Why Historically Black Colleges and Universities Matter

With a personal and narrative style, preeminent educational historian Marybeth Gasman presents her research pertaining to HBCUs conducted over her 25-year career. In addition to conducting historical and large-scale qualitative studies related to HBCUs, Gasman has also served as a board of trustee member at three HBCUs—Paul Quinn College, St. Augustine University, and Morris Brown College. She has received wide recognition from HBCUs for her scholarly and justice-oriented work, including the Ozell Sutton Medallion for Justice from Philander Smith College and the Presidential Medallion from Wilberforce University. This volume brings together Gasman’s most influential historical essays on the themes of leadership, philanthropy, art, curriculum, intellectual debate, Black agency, desegregation, and Critical Race Theory. Scholars and students alike will benefit from the way Gasman makes complex historical ideas accessible and engaging by employing a variety of historical methods that include oral history, archival research, legal research, text and image analysis, historiography, and prosopography. Readers will discover the multitude of ways that historical research can be approached and brought to life.

Book Features:

• Concrete examples of how to use a variety of methodological approaches related to history.
• A clear and accessible presentation of history to help new scholars find their voices.
• Diverse topics related to HBCUs, featuring key luminaries across these venerable institutions.
• Cuts across disciplinary boundaries, including American history, education, art history, sociology, political science, and law.
• An introduction that explores the author’s reasons for doing this research and an epilogue examining the methods used.

Marybeth Gasman is the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Endowed Chair in Education and a Distinguished University Professor at Rutgers University. She is the coauthor of For the Love of Teaching: How Minority Serving Institutions Are Diversifying and Transforming the Profession.

“Marybeth Gasman provides readers a rare view of the historian’s workshop as she focuses on disparate sources and documents to reconstruct and then interpret riveting case studies whose connections make the story of historically Black colleges and universities both significant and lively. Her compelling prose energizes clear analysis of ideas, institutions, and individuals resulting in a substantive profile of the heretofore understudied and underappreciated past and present of remarkable colleges and universities which are pivotal in American social history.”
—John R. Thelin, professor emeritus, University of Kentucky