- Prior to the Civil War, the education of Black Americans was prohibited in most southern states and often discouraged in northern states, resulting in only a few black schools being in existence.

African-Americans had to adapt and overcome the fear of death, brutality, the resistance of the KKK, systemic racism, and all for education.

But despite the obstacles, we adapted and overcame by creating our own schools to educate our youth in the 1800s and beyond, beginning with Cheyney State University, established 1837, the University of the District of Columbia, 1851, Lincoln University right here in Pennsylvania in 1854 and Wilberforce University.

Today, the nation's 106 HBCUs make up just 3% of America's colleges and universities.

Yet they produce almost 20% of all African-American graduates and 25% of graduates in the STEM field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

HBCUs have proven to be critical to stemming the tide of educational apartheid by just producing.

You can't argue with outcomes.

Historically, HBCUs have produced 50% of black executives, 45% of all black members of Congress, 95% of black elected officials, 79% of black PhDs, 80% of black federal judges, 75% of black lawyers, 85% of black physicians, 75% of black military officers, 50% of black engineers, 50% of black pharmacists, 75% of black veterinarians, 50% of American Supreme Court justices, and 100% of female Vice Presidents of this United States.

HBCUs are doing tremendous work.

Hello, my name is Pastor Phillip Davis, and I'm the host of Courageous Conversations.

Joining me today on the show are Jamie Mercer.

She's an HBCU resident director, 2019 inductee into the Elizabeth City State University 40 Under 40 Society, Elizabeth City State University National Alumni Association Life Member, Fall 2021 Alpha Chi Honor Society inductee, Spring 2021 National Society for Leadership and Success inductee.

And she's a creative consultant with Amairi Enterprises.

Matthew Riddick, JD, 2021 Lehigh Valley Magazine 40 Under 40 Award Honoree, health care financial services professional, public speaker and a mentor.

Robert Spellman.

He's a senior human resources specialist at the VA and he's a graduate of Morehouse University.

Don't go anywhere.

We'll be right back.

Well, welcome back.

We're talking about HBCUs today, so for my viewing audience who don't know what HBCU stands for, it is "historically black college and university", and we've got three amazing guests on the show with us today.

Welcome to the show to Matthew, to Robert and to Jamie.

Thank you guys for joining me today.

- Thank you for having us.

- Well, I want to jump right in because our time is limited.

But, Jamie, I want to come directly to you because you have a very important role.

You actually work for a university and you're a graduate of an HBCU.

So first, talk to me about your experience as a student on the campus of an HBCU.

- The experience at an HBCU is amazing.

I actually started at a university, another university in North Carolina, and then I transferred to Elizabeth City State due to a few circumstances, and I opened a business in my hometown, which Elizabeth City is.

So I transferred to Elizabeth City State, and the opportunities once I got involved on campus, meeting friends and family, we talk on a daily basis, we keep each other encouraged.

I have friends all over the world.

One of my friends that I went to school with, he's a Harlem Globetrotter.

I have another friend who is a surgeon in Kentucky.

I have friends that are all over, they're doing great things.

They're publishing books, they're establishing websites.

They're establishing foundations.

Like, being at an HBCU is an extension of your personal family, and it's nothing...

It's hard to describe.

It's an experience.

It's not just a thing or a place to be or a school to go to.

It's an experience that...

It's hard to articulate into words when you try to explain it to someone to get them to feel what you feel about HBCUs.

I have developed a love for all HBCUs.

Now, there is some sibling rivalry when you talk about different... Like the MEAC and the CIAA.

But, you know, outside of the sports and different arenas, you know, it's all love.

I'm always going to represent for every HBCU because that's where my heart is.

- Thank you.

Thank you, Jamie.

So, Robert, you know, you're a Morehouse Man, as they say.

And can you talk a little bit about your experience being in Morehouse?

And I know a little bit about your background, so the community that you grew up in was not predominantly African-American or the schools that you attended, and then you go to HBCU.

You show up at Morehouse College.

