Entry Barriers for Academically-Underprepared African American Students at American Institutions

Historical Overview Of Experiences Of African Americans In Higher Education

At the inception of the American higher education system, most African Americans were prevented from receiving an education. The first black student ever recorded as attending an American college was John Chavis in 1799 (The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (JBHE), 2016). According to JBHE, Chavis was a student at what is known as Washington and Lee University, located in Lexington, VA, and there is no evidence that Chavis earned a degree. According to JBHE (2016), Alexander Lucius Twilight was the first known African American to graduate from a college in the United States. Twilight received his Bachelor's from Middlebury College in 1823. The advancement of African American students continued to expand throughout the northern United States over the next 30 years, and the first interracial and coeducational institution in the south was not established until 1855 (JBHE, 2016). Throughout these 30 years, the oldest historically black college or university in the United States, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, was founded. According to the institution's website, Cheyney was initially founded under the African Institute. The name was changed to the Institute for Colored Youth shortly after the institution was established. The institute was initially funded by a $10,000 donation made by Richard Humphreys. From the institution's inception, its mission has been to design and establish a school to educate the descendants of the African race (Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, 2016). While the opening of Cheyney marked the beginning of strides towards educating African Americans in the United States, according to Duster (2009), it was not until the latter part of the 20th century before significant progress towards diversity in higher education was made.