Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2025
The Impact of Brown v. Board of Education on Higher Education Access,Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs),and Ongoing Efforts to Ensure Equitable Access
This article explores the impact of the landmark Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education, on higher education access with a specific focus on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Drawing upon historical, legal, and social science research, the article examines the historical context surrounding the case, its implications for desegregation in higher education, and the subsequent challenges and successes HBCUs face in fostering equitable access.
AdamsF. (1996). Why Brown v. Board of Education and affirmative action can save historically black colleges and universities. Alabama Law Review, 47, 481–511.
AdebayoA. O.AdekoyaA. A.AyadiO. F. (2001). Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) as agents of change for the development of minority businesses. Journal of Black Studies, 32(2), 166–183. https://doi.org/10.1177/002193470103200202
5.
Alabama State Teachers Association (ASTA) v. (1968). Alabama Public School and College Authority. 289 F. Supp. 784 (MD Ala. 1968) (ASTA), aff’d, 393 U. S. 400 (1969)
6.
AllenW. R.JewellJ. O. (2002). A backward glance forward: Past, present, and future perspectives on historically black colleges and universities. The Review of Higher Education, 25(3), 241–261. https://doi.org/10.1353/rhe.2002.0007
7.
AllenW. R.JewellJ. O.GriffinK. A.WolfD. S. S. (2007). Historically black colleges and universities: Honoring the past, engaging the present, touching the future. The Journal of Negro Education, 3, 263–280.
8.
AndersonJ. (1988). The education of blacks in the South, 1865-1930. University of North Carolina Press.
9.
BiezeM. S.GasmanM. (2012). Booker T. Washington rediscovered. Johns Hopkins University Press.
10.
BoustanL. P. (2016). Competition in the promised land: Black migrants in northern cities and labor markets (Vol. 39). Princeton University Press.
11.
BraceyE. N. (2017). The significance of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the 21st century: Will such institutions of higher learning survive?American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 76(3), 670–696. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12191
12.
BranchL. (2021). Don’t believe the hype: HBCUs and MSIs are still necessary to black political and socioeconomic development and advancement. In Reimagining historically black colleges and universities: Survival beyond 2021 (pp. 15–27). Emerald Publishing Limited.
13.
BrazzellJ. C. (1992). Bricks without straw: Missionary-sponsored black higher education in the post-emancipation era. The Journal of Higher Education, 63(1), 26–49.
14.
BrowningJ. E. S.WilliamsJ. B. (1978). History and goals of Black institutions of higher learning. In WillieC.EdmondsR. (Eds.), Black colleges in America: Challenge, development, survival. Teachers College Press.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. (1954), 347 U.S. 483
17.
BrubacherJ.RudyW. (1976). Higher education in transition: History of American colleges and universities. Routledge.
18.
BurnsA. M. (1980). Graduate education for blacks in North Carolina, 1930-1951. The Journal of Southern History, 46(2), 195–218. https://doi.org/10.2307/2208358
19.
CarrollM. E. (1954). “Statement by Dr. F.D. Patterson, President and Founder of the United Negro College Fund on the Decision of the United States Supreme Court on Segregation in the Public Schools of the South,” Box 16, microfiche 2296, UNCF Papers.
20.
ColeE. (2020). The campus color line: College presidents and the struggle for Black freedom. Princeton University Press.
21.
ConnellM. A. (1993). The road to United States v. Fordice: What is the duty of public colleges and universities in former De jure states to desegregate?Mississippi Law Journal, 62, 285–360.
22.
ConradC.GasmanM. (2015). Educating a diverse nation: Lessons from minority serving institutions. Harvard University Press.
23.
CulpJ. MJr. (1994). Black people in white face: Assimilation, culture, and the brown case. William & Mary Law Review, 36, 665–668.
24.
Cumming v. Richmond County Board of Education. (1899), 175 U.S. 528.
25.
DerenoncourtE.KimC. H.KuhnM.SchularickM. (2022). Wealth of two nations: The US racial wealth gap, 1860-2020 (No. w30101). National Bureau of Economic Research.
