Enrollment at HBCUs Has Increased Since Height of BLM

*Enrollment at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) has reportedly increased since 2020.

Black students have been flocking to HBCUs since the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, BET reports, citing the National Center for Education Statistics. NPR noted that the enrollment surge could also be credited to ​​Vice President Kamala Harris, who is a graduate of Howard University. 

“The percentage of Black students enrolled at HBCUs fell from 18 percent in 1976 to 8 percent in 2014 and then increased to 9 percent in 2020,” per the National Center for Education Statistics. 

Paulina Webber, a senior at Dillard University, told NPR, “We saw the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, and then we saw students say, ‘Hey, I want to go to a Black school. I want to be safe. I want to enjoy my time.'”

READ MORE: Angelina Jolie’s Daughter Zahara to Attend an HBCU | Video

Here’s more from the National Center for Education Statistics:

In 2020, there were 101 HBCUs located in 19 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Of the 101 HBCUs, 52 were public institutions and 49 were private nonprofit institutions (source). The number of HBCU students increased by 47 percent (from 223,000 to 327,000 students) between 1976 and 2010, then decreased by 15 percent (to 279,000 students) between 2010 and 2020 (source). 

In comparison, the number of students in all degree-granting institutions increased 91 percent (from 11 million to 21 million students) between 1976 and 2010, then decreased 10 percent (to 19 million students) between 2010 and 2020 (source).

Although HBCUs were originally founded to educate Black students, they enroll students of other races as well. The composition of HBCUs has changed over time. In 2020, non-Black students1 made up 24 percent of enrollment at HBCUs, compared with 15 percent in 1976 (source).

Walter Kimbrough, interim executive director of the Black Men’s Research Institute at Morehouse College, noted in an interview with NPR that HBCUs are vital to the development and fostering of Black professionals. 

“Your teachers, your doctors, your lawyers, your ministers — they came out of that HBCU tradition,” he said.

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