Centering Black Women’s Experiences Regarding College Choice

Denise A. Smith

In the end, anti-black, anti-female, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing: anti-humanism. — Shirley Chisholm.The quest for racial equity in the United States has been a longstanding struggle for justice, and so it is essential to examine history and understand the challenges of the past in order to chart a course for the future. Education has always been a necessary step to achieve upward mobility in this country, but at every turn, the ability to access education, think critically, and learn freely has been undermined, particularly for Black Americans. From abolition, to Reconstruction, to fighting Jim Crow, to the civil rights movement, to landmark cases such as Brown v. Board of Education, to protests and boycotts, to legal battles for equitable funding to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), the fight for equity in this country persists. And in this fight, education has always been viewed as a primary gateway to careers and incomes that would shift a generation, building wealth and financial freedom. But time and again, access to education—especially, most recently, higher education—has been restricted in one way or another for Black Americans.