Historically black colleges and universities

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of serving African American students. Most are in the Southern United States and were founded during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877) following the American Civil War. Their original purpose was to provide education for African Americans in an era when most colleges and universities in the United States did not allow Black students to enroll. During the Reconstruction era, most historically Black colleges were founded by Protestant religious organizations. This changed in 1890 with the U . Congress' passage of the Second Morrill Act, which required segregated Southern states to provide African Americans with public higher education schools in order to receive the Act's benefits. Separately, during the late 20th century, either after expanding their inclusion of Black people and African Americans into their institutions or gaining the status of minority-serving institution, some institutions came to be called predominantly Black institutions (PBIs). For a century after the abolition of American slavery in 1865, almost all colleges and universities in the Southern United States prohibited all African Americans from attending as required by Jim Crow laws in the South, while institutions in other parts of the country regularly employed quotas to limit admission of Black people. HBCUs were established to provide more opportunities to African Americans and are largely responsible for establishing and expanding the African-American middle class. In the 1950s and 1960s, legally enforced racial segregation in education was generally outlawed throughout the South (and anywhere else in the United States), and other non-discrimination policies were adopted. There are 107 HBCUs as of 2026 in the United States (of 121 institutions that existed during the 1930s), representing three percent (3%) of the nation's colleges, including public and private institutions. 27 offer doctoral programs, 52 offer master's programs, 83 offer bachelor's degree programs, and 38 offer associate degrees. HBCUs currently produce nearly 20% of all African American college graduates and 25% of African American STEM graduates. Among the graduates of HBCUs are civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., United States Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, American film director Spike Lee, former United States vice president Kamala Harris and the late American mathematician Katherine Johnson.