Abstract
While African American women routinely outnumber African American men on the historically Black college and university (HBCU) campus, the African American woman’s voice is usually relegated to the margins within social and academic frameworks. The author seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the actual liberation of African American women on HBCU campuses. Drawing from undergraduate and graduate experiences as an African American female on campus, the author uses Collins’s (Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Routledge, New York, 2009) Black feminist epistemology as a lens through which to examine her own decision to attend an HBCU while giving specific attention to the implications and intersections of race and gender. Using Black feminist epistemology and autoethnography, the author provides a critical analysis of her education at an HBCU in relationship to the experiences of other African American women. The author concludes the article explaining the intersections of education, liberation, and resistance with implications for HBCU administrators and staff in preparing African American women as campus and community leaders.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
In this article, I generally use the terms Black and African American as interchangeable descriptors. However, there are specific instances when I use the term African American to contextualize the experiences of Black women and men in the United States of America.
References
Beauboeuf-Lafontant, T. (2002). A womanist experience of caring: Understanding the pedagogy of exemplary black women teachers. The Urban Review, 34(1), 71–86.
Berry, T. R. (2005). Black on black education: Personally engaged pedagogy for/by African American pre-service teachers. The Urban Review, 37(1), 31–48.
Brown, M. C., I. I., Donahoo, S., & Bertrand, R. D. (2001). The Black college and the quest for educational opportunity. Urban Education, 36(5), 553–571.
Chang, H. (2008). Autoethnography as method. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
Collins, P. H. (2005). Black sexual politics: African Americans, gender, and the new racism. New York, NY: Routledge.
Collins, P. H. (2009). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York, NY: Routledge.
Cozart, S. C. (2009). Becoming whole: A letter to a young miseducated black teacher. The Urban Review, 42(1), 22–38.
Davis, A. Y. (1983). Women, race, & class. New York, NY: Random House.
Delpit, L. (2006). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York, NY: The New Press.
Freeman, K. (2005). African Americans and college choice: The influence of family and school. Albany, NY: State University Press.
Freire, P. (2009). Pedagogy of the oppressed (30 th anniversary ed.). New York, NY: Continuum International.
Giroux, H. A. (2001). Theory and resistance in education: Towards a pedagogy for the opposition (Rev. and expanded ed.). Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey.
Gubrium, A., & Mazhani, T. (2009). Sharing race, the personal, and the political from multiple social locations at an HBCU. Qualitative Inquiry, 15(3), 448–466.
Guy-Sheftall, B. (1993). A black feminist perspective on transforming the academy: The case of Spelman College. In S. M. James & A. P. A. Busia (Eds.), Theorizing black feminisms: The visionary pragmatism of black women (pp. 77–89). New York, NY: Routledge.
Hancock, A. (2004). The politics of disgust: The public identity of the welfare queen. New York, NY: University Press.
Hooks, B. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York, NY: Routledge.
National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics. (2010). Fall enrollment in degree-granting historically black colleges and universities, by type and control of institution: Selected years, 1976 through 2009 (Table 252). Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d10/tables/dt10_252.asp.
Spry, T. (2001). Performing autoethnography: An embodied methodological praxis. Qualitative Inquiry, 7(6), 706–732.
Suggs, V. L., & Mitchell, S. (2011). The emergence of women’s centers at HBCUs: Centers of influence and the confluence of black feminist epistemology and liberal education. In C. R. Chambers (Ed.), Support systems and services for diverse populations: Considering the intersections of race, gender, and the needs of Black female undergraduates, (Vol. 8, pp. 147–164), Cambridge, MA: Emerald Press.
Truth, S. (2001). Ain’t I a woman? (1851). In R. P. Horwitz (Ed.), The American studies anthology. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources. (Original work 1851).
Williams, J., & Ashley, D. (2004). I’ll find a way or make one: A tribute to historically black colleges and universities. New York, NY: HarperCollins.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kennedy, J.L. The HBCU Experience: Liberating or Not?. Urban Rev 44, 358–377 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-012-0200-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-012-0200-y