DrewryH. N.DoermannH. (2001). Stand and prosper: Private black colleges and their students. Princeton University Press.
28.
Du BoisW. E. B. (1930). The education of black people, Ten critiques, 1906-1960. In ApthekerH. (Ed.) Monthly Review Press. (Original work published 1930).
29.
FavorsJ. M. (2019). Shelter in a time of storm: How black colleges fostered generations of leadership and activism. University of North Carolina Press.
30.
FosterL. H. (1955). “Suggestions for 1955 UNCF Campaign,” Box 13, microfiche 1875, UNCF Papers.
31.
GasmanM. (1999). Scylla and Charybdis: Navigating the waters of academic freedom at Fisk university during Charles S. Johnson’s administration (1946-1956). American Educational Research Journal, 36(4), 739–758. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312036004739
32.
GasmanM. (2001). The president as ethical role model: Instituting an ethic of leadership at Fisk University in the 1950s. Journal of College and Character, 2(5), 1639-1295. https://doi.org/10.2202/1940-1639.1295
33.
GasmanM. (2002). W.E.B. Du Bois and Charles S. Johnson: Opposing views on philanthropic support for black higher education. History of Education Quarterly, 42(4), 493–516. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-5959.2002.tb00008.x
34.
GasmanM. (2003). A word for every occasion: John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and the United Negro College Fund, 1944-1960. History of Higher Education Annual.
35.
GasmanM. (2004). Rhetoric vs. Reality: The fundraising messages of the United Negro college fund in the immediate aftermath of the brown decision. History of Education Quarterly, 44(1), 70–94. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-5959.2004.tb00146.x
36.
GasmanM. (2007). Envisioning black colleges: A history of the United Negro College Fund. Johns Hopkins University Press.
37.
GasmanM.EstersL. (2024). HBCU: Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Johns Hopkins University Press.
38.
GasmanM.HiltonA. (2012). Mixed motivations, mixed results: A history of law, legislation, historically black colleges and universities, and interest convergence. Teachers College Record, 114(7), 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811211400705
39.
GasmanM.NguyenT. (2019). Making Black scientist: A call to action. Harvard University Press.
40.
GasmanM.SpencerD.OrphanC. (2015). “Building bridges, not fences”: A history of civic engagement at private black colleges and universities, 1944–1965. History of Education Quarterly, 55(3), 346–379. https://doi.org/10.1111/hoeq.12125
41.
Geier v. University of Tennessee. (1979), 597 F.2d 1056.
42.
GilpinP.GasmanM. (2003). Charles Spurgeon Johnson: Leadership behind the veil in the age of Jim Crow. SUNY Press.
43.
GurinP.EppsE. G. (1975). The Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey. Sheridan Psychological Services.
44.
HainesE. (2010, April 3). NAACP files suit against state. Associated Press. Albany Herald.
45.
HarrisA. (2021). The state must provide: Why America’s colleges have always been unequal – and how to set them right. HarperCollins.
KlinkM. (2003). The reestablishment of the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University College of Law: A policy analysis of equality of educational opportunity and legal education (Dissertation, Florida State University).
52.
Knight v. Alabama. (1991), 14 F. 3d 1534.
53.
MaysB. E. (1954). “In view of the recent supreme court decision, what do you consider the most effective arguments for continued support of the UNCF?” Box 13, microfiche 1875, UNCF Papers.
54.
MaysB. E. (1959). “United Negro College Fund Address, Buffalo New York, May 4-5, 1959, UNCF Papers, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center.
55.
McLaurin v. (1950).Oklahoma state regents for higher education, 339 U.S. 637.
56.
Missouri ex rel. (1938). Gaines v. Canada, 305 U.S. 337.
57.
MorrisA.AllenW.MaurrasseD.GilbertD. (1994). White supremacy and higher education: The Alabama higher education desegregation case. National Black Law Journal, 14, 59.
Norris v. State Council of Higher Education. (1971), Civ. A. No. 365-70-R.