What was that like for you, brother?

What was the impact on your life?

- So it was an amazing opportunity for me.

I'm very blessed to have an identical twin brother.

We grew up in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, predominantly a white area.

We had parents that were... ..educators.

My father is a PhD.

So in our household, there was only three choices.

Either you were going to go to college or you were going to go to a trade school or you were going to the military.

So for me, you know, I recall seeing the movie School Daze and just seeing the whole experience.

And I had the opportunity to go on a couple of college tours, and a few of those tours were HBCUs.

And I just recall just seeing young professional African-American women and men that were just doing it big.

And I wanted to be a part of that, and that's one of the things that led me to Morehouse.

- That's great, you know, because so often, the narrative that we see is what comes across on television, what's in the newspapers.

It's a narrative that is not one that, really, from a societal perspective, we should, you know, try to attain, pimps, hustlers, drug dealers and athletes or entertainers.

That's...

I mean, from a television perspective, from a media perspective, that's how we're portrayed.

And then to be able to walk onto a campus and see everything from the provost, to the dean, to the professors, to the folks, you know, working in administration, financial aid, you know, had to be a blessing.

Now, Matthew, you did not go to an HBCU, but you're very passionate about ensuring that people in our community, specifically African-American children, are educated.

Can you talk a little bit about what you're doing with your scholarship and what was kind of the motivation behind that?

- Most definitely.

Yeah, I have a desire just to be able to reach back and ensure that the need for education among African-Americans is met and they're aware.

I launched the Riddick Black Business Leaders of Tomorrow scholarship, which we raised... We started that with the awareness of the financial disparity between African-American students and white students.

When I went to college and law school, I had grants, I had scholarships, and I wanted to reach back and be able to deliver the same type of opportunities that I had to the next generation.

And I just wanted to be able to ensure that people of color that want to go to college are able to have that opportunity and not let finances hinder them.

- Yeah, that's big, considering that the net worth of African-Americans are one tenth, right, of that of white families.

Of course, that ties into systemic racism, redlining and all of the other issues that happen within the community and within society.

Jamie, so you work as a resident director, if I'm saying that correctly.

And so you get to welcome the students onto the campus... What is that like for students who are just coming and having that "Aha" moment, right?

This experience that, "Here I am now, "I'm at a historically black college and university."

What's that like for you?

And what are some of the challenges that you see with students that are coming on campus?

- It's a great experience, being a graduate of an HBCU, to see students come on.

Because I do work at a university that's between two major cities.

you have students that are first generation students that are now coming to college.

And they don't know what college life is and they don't understand, you know, all the different aspects, especially if they did not have anybody in their family to tell them about college life.

They only know what they see on TV.

They only know what they've seen in certain movies, and they're like, "Oh, I thought it was like this," or "I thought it was like that."

And then they get there.

And you do see... You see those students and they're like, "Wow!"

You know, and you can literally see that on their faces.

This year, I actually was fortunate enough to help start a new tradition at the university I work at, and Mr Spellman will appreciate, because, of course, we see the social media clips of the Morehouse tradition when they first start and the young men are in their jackets and all those things.

- They clean too!

- Yeah, so you see those.

And so I was fortunate enough to help start that tradition at the university I work at.

I work at Bowie State University... - I had some good days at Bowie State.

- Yes, it's a great school, even though they're, you know, our rivals in athletics.

And so we started what's called The Journey.

And The Journey is... We have... One of our symbols is the torch.

And so part of the whole journey is to start to light that path in them, to continue on the journey of education, as well as lighting the path to...as they matriculate through the university.

And so when I spoke to a few students, and I'm fortunate enough my godson actually attended Bowie as well, and so I asked him, "How did you feel after the ceremony?"

He was like, "It was really nice, "and it was really good to understand "some of the things about the history of the university "and understanding what my part is in this "as attending this," of course.

And so when you have those students that have those aha moments, it's so rewarding as a graduate and somebody who is an advocate for the university.

