THE CHOICE: Black students weigh HBCUs against mostly white schools
For college-bound African-Americans, choosing between a historically black college and a predominantly white one has become more complicated with each passing year.
Delanie Mason, who grew up in Gwinnett County, goes to Kennesaw State, even though her parents and siblings all chose HBCUs.
Kendall Youngblood, after a year at the University of Connecticut, transferred to Clark Atlanta University and has never looked back.
Universities that once barred black students altogether are now aggressively recruiting them as the schools seek to diversify their student bodies. That's progress by any measure. But competing for students with larger, wealthier institutions is often a challenge for HBCUs.
As part of our continuing series on HBCUs, read about how Delanie and Kendall made one of the most consequential choices of their lives.
About the Authors
Ernie Suggs is an enterprise reporter covering race and culture for the AJC since 1997. A 1990 graduate of N.C. Central University and a 2009 Harvard University Nieman Fellow, he is also the former vice president of the National Association of Black Journalists. His obsession with Prince, Spike Lee movies, Hamilton and the New York Yankees is odd.
Eric Stirgus joined The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2001. He is the newsroom's education editor. Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., Eric is active in the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists and the Education Writers Association and enjoys mentoring aspiring journalists.
