HBCUs. 

Perry: Yeah, most of HBCUs do not have DEI programs. However, what DeSantis is doing is really challenging the notion of ‘Should we have an HBCU?’ And that’s a question that comes up all the time, and it’s really shameful given the production of HBCUs. But remember, that if it were not for HBCUs, if it were not for HBCUs, if it were not for the Black teachers that came out of HBCUs, we would not have the advancements in knowledge around slavery, Jim Crow, racism, discrimination, because we clearly see a reticence to learn those subjects so we need to continuously fund and support these institutions.