After reading the letters to the editor suggesting the closure or merger of some of the state universities, I believe that the proponents of the closure of Mississippi Valley State University and Alcorn State University are now sending trial balloons suggesting merger of MVSU with Delta State University. However, whether closure or merger, the objective of the College Board remains the same.
David G. Sansing in his book, "Making Haste Slowly: The Troubled History of Higher Education in Mississippi," writes, "No public institutions in antebellum Mississippi provided formal education to its slave population or to its small number of free blacks. Mississippi was in fact the only Southern state that reported no free black children in school in 1850."
In an article, "State of the HBCUs," in the September-October issue of "Crisis" magazine, writer Catherine W. LeBlanc, a business and education consultant, writes that "even with only 16 percent of the black students who attend college, HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) confer 28 percent of the bachelor's degrees received by black students nationwide. … In some Southern states, HBCUs graduate even greater percentages of African-Americans."
It is a fact that for most black students, historically African-American colleges and universities provide better cultural and educational environments than many historically or predominantly white universities. Although I could not find any statistical data on how many black students drop out of predominantly white universities to enroll at historically black universities, I believe that some do. They leave the predominantly white universities because they do not like the cultural environment, many feel neglected, and some feel that they were losing their African-American identity in the ocean of white culture.
The history of black college education could be traced to 1833, when Oakland College awarded the first college degree to James M. Smilie. In 1971, Alcorn was founded as the first land grant college in addition to Mississippi State under federal mandate. Mississippi established its first college for white women long before it did so for its black citizens, men and women. As the reorganization of the university system in 1870, according to Sansing, raised the question of state-supported higher education for blacks, two colleges, Rust in Holly Springs and Tougaloo outside of Jackson, were founded with the help of private support.
Throughout the history of education in Mississippi, one could find the reluctance of the state and local governments to provide equal opportunities in education for both the white and black citizens. Even during the '60s, Mississippi had its segregated education system and was reluctant to change its policy. For some Mississippians, racial segregation in public schools and colleges was not only a legal issue, it was a moral issue.
It is a fact that the three predominantly black universities in Mississippi cannot compete with their predominantly white counterparts because they have hardly any alumni who could contribute millions of dollars or could influence the private foundations and wealthy philanthropists to contribute millions of dollars to the predominantly black universities.
Some people ask what the historically black universities like Jackson State, Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State offer their students that the predominantly white university cannot. It is difficult for white people to understand that the young black men and women, most of whom have lived in segregated communities in Mississippi, need more than the three R's in school. They need an environment of their culture, identity and pride that are essential in most cases to help the black students realize who they are, their rich past, their responsibilities as students at present, and their role in the future to serve the people as doctors, engineers, scholars and, most importantly, as the leaders in the state and the nation.
I believe that if nothing happens to prevent closure or merger of the three historically black universities in Mississippi, Jackson State will be the only one to survive. It is a question not only for the African-Americans but also for all Mississippians. What sacrifice are we prepared to make to reduce the number of universities and supposedly the cost of higher education?
Should we eliminate two of our historically black colleges either through closure or merger when we are not even sure that it will solve the state's fiscal problem? It is time for all concerned Mississippians, irrespective of race, to come together and launch a movement to save our historically black universities from closure or merger.
- Shaw is an associate professor of English at Mississippi Valley State University.