It's amazing to see that because you hear things, "Are HBCUs still needed?"

"Oh, you know, that was back then.

"Now, everybody has the same opportunities."

Again, there's something magical about HBCUs, so seeing that and seeing them learn to appreciate the actual history of coming from a normal school, a full university, and explaining that to them, once they start to see and understand the history of it, they value their experience that much more.

- That's powerful.

And thinking about that has to be a revelation because many of them came up in school districts where they did not see people who look like them in places of leadership, right, with 85% of the teaching population in America being white females?

So, to be able to walk into that space, there's a level of pride, a level of belonging, connectedness, right, that can happen, you know, on that campus.

So that's pretty exciting.

Robert, now, being a graduate of Morehouse, I know there is this Morehouse Man mindset that you all have.

There's a long litany and history of great men and women, men from Morehouse who have graduated from Morehouse.

Talk a little bit about the legacy and the history and what that means to you as a graduate of Morehouse.

- Oh, wow.

So Morehouse Men are taught to essentially try and make sure, number one, that they speak appropriately, that they dress appropriately.

Morehouse essentially gives young black men the opportunity and the foundation to kind of build them up.

And sometimes you have a lot of young men that are coming from single family homes, who have never had a father in their lives, so that's where Morehouse comes in to play and essentially gives the guidance and nurtures these young men so that they can develop into leaders within the community.

For me personally, you know, we were very blessed to have some wonderful people come out of Morehouse, particularly Dr Martin Luther King.

And as we all know, the civil rights movement would have not have been as successful had he not been part of that.

But a lot of the education came out of Morehouse before he went to Boston.

His foundation was from Dr Mays, who taught him.

And, you know, going back... ..to the very beginning of HBCUs, a lot of them were developed due to racism, as you mentioned early in the presentation.

So we had to kind of develop our own, and they came out of the black churches.

And that's how we started to come together, work together.

Great ministers were established.

And even today, we have had some of the best, most talented leaders that have come out of business, education, health care, government, military, all these things through the foundation and the start of HBCUs.

- Yeah, yeah, that's pretty cool.

I mean, you guys probably heard the intro where... You talk about the statistics of HBCUs, so evidently, there's something magical and intentional and purposeful that is happening on those campuses that is empowering these young people to go out and really make a difference in the world.

Matthew, earlier, you mentioned the creation of the Riddick Black Business Leadership Scholarship of Tomorrow.

Is it specifically in Monroe County or does it reach others?

And who can qualify for a program or scholarship such as that?

- This scholarship has no bounds.

Our scholarship is looking to connect with both colleges and individual students that are active in the community, that are serious about their education, whether they want to go to an HBCU or not.

At this point, I am promoting HBCUs.

I would like that.

But, yeah, we want people that are passionate about education, active in the community, that, of course, reach a certain level GPA in high school.

And, again, it has no bounds.

You can be at any college.

There is an application process.

It is actually under my foundation, the Riddick Foundation, where I also educate about health care and also a mentorship program for young black men, the Black Man leadership and networking and mentorship program.

So, doing a lot of things around the country and, again, serious about your education, serious about scholarship and excellence.

- Yeah.

And, you know, I've got to say this.

You don't find too many young black men, and I don't know your age, I won't ask, but you look young, who's a head of a foundation, right, and launching scholarships.

Brother, you're doing big things and changing lives, because we know that when our folks go to school, right, we end up, you know, accumulating more debt, right?

When those resources and that support is not there, you know, you end up graduating with all that debt and people, you know, put off buying a house, put off getting married, really getting their life jumpstarted because of, you know, the debt that they amass.

So, you know, kudos to you for the work that you're doing and really empowering young black men.

And you mentioned something about... Or maybe it was Robert who talked about, you know, these young men coming from single family homes.

And, you know, I think I think we have to expose the fact that, you know, the war on drugs that America created, you know, back with Nixon and, of course, Reagan and then Clinton, you know, decimated the inner cities.

