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.

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Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney — pictured during a hearing Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 — has cleared the way for Georgia's State Election Board to obtain Fulton ballots and other documents from the 2020 election. (Arvin Temkar/AJC)

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