Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:40:37 +0000

Last Friday, HBCU leader and student body president, Bryan Smart was given an opportunity to introduce President Obama as he signed the HBCU Initiative making more money and support from the federal government available to the institutions, beginning with the 2011 budget, according to Blackamericaweb.com.

Being a proud decendant of an HBCU education, I know and agree heavily with those who care about making HBCUs strong and able to withstand and breed a new generation of educated and confident young black Americans.



“This will establish a new platform for strengthening the capacity of HBCUs.” said John S. Wilson, executive director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs. “This executive order provides $98 million in new money for HBCUs,” Wilson said. And the nearly $400 million in increased funds for Pell Grants is expected to find its way to students at HBCUs, said Wilson

According to the Hilltop Online, HUSA President Bryan Smart had this to say about my Alma Mater, “Howard has given me a sense of self,” he said. “It has given me an educational experience that is second to none, and opportunities like this one that I know I wouldn’t have been afforded at any other university.”

The day of Alicia's talk, I was sitting in the coffee shop between meetings with students when I got an email from my brother who works at NPR. He was sending me a message to tell me that my dear friend Ethelbert Miller was at that very moment in the next studio recording a program. I asked my brother to try to get word to Ethelbert that our mutual companera Alicia was visiting. I was able to tell Alicia of this great coincidence just before she began her talk . . . which, as it turned out, featured clips from her own earlier appearance on the same program Ethelbert was at that very moment recording.