And what in the '70s was more solid homes, these folks end up going to jail because of a war on drugs that they admitted later on was all about hippies and black folks, right, and putting us in jail.

So you see the percentage of men in the household... You can go all the way back to the New Deal, really.

The percentage of, you know, men in the household decreasing over time, intentionally, because of systemic racism, right, and structural racism that is embedded into these United States?

Jamie, so when you are now engaging and being on the campus and engaging with the kids, what are some of the challenges that you're seeing for our students that are coming onto campus for the first time?

- A lot of times, you run into... ..financial literacy, not fully understanding the loan terms, not fully understanding, you know, just general budgeting, financing, savings, things like that.

You run into those issues.

You do run into those students who are... ..food-challenged.

You run into those students that may not...

They may actually be homeless or out of the foster care system.

And so we provide certain measures, you know, for breaks and stuff, so they have somewhere to go, somewhere to stay.

Of course, the pandemic has brought out the mental health aspects of just everything, really.

And so you run into those students who are now a little more aware of different anxieties and different mental health issues.

And, of course, the university provides counseling services, spiritual leadership, things of that nature.

So you have all types of resources.

And, of course, we are encouraged as a staff to connect with the students, so that they know that they have somebody there for them.

Those are the majority of the challenges.

And, of course, you work on, when you're talking about Generation Z, you know, understanding who they are, teaching them how to communicate with each other, teaching them how to resolve conflict, things like that, and those are some of the things that we go through in the residence hall, where we teach our RAs how to deal with the residents, you know, conflict management, mediations, things of that nature.

And a lot of times, you don't realize the impact that you make until you get that one email, "Thank you for everything that you've done, Miss Mercer."

And it's like, "I don't even remember...what I did."

- Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

- And then they tell you that, and...

I hate talking about it because I cry.

But it makes a difference when you know that you make a difference in the lives of your students.

- Absolutely.

It means you care, right?

And so often the experience that I've had and I've talked to those who have attended PWIs, which, for my viewing audience, is a "predominantly white institution", many a times, the environment is not as accepting, right?

And you still feel like a minority, essentially, on the campus.

So let me ask you, Robert, are HBCUs only for black students?

Did you see any white folks when you went to Morehouse?

And is that a normal practice?

Now, I went to Morgan...

I mean, I went to Morgan for a year, but, you know, I didn't see any white folks on the campus, so is it exclusive or is it inclusive?

- So HBCUs, typically, we particularly have African-Americans there.

However, you can always come home.

Yeah, we had a few, you know, white males.

You couldn't tell them they weren't black.

- Something about the culture, man!

- They referred to themselves as black chocolate, or white chocolate.

Excuse me.

But, absolutely, we welcome everybody.

You know, we're starting to see, even in Greek life, that Caucasians are now pledging fraternities and sororities that are predominantly black.

- Yeah.

And so... What about Latinos?

Did you see a diversity of minorities?

Jamie and Robert are both shaking their head yes, so talk about that a little bit, if you could.

- I know for me, one of my...

I'm a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority as well.

And so one of my absolute favorite fraternity brothers, he's up here in the Maryland area, he's an entrepreneur, he's an educator in P through 12, and he's Hispanic.

And then you have... Actually, I just hired a young Caucasian man for one of my RAs and one of our all-male residents.

And he is...

It's hilarious because they kind of made a joke about something in one of our Zoom meetings.

And they said, "Yeah, he kind of dances like a white man."

And he said, "As the only white man here, "I agree with that statement," and we died laughing.

So we welcome... You learn how to embrace.

The one thing about HBCUs is that they were created for the underprivileged, no matter where you come from, so we welcome everyone, and... Come on, get this family love.

- That's good, that's good.

I love that.

Because we weren't allowed into the predominantly white institutions, right, we did what we do.

We adapt, we overcome, we create, we build, right, like dust.

And according to Maya Angelou, right, and still like dust, we rise.

And look at the progress that has been made, but it's been made in conjunction with those who had the boldness to step out on faith, against all the odds, even at the fear of death and, you know, all of the things that were happening during that time.

