The House of North Carolina’s HBCU Culture
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (“HBCUs”) have served not only as houses of education for black Americans, but also as havens for spiritual guidance, political resistance, cultural preservation, and modern innovation. Without a doubt, HBCUs have produced some of the world’s influential and opulent black professionals ranging from politicians to biomechanical engineers.
In a systematic society, HBCUs are a haven of solace and kinship, generating an unmatched experience for black Americans. Although all HBCUs were not founded by people of color as some were more-or-less formed to keep us “separate but equal”, the rich culture conceived by their establishment plays a critical role in American history.
Whether located in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Washington, D.C., or North Carolina, the black spirit felt on an HBCU campus is unique and vastly different from that of other institutions.
The dynamic social and cultural atmosphere of HBCU life is a huge influence on surrounding black and urban communities. This atmosphere derives from innovation gained from black experiences throughout the African Diaspora such as Greek life, community and global engagement/activism, and local political engagement. HBCUs have also contributed to the sustainable progression for black people by achieving new representations of blackness and their potential for educational attainment in America. From scholarship and service to Chicken Wednesday, from school rivalries and step shows to the coveted homecoming season, HBCU culture is forever evolving the aesthetic of black culture.
Black culture in North Carolina is trademarked by NC’s rapper Petey Pablo’s “Raise Up’, the soulful legacy of Miss Nina Simone, and Texas Pete hot sauce on everything! NC is the second state with the most HBCUs including: Shaw University, Fayetteville State University, Johnson C. Smith University, Saint Augustine’s University, Bennett College, Livingston College, North Carolina A&T State University, Elizabeth City State University, Winston Salem State University, and North Carolina Central University. HBCUs of North Carolina have served as the cornerstone for the historical Civil Rights Movement protests from Greensboro, NC, to Durham, NC. Students from Agricultural & State University State University orchestrated a sit-in at an F.W. Woolworth lunch counter in 1960. This act of resistance symbolized the strong-willed legacy and enriched consciousness of black students of HBCUs - students who have continuously cultivated drastic impacts on American history through activism and political resistance.
Illustrated by Arial Robinson
NCCU and NC A&T’s deep-rooted rivalry in sports has showcased the pride felt from being a student of such illustrious institutions. The diabolical influence of Winston Salem State’s classic stomp-and-shake style has spilled over into the culture of HBCUs outside of North Carolina. That particular performance style has become a decades long competition on the sidelines, during halftimes and remains a focal point of the collective black spirit felt at HBCUs.
In addition to black aesthetics, NC HBCUs possess appreciation for style and presentation by celebrating the rich craft of collegiate modeling first seen at NCCU in 1983. In a society that invalidates and ignores black bodies and voices, modeling troupes provide a space for unique, black collegiate individuals of varying genders, sexual orientations, and class backgrounds to take strides as they create their own narratives.
With HBCU culture and their communities becoming the epicenter for popular culture, others who would have been uninterested in the black lifestyle have begun to infiltrate black institutions. As a result, many N.C. HBCUs are becoming more racially diversified without warrant, while NC Board of Governors’ lack of diversity in gender, socio-economic, and racial demographic allow many predominately white institutions' to continue dishing out “tokens” of admission and upholding only the bare minimum of their campus diversity. Recently, NC A&T departed from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and joined the Big South Conference, which eradicated the traditional Aggie-Eagle classic football and basketball series. The drastic push for a new HBCU image is a reflection of the gentrification of black and urban communities surrounding HBCU campuses.
Gentrification: the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses.
The affluent residents and businesses that infiltrate these N.C. HBCUs’ communities possess the narrative to improve their infrastructure, but unfortunately, fail to contribute to the advancement of the existing communities in place, instead opting to replace them with their own kind. Such methods of “progress” eliminate timeless cultural traditions and marginalize black urban communities. It is not hard to see the NC Board of Governors intentionally lacks support.
Those of us who care for N.C. HBCU culture must understand that gentrification supports a system designed to hinder the success and evolution of black Americans. The gentrification of black urban communities and push for student diversity of HBCUs enforces the systematic oppression we have faced since being forced into these same marginalized spaces centuries ago. Collectively, it is essential for N.C.’s HBCUs to shed light on culture, but it’s equally important to protect that light. Otherwise, those wishing to monetize that light will give rise to further infiltration, oppression and watering-down of our rich culture. Those obsessed with a never ending agenda to profit from black experience, black aesthetics, and black voices, may covet our resilient rhythm and style, but could never understand our blues as a result of systematic oppression, racism, underfunding, and lack of resources. N.C.’s HBCUs have precious heritages, legacies, traditions and we must protect our homes.