HeyThatsFarOut · Go Tell It On The Mountain - By Fannie Lou Hamer

The first known appearance of the African American Spiritual, “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” was archived in the Hampton Institute’s collection of “Religious Folk Songs of the Negro” where it is listed as a “Christmas Plantation Song.” We will use the evidence of such archives as our inspiration for thinking about HBCUs as an obvious educational counterspace both pre-Brown and post-Brown.

Issues To Familiarize Yourself with/ Watch as Much as You Like:

​Our subtheme for weeks four and five is HBCUS as Counterspace and Counterpublic. In week 4, we think about HBCUs as an educational counterspace, both historically (pre-Brown) and contemporaneously (post-Brown). In Week 5, we will look at popular movies, media, and documentaries and think of HBCUs as a counterpublic, both historically and contemporaneously.

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An education that teaches you to understand something about the world has done only half of the assignment. The other half is to teach you to do something about making the world a better place.

If our historically black colleges and universities... are special mission institutions, where what they do and what they provide is what we hope is a great education, but they also provide an atmosphere where a student's humanity is never challenged.

~Dr. Johnnetta Cole, former president of Spelman & Bennett Colleges

Part I: What We're Reading...

SUGGESTED PLACES TO START: Karida Brown’s chapter, “Roots and Branches” from  The Battle for the Black Mind might be a good place to start for a broad overview.  For rhetoric-compositionists, you might start with Jackie Royster's and Jean Williams's essay, "History in the Spaces Left: African American Presence and Narratives of Composition Studies."  Both are listed below.

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Choose TWO of these...

1. "Access and Importance of Pell Awards at Public Regional
   Historically Black Colleges and Universities: What Do the
   Data Say?" by Alice L. Daugherty, Stephen G. Katsinas, Noel Keeney
2. Excerpts from America's Historically Black Colleges an University: A Narrative History, 1837-2009 by Bobby Lovett
3. "Antiblackness, Black Suffering, and the Future of First-Year Seminars at Historically Black Colleges and Universities" by Gina English Tillis
4. "The Atlanta School Tradition: Teaching Black Political Science" by Joseph L. Jone
5. "The Black Football Crisis: Reforming HBCU Football before Its Golden Age, 1912–1932" by Marvin Chile
6. "Centering Blackness: An Examination of Culturally‑Affirming Pedagogy and Practices Enacted by HBCU Administrators and Faculty Members" by Krystal L. Williams, Alethia Russell and Kiara Summerville
7. "Creative Disruption and the Potential of Writing at HBCUs" by Alexandria Lockett and Sarah Rude Walker
8. "Educating Our Own: The Historical Legacy of HBCUs and Their Relevance for Educating a New Generation of Leaders" by Travis J. Albritto
9. "​Education with Intent—The HBCU Experience" by Sandra Edmonds Crewe​
10. "An HBCU-Based Educational Approach for Black College Student Success: Toward a Framework with Implications for All
    Institutions" by Andrew Arroyo and Marybeth Gasman
11. "HBCU Enrollment and Longer-Term Outcomes" by Ashley Edwards, Justin Ortagus, Jonathan Smith, and Andria Smythe
12. "History in the Spaces Left: African American Presence and Narratives of Composition Studies" by Jackie Royster and Jean Williams 
13. "Hurricane Katrina Impact o Three HBCUs: Voces from Displaced Students" by Glenn Johnson and Shirley Rainey
14. "'Just Because I Dance Like a Ho I’m Not a Ho': Cheerleading at the Intersection of Race, Class, and Gender" by Chelsea Mary Elise Johnson
15. "Meeting at the Margins: Culturally Affirming Practices at HBCUs for Underserved Populations" for Krystal L. Williams, Steve D. Mobley Jr, Erica Campbell, Richard Jowers
16. "A Narrative History of African American Marching Band: Toward A Historicultural Understanding" by Robert H. Clark
17. "Predictors of Black Students’ Race-Related Reasons for Choosing an HBCU and Intentions to Engage in Racial Identity–Relevant Behaviors" by Debbie Van Camp, Jamie Barden, and Lloyd R. Sloan
18. "Private Schools for the Public Good: Historically Black
    High Schools in the South from Reconstruction through the Progressive Era, 1877–1930" by Jon N. Hale
19. "Racial Disparities in Health Among College-Educated African Americans: Can Attendance at Historically Black Colleges or Universities Reduce the Risk of Metabolic Syndrome in Midlife?" by Cynthia G. Colen, Nicolo P. Pinchak, and Kierra S. Barnett
20. "Racism and the Roots of Conservative Philanthropy in the US" by Donna J. Nicol
21. "Reimagining the Historically Black College and University (HBCU) Environment: Exposing Race Secrets and the Binding Chains of Respectability and Othermothering" by Nadrea Njoku, Malika Butler & Cameron C. Beatty
22. “Roots and Branches” (excerpt from The Battle for the Black Mind  by Karida Brown)
23. "A Seedbed of Activism: Holistic Education and the Institute for Colored Youth, 1837-1877" (Excerpt from Shelter in a Time of Storm: How Black Colleges Fostered Generations of Leadership and Activism by Jelani Favors)​​
24. "Stories Untold: Counter-Narratives to Anti-Blackness and Deficit-Oriented Discourse Concerning HBCUs" by Krystal Williams, Brian Burt, Kevin Clay, Brian Bridge
25. "We Are Family: I Got All My (HBCU) Sisters With Me" by Hope Jackson and Karen Keaton Jackson 
26. "We Belong in the Discussion: Including HBCUs in Conversations about Race and Writing" by Karen Keaton Jackson, Hope Jackson, and Dawn Hicks Tafari 
27. "We Can! We Will! We Must: The Radicalization and Transformation of Southern University, 1930 1966" (Excerpt from Shelter in a Time of Storm: How Black Colleges Fostered Generations of Leadership and Activism by Jelani Favors)​ 
28. "What Can Historically Black Colleges and Universities Teach about Improving Higher Education Outcomes for Black
    Students?" by Gregory N. Price and Angelino C. G. Viceisza
29. "Where Would We Be? Legacies, Roll Calls, and the Teaching of Writing in HBCUs" by Beverly Moss

CLICK HERE FOR PDFs of READINGS

Part II: What We're Watching

A Different World (1987-1993)  |  Drumline (2002)  |  Girls' Trip (2017)  |  The Great Debaters (2008) 
Homecoming: A Film By Beyoncé (2018)  |  School Daze (1998)  |  ​Stomp the Yard (2007)
Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities (2018)
Twenty Pearls: The Story of Alpha Kappa Alpha (2021)

What's the (counter)cultural work these performances are doing? 
​Why and how?

Our Black
Canons/Cannons​

The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935 
by James Anderson  

The White Architects of Black Education
by William Watkins

Young, Gifted, and Black: Promoting High Achievement among African-American Students
by Theresa Perry, Claude Steele, Asa Hilliard