Since the beginning of 2022, more than a dozen historically black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, have received bomb threats, including eight last week at the start of Black History Month.

For today’s show, guest host Karma Chávez puts this news in historical context with Marybeth Gasman, professor of education and executive director of the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions.

They talk about the important work of minority serving institutions, how HBCUs came to be and why they are still thriving, and what white Americans should be doing to support education for all.

Marybeth Gasman is the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Endowed Chair in Education, a Distinguished Professor, and the Associate Dean for Research in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University. She also serves as the executive director of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Leadership, Equity & Justice and the executive director of the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions.

She is the author or editor of thirty books, including Educating a Diverse Nation (Harvard University Press, 2015 with Clif Conrad), Envisioning Black Colleges (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), Making Black Scientists (Harvard University Press, 2019 with Thai-Huy Nguyen), and her forthcoming book Doing the Right Thing: How to End Systemic Racism in Faculty Hiring (Princeton University, 2022).

Cover image collage photos: Howard University School of Law (top left), Xavier University art student at work (top center), Stillman College Homecoming 2015 (top right), Bob Madison at Howard University in 1940 (center left), Florida A&M University graduation 2003 (center), Tuskegee University campus (center right), Walter Bernard Hill Hall at Savannah State University (bottom left), Graves Hall at Morehouse College (bottom center), Morgan State University Choir (bottom right) 

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