Now, Matthew, you're an attorney, so you have your JD.

Historically, when you think about the Constitution and how it was written, how do you believe that black folks were included or excluded from the Constitution?

- To be honest, the Constitution was not written for the benefit of African-Americans and black people, so we were completely excluded.

You know, even when the so-called freeing of slaves, slaves were not really free because they could then pretty much work you for low wages or even no wages, or for a low crime, you could then be put in prison.

So now there's another form of slavery.

So the Constitution was really not written for African-Americans.

So just as you said, Pastor Davis, we had to rise up and build our own.

We had to build our own churches, build our own institutions.

We couldn't even legally marry.

That's where the symbolism of the jumping of the broom came from, because we could not marry legally.

So the Constitution in itself, even from an educational standpoint, was not for us.

It wasn't even until the Title III section of the Education Act of 1965 that all of the HBCUs that were instituted prior to 1964 were even recognized and accredited.

So it wasn't until 1965 that HBCUs were actually accredited institutions.

So, again, we've been going through this... Really, we've been recognized for a very short time, but our legacy spans for centuries.

- That's powerful.

Think about... That's over 400 years, right, without accreditation, but yet still, right, when you think about even the success of HBCUs, it says something very powerful.

And thank you for that point.

I didn't know that, Matthew.

That's why it's good to talk to attorneys every now and again.

Y'all have done some studying!

But, I mean, consider the fact that's over 400 years that we've been here and sojourned.

But yet, with all of the obstructions that have been put in our way, you know, still we've been able to accomplish great things.

Jamie, I'm going to ask you this.

Why is the HBCU Homecoming experience one of the most talked about fall events on HBCU campuses?

Like, what's up with the Homecomings?

- Listen.

Homecoming is... Again, it's an experience.

Like, when you know...

I already put my Homecoming date on my calendar, like, for the next year.

As soon as it comes out, it's like, "Oh, Homecoming?

I'm taking off."

Like, going to see your friends, see your family, see other alumni that you've seen for years... You know, of course, I grew up in Elizabeth City, so being there, it was a little different for me, but my father graduated from there, my uncles, my aunts, different people that I knew.

So when you go home, it's literally a family reunion, but it's like a family reunion with a concert and a play and all the most amazing different events you could ever have.

And, of course, you know, there's the debate of "Who has the greatest Homecoming?"

It doesn't matter.

They're all great because, for as small as Elizabeth City State is, I don't care what anybody says, Elizabeth City State still has the best Homecoming.

Like, I've been up here for a while.

I feel...

It's just something for your heart, and it's like you...

I ran into a lady at the gas station, at a Sam's gas station, and I saw her Elizabeth City tag, so I spoke to her and we got to talking.

And it was during the pandemic last year, and she said, "Do you miss Homecoming like we do?"

I said, "Yes, ma'am."

She said, "We can't wait to go back to Homecoming," you know, and she was so much older than me, but it was just... That one connection about what Homecoming is and what it means to everybody, it is literally coming home to celebrate your institution and everything that it has accomplished, for everything, for all the years that it has endured, the different trials and tribulations of... Each university has its own history.

Of course, you're talking about Morehouse, you're talking about Elizabeth City State, founded in 1891, Bowie State, 1865.

Even Cheyney, 1837.

You know, all of those different schools and the history of what it has endured to get there, to stay there, to still be a force in society today.

It represents so much more than just a party.

It is a celebration of everything that has been accomplished and everything that will be accomplished.

- Well, you summed it all up for me, sis.

I don't think I need to go any further.

To Matthew, to Robert and to Jamie, I want to thank you guys for taking the time out to give us just a small tidbit of the information that you've shared today, and also to talk about historically black colleges and universities.

So on behalf of everyone here at PBS39, I'd like to thank you all for coming on.

And to my viewing audience, I'd like to thank you for tuning in.

May God bless you, Heaven smile upon you.

Keep having Courageous Conversations.

We'll see you next time.