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 DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

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