Howard University disenrolled over 500 students. Black college hopefuls seem to be losing ground on all sides | Saida Grundy

HBCUs offer more than higher education – they provide a safe haven for Black students and an investment in their wellbeing I know exactly the soaring anticipation that Howard University’s roughly 2,500 incoming first-year students have been feeling since the first notice of their acceptance letters. There were high school graduation parties decorated in the school’s indigo, red and white colors. Parents beaming to their neighbors about upcoming send-offs to the country’s most recognizable historically Black college or university (HBCU). Located in Washington DC, Howard is nicknamed “The Mecca” by its devoted alumni because it boasts a who’s-who of graduates who pioneered every era of Black history since the school’s 1867 founding. I know the inextinguishable excitement these recently admitted students are feeling because when I arrived wide-eyed at Spelman College in the heart of Atlanta’s HBCU epicenter, I was enveloped in instant amity, greeted with overdue affirmation and welcomed into an institution designed to nurture the promise of the young, gifted and Black. Inside the verdant urban oasis of my little Black college, I felt airlifted from countless racist indignities I endur