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It is alarming to see a 10.6 percent decrease in HBCU student voting and a 5.3 percent decrease in total Black student voting between the 2012 and 2016 elections, given the history and tradition of HBCU and Black student political participation.
The HBCU Legacy Initiative came out of the desire to understand the specific barriers of these students and campuses instead of assuming that they simply did not want to participate in the electoral process.
The impact of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in United States history and politics is large and substantial. Since their inception, these institutions have produced pioneers of numerous industries. Their involvement in national and local movements such as organizing the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) which organized the Freedom Rides of 1962 (Shaw University), the Greensboro Sit-Ins of 1960 (North Carolina A&T State University), and the local desegregation activities of South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia, and many more, provide proof of a commitment to civic activity and political involvement.
Given this history and tradition, it was alarming to see a 10.6% decrease in HBCU student voting and a 5.3% decrease in total Black student voting between the 2012 and 2016 General Elections. However we have been encouraged by the sharp gain of 13% in HBCU student voting and 10% in total Black student voting between the 2016 and 2020 General Elections.
In preparation for the 2020 Election, Campus Vote Project’s HBCU Legacy Initiative and the NAACP Youth and College Division partnered to identify barriers to student voting on HBCU campuses through open and honest conversations, called HBCU Roundtables.
The information and perspectives presented in the first HBCU Legacy Initiative Insights Brief, issued in 2020, were the result of two HBCU Roundtable discussions held on April 21, 2020 and June 04, 2020, with 45 HBCU students representing 20 different campuses. That document outlined four major themes that emerged during these discussions and proposed solutions for those who engage and support HBCU students as they exercise their right to vote.
Following the 2020 Election and after seeing the feedback students provided in the 2020 version of the HBCU Legacy Initiative Insights Brief, Campus Vote Project decided to follow-up the original report in order to create a more holistic view of institutionalization on college campuses that included campus administrators. In order to do this, we conducted hour-long interviews with administrators representing a wide range of the HBCU experience, from large public to small privates, well-funded to systemically underfunded, well-established voter engagement programming, and those who are in the process of rebuilding. Given this new information, we have added three new themes to the HBCU Legacy Initiative Insights Brief and provided more context surrounding the themes students discussed during the original HBCU Round Tables.
Found in the HBCU Legacy Initiative Insights Brief.
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