Black colleges have outperformed higher-ranked institutions on educating black students.
Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurrence in last year’s Supreme Court decision banning the use of race in college admissions stressed the outsize role that historically black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, have played in black upward mobility.
Citing studies by the National Science Foundation and the United Negro College Fund, Justice Thomas noted that even though most black undergraduates don’t attend black colleges, these schools have turned out a disproportionate number of black professionals, including half of all black attorneys and 80% of black judges. Historically black colleges represent seven of the top eight institutions that produce the highest number of black students who go on to earn doctorates in science and engineering. “In fact,” Justice Thomas wrote, “Xavier University, an HBCU with only a small percentage of white students, has had better success at helping low-income students move into the middle class than Harvard has.”
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Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and a Fox News commentator. Follow him on Twitter here.
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