The History of Black Colleges and Universities - Essay Example

HBCUS ARCHITECTURE Examining the need for more fully accredited Schools of Architecture in Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Back in the days when there was still widespread racism in the United States, there used to be no higher education centers that served the blacks. This was probably due to the discrimination that still existed at that time. Another reason might have as well been the prejudice that the whites had that the black population didn’t have enough intellect to study in these high centers of higher education. The main reason though is usually regarded as the one that the whites didn’t want the blacks to have a proper education. It is said that education is power, and with the empowerment that these high learning institutions would give to the blacks, there were high chances that the blacks would no longer hear a thing that the white man said and thus cease to be their slaves (Gasman, and Tudico, 2008). The history of the start of historically black colleges and universities dates back in the mid and early 19th century. The first ever black colleges and universities were started secretly and they used to be located in hidden places such as basements of churches and box cars. This was a strategic move by the pioneers of these black colleges and universities so as to avoid the discovery of the white population of the existence of these colleges. Naturally, these colleges and universities started to grow and with the urge of more blacks seeking a higher education berth, more and more historically black universities started cropping up. Some of the pioneers of these universities, referring to the starters, include Mary M. Bethune, a desire of education that was inspired to open up a college with limited funds of less than $2 and less than 10 students back in the early 1900s. Currently, historically black colleges can boast of having brought up some of the black scholars that exist. These include; W.E.D Du Bois, who went through Fisk University, Toni Morrison, who went through Howard University and the great revolutionist, Martin Luther King, Jr. who went through Morehouse College. To date, there are more than 106 colleges that can be accredited as historically black colleges and universities spread through the entire United States of America. As a result of the history behind the start of these historically black colleges and universities, most of them don’t boast of fully accredited high end courses that are being offered in them. In this case, high end courses refer to the courses that are considered in high esteem among the professional or career circles. These include courses such as medicine, architecture, courses in technology and various engineering courses. This essay will mainly focus on the need of establishing more fully accredited schools of architecture in historically black colleges and universities. From statistics by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, it is documented that there are approximately 100, 000 licensed. Out of these, there is an alarming imbalance between the populations that represents the black American in the entire body of Architects in the US and the white architects. African Americans only represent 1.5% of the entire body of licensed Architects in the United States. This translates to approximately 1,580 African American architects out of the over 100,000 that are licensed in the United States. A further study by the same bureau goes ahead to give us the population of female African American architects, and it is a shameful statistic of only 186 females. This translates to about 12% of the 1.5% of the licensed architects in the United States (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008). These statistics sure call for the examination of this issue to ensure that there are more fully accredited Schools in historically black colleges and Universities. Architecture has been long been an inaccessible course to the black population. This has in turn been interpreted that it is an unacceptable career course among the blacks. One of the major contributors to these is that the historically black colleges and universities that are so popular with the black population in the United States lack the opportunity to host this course. Most historically black colleges and universities, hence forth referred to as HBCUs, have from the days back then specialized in offering course related to the arts and less of science and technology. This greatly limits the desire of black students to study architecture, and even if there are a few African Americans who would wish to pursue a career in it, there are very limited opportunities that would be provided (Paul, 2008). One factor that might help a lot in the establishment of fully accredited schools of architecture in HBCUs is the pride that African Americans should have as to see themselves in the perspectives that they were the pioneers in the architectural field. This will increase the awareness of the career of architecture among the blacks and therefore increase the urge of more of this population to pursue a career in architecture. With the demand of such services, HBCUs will automatically be pressured to introduce fully accredited Schools of Architectures, and by these, the pursuit of the course will at least boost the number of licensed architects in the United States and thus course some balance unlike the great imbalance that currently exists (Drek, 2004). Another drawback that might be the cause of unfamiliarity of architecture among the blacks and in HBCUs is the invisibility that former great African American architects have been subjected to. Most students always require a mentor or a figurehead to whom they can always refer to in their pursuit of a certain goal. Although we have had great architects of the African origin in the past, an invisible eye has been turned towards them making African Americans lack a figurehead to emulate. Such great architects are such as the three African American architects that were referred to as the Invisible Trio. The Invisible Trio comprised of namely: Hilyard Robinson, Abele F. Julian and Paul Williams. These three have put a hallmark in the career of architecture, yet they have never been widely viewed as such. Most proponents of the accreditation of full architecture schools in HBCUs are confident that the impact that the recognition of these three would bring to the revolution of increasing the number of African American would be immense (Mitchell, 2002). Milestones have however been made by African Americans in the field, such as the immediately mentioned Invisible Three and a more recent achievement in which we had the first ever African American architect head the American Institute of Architects, normally referred to as AIA. This was in June, the year 2006, when the architectures voted for and endorsed Marshall Purnell to be the President of AIA. This is a milestone that cannot go unnoticed but rather prove to the black population that architecture is a very probable career course among the blacks, and also brings the need of HBCUs to fully accredit the Schools of Architecture within there institutions. The alarming imbalance that has been seen in the statistics of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics should be unacceptable. This can only be achieved by increasing the opportunities to black people of taking a pursuit of course in architecture. One main solution would be to fully accredit Schools of Architecture in Historically Black Colleges and Universities as discussed in this essay. The background of the universities should be completely ignored and measures such fully recognizing figureheads in the African American population who had a stamp in architecture should be at the frontline. These will collectively ensure that the number of blacks in the United States taking architecture as a career course increase and thus erase completely the initial mentalities that existed within the mind sets of the blacks of what architecture as a course entailed. References Drek, W. (2004). African American Architects - A Biographical Dictionary 1865 – 1945. New York: Spulock publishers. Mitchell, M. (2002). The Crisis of the African American Architect: Conflicting Cultures of Architecture and (Black) Power. New York: IUniverse Gasman, M and Tudico, C. L. (2008). Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Triumphs, Troubles, and Taboos. California: Palgrave Macmillan 2010, May 8. US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved from http://data.bls.gov/search/query/results?cx=013738036195919377644%3Agu kk- b5cd0a&cof=FORID%3A10%3BNB%3A1&ie=ISO-8859- 1&q=architecture&term.x=0&term.y=0&filter=0&sa=Search#919 Paul R. W. (2008). The Will and the Way: Paul R. Williams, Architect. New York: Rizzoli International Publications Read More