Students attending HBCUs where the Venn diagram intersect have been dealt a triple threat, the perfect storm of the Right’s attempts to silence Black and Brown voices. There are 37 HBCUs in these six states alone.
At last count, 88 HBCUs in 20 states, and tens of thousands of young Black and Brown adults are in the lines of Conservative fire. At stake are the freedom to gather with like-minded students who not only share similar appearances, but also similar histories, who unite at these institutions to learn, share, and grow to conquer new paths and realize new lives, lives that are intended to be filled with endless opportunities to create a new future.
These are the higher learning experiences that are being targeted, and future lives that are being limited.
Restriction of voter access, gerrymandering, as well as placing election deniers in key administration roles directly affect students attending HBCUs in Pennsylvania and Virginia schools, while also impacting students enrolled in schools in Alabama, Louisiana, and West Virginia.
But HBCU students in Alabama, Louisiana, and West Virginia are likewise facing limited access to abortion services, and increasingly, legislation that prohibits and criminalizes accessing information about abortions, and/or traveling across state lines to obtain procedures or medications deemed to be solely abortifacient drugs.
HBCUs solely affected by these laws are also located in Missouri and Ohio.
Curriculum restrictions resulting from national efforts to recast Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project as anti-white initiatives that threaten white identity have led to legislation that restricts curricula specifically in Arkansas, South Carolina, and Texas – states that house HBCUs and are also directly affected by abortion bans.
Thus far, students attending universities or colleges in the District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, and North Carolina have dodged these legislative bullets. Who knows what the future holds?