60.
O’ConnorH. R. (1939). A proposed state college for negroes in Maryland. School and Society, 490(1), 410.
61.
OnyeochaJ. (2022). HBCUs are economic engines in their local economies and the nation, fantasy, or reality?: Economic contributions of HBCUs. In Contributions of historically black colleges and universities in the 21st century (pp. 68–90). IGI Global.
62.
PalmerR. T.DavisR. J.GasmanM. (2011). A matter of diversity, equity, and necessity: The tension between Maryland’s higher education system and its historically black colleges and universities over the office of civil rights agreement. Journal of Negro Education, 80(2), 121–133.
63.
ParsonsR. (2022). Moving out to move up: Higher education as a mobility pathway in the rural south. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 8(3), 208–229. https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2022.8.3.09
64.
PearsonR. L. (1983). Reflections on black colleges: The historical perspective of Charles S. Johnson. History of Education Quarterly, 23(1), 55–68. https://doi.org/10.2307/367969
65.
Pearson v. Murray. (1961), 169 A.2d 780 (Md.).
66.
PierreJ. K. (2012). History of de jure segregation in public higher education in America and the state of Maryland prior to 1954 and the equalization strategy. Florida A & M University Law Review, 8, 81.
67.
The Pittsburgh Courier. (1952, March 15). Feel integration will spur race colleges to excel, Box 16, microfiche 2296, UNCF.
68.
Plessy v. Ferguson. (1896), 163 U.S. 537.
69.
PreerJ. (1982). Lawyers v. educators: Black colleges and desegregation in public high education. Greenwood Press.
70.
RichardsonJ. M. (1980). A history of Fisk University, 1865-1946. University of Alabama Press.
SandersC. (2024). A forgotten migration. Black southerners, segregation scholarships, and the debt owed to public HBCUs. University of North Carolina Press.
73.
SaundersK. M.NagleB. T. (2018). HBCUs punching above their weight: A state-level analysis of Historically Black College and University Enrollment and Graduation. Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute, UNCF.
SmithD. (2024). The promise of diversity for higher education. Johns Hopkins University Press.
77.
StrayhornT. L. (2020). Measuring the relation between sense of belonging, campus leadership, and academic achievement for African American students at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs): A “gender equity” analysis. Journal of Minority Achievement, Creativity, and Leadership, 1(1), 94–118. https://doi.org/10.5325/minoachicrealead.1.1.0094
78.
Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. (2023), 600 U.S. 181
79.
Sweatt v. Painter. (1950), 339 U.S. 639, p. 849.
80.
ThompsonC. S. (1959). The prospect of Negro higher education. Journal of Educational Sociology, 32(6), 309–316. https://doi.org/10.2307/2264794
81.
ThompsonD. C. (1973). Private black colleges at the crossroads. Greenwood Press.
82.
ThompsonJ. P.SuarezG. (2019). Accounting for racial wealth disparities in the United States. Federal Reserve of Boston.
83.
United Negro College Fund (UNCF). (1954). Official Publication, n.d., Box 16, microfiche 2295, UNCF Papers.
84.
United States v. Fordice (1992). Fordice, 505 U.S. 717.
85.
Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. (2023). University of North Carolina, 600 U.S. __.
86.
WareL. (1993). The most viable vestige: Black colleges after Fordice. Boston College Law Review, 35, 633.
87.
WareL. (1994). Symposium: Issues in education law and policy: The most visible vestige: Black colleges after Fordice. Boston College Law Review, 35, 633–680.
88.
WatkinsW. H. (1990). Teaching and learning in the black colleges: A 130-year retrospective. Teaching Education, 3(1), 10–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047621900030103
89.
WatkinsW. H. (2001). The white architects of black education: Ideology and power in America, 1865-1954. Teachers College Press.
90.
WeedenL. D. (1992). Statutory and equal protection remedies to save historically black colleges from the effects of invidious desegregation. Thurgood Marshall Law Review, 18, 41–68.