"The Passport Our Future"

Civil rights activist Malcolm X once said "Education is the passport to our future, for tommorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today."  At this point in my life I truly do understand what he meant by this I think he was tyring to say work now, play later or something to that degree. One of my favorite sictoms that is currently in syndication on the TV One Channel  A Different World the spinoff from The Cosby Show. The show had six seasons it was set at a ficitional black college called Hillman College. 

 I am sad to say that HBCU (Historically Black College Universities) are losing money because black students are not attending or have no interest. I did want to attend an HBCU myself but finances got in the way I feel as though some of my peers are a generation lost. Many of us are not aware that these great schools exsist let me fill you in as to why these schools were established.

This is what I learned at a young age and you may find more information on the Internet or in a book. I mean many political men and women, civil rights activist, and Greek letter organizations began at an HBCU such as Howard University.  Before the Civil War, higher education for African American students was virtually nonexistent. The few who did receive schooling, such as Fredrick Douglass, often studied in informal and sometimes hostile settings. Some were forced to teach themselves entirely. Some schools for elementary and secondary training existed, such as the Institute for Colored Youth, a school started in the early 1830s by a group of Philadelphia Quakers.

A college education was also available to a limited number of students at schools like Oberlin College in Ohio and Berea College in Kentucky. Keep in mind that you have right to attend any college of your choice I just feel as though sometimes my fellow African-Americans have lost sight of who we are and the wonderful things we have done and so much more. Obviously I am aware that there are Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Indians, Middle Eastern people live in the world but how we can go further in the future if we know nothing about the people and choices they made to help us get this far. One day when I become older and I'm ready to have children I want to be aware even if they decide not attend.