VOA慢速英语--重新关注历史上的黑人学院、大学

Renewed Attention on Historically Black Colleges, Universities

Would you turn down a top national university for a historically black college and university, or HBCU, in the United States?

Nikole Hannah-Jones did.

Hannah-Jones is the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who created The New York Times' 1619 Project. She was recently offered a job at the University of North Carolina at Chapel¹ Hill, UNC. The school is one of the top national universities. The offer came without tenure², a lifetime appointment for a professor. The decision brought criticism and protests.

In early July, UNC leaders changed their minds and voted to award tenure to Hannah-Jones. But instead, she accepted a teaching position at Howard University, an HBCU in Washington, D.C.

On the same day, Howard also announced the appointment of best-selling writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. Coates wrote about his experience as a young Black man growing up in Baltimore, Maryland. His 2015 book Between the World and Me won a National Book Award.

HBCUs

Howard is one of more than 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. HBCUs started as a place to educate African-Americans as they continued to be barred from most universities after the Civil War.

The late U.S. President George H.W. Bush once said, "At a time when many schools barred their doors to Black Americans, these colleges offered the best, and often the only, opportunity for a higher education."

In the southern state of Louisiana, the state's university, Louisiana State in Baton³ Rouge⁴, opened in 1860. But the school did not accept Black students until the early 1950s. So Blacks could only continue their higher education at Southern University, also in Baton Rouge, which opened in 1880.

Most HBCUs lie in the area from southern Texas to eastern Pennsylvania. While most students are Black, anyone can go to an HBCU. The National Center for Education Statistics reported that non-Blacks made up 24 percent of the students at HBCUs in 2018.

Mark Ballard writes for The Advocate, a newspaper in Baton Rouge. At the beginning of 2021, Ballard wrote an article called "Historically Black Colleges come into prominence⁵ with Joe Biden."

Ballard wrote about Vice⁶ President Kamala Harris, who went to Howard in the 1980s. He also noted⁷ Raphael Warnock, a new U.S. Senator from Georgia, who attended Morehouse College, another HBCU in Atlanta. Ballard observed: "Never before have so many HBCU graduates been tapped to serve in the highest levels of government."

It is not as hard to get into HBCUs as other universities. As a result, the schools do not rank highly on lists of top universities. The publication U.S. News and World Report is known for its college rankings. It considers Howard University as one of the best HBCUs. Among top national universities, however, Howard is rated as the 80th best as compared to 28th for UNC.

"So Morehouse and Howard, I think, are kind of discriminated⁸ against because of what their mission is, but I also think they have a first-class education and have attracted major, major faculty⁹ to their colleges."

Well-known Black Americans who went to HBCUs include civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Supreme¹⁰ Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Nobel Prize-winning writer Toni Morrison, and movie director Spike¹¹ Lee.

Changing times for HBCUs

For some time, financial support from government and wealthy donors¹³ was not widely available for HBCUs and their students. A 2016 paper about the state of Black education noted that in 2014, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore received $1.6 billion from the government and others, more than received by all HBCUs in the country.

But that is changing, too.

When Hannah-Jones and Coates joined Howard University, their positions were supported with a $20 million donation from the Knight¹⁴ Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Ford¹⁵ Foundation, and a donor¹² who did not want to be named.

MacKenzie Scott's recent donation is another important marker. Scott, one of the world's richest women, is the former wife of Amazon founder¹⁶ Jeff Bezos. In 2020, she gave away about $4 billion to several organizations, including about 20 HBCUs. That amount came on top of President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan to add over $2.6 billion to HBCUs.

Jolorie Williams is an executive with the beauty products company Revlon. She came up with a plan to offer $5,000 to 20 students at HBCUs. She said it was a way to invest in young African-Americans after the killing¹⁷ of George Floyd and the social justice protests of 2020.

Williams went to Florida A&M, an HBCU, in the 1980s. She said she wanted to be sure Revlon's donation did not get lost at schools that already have plenty of money.

"I did not want to be one of many, I wanted to be one that was really making a difference, that could break through."

Jabari Johnson is a 19-year-old from the state of Maryland. He will start his second year at North Carolina A&T in August. He wants to be an engineer. Like other Black students, Johnson could have gone to other colleges but his first two choices were HBCUs.

"Going around, seeing people who have the same background as me, that grounded me. And seeing people like me that want to do well in their life and want to strive for greatness at this school, really makes me feel at home."

"I felt like I was home," he added. "I felt like this was the place for me."

Words in This Story

tenure – n. the right to keep a job (especially the job of being a professor at a college or university) for as long as you want to have it

opportunity– n. a chance to do something

article – n. a piece of writing about a particular subject that is included in a magazine, newspaper, etc.

prominence – n. the state of being important, well-known, or noticeable : the state of being prominent

tap – v. to choose (someone) for a particular job, honor, etc. — often + for

ranking – n. a list of people or things that are ordered according to their quality, ability, size, etc.

faculty – n. the group of teachers in a school or college

donor – n. a person or group that gives something (such as money, food, or clothes) in order to help a person or organization

background – n. the experiences, knowledge, education, etc., in a person's past

strive – v. to try very hard to do or achieve something

1 chapel   

n.小教堂，殡仪馆

参考例句：

• The nimble hero,skipped into a chapel that stood near.敏捷的英雄跳进近旁的一座小教堂里。
• She was on the peak that Sunday afternoon when she played in chapel.那个星期天的下午，她在小教堂的演出，可以说是登峰造极。

2 tenure   

n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期

参考例句：

• He remained popular throughout his tenure of the office of mayor.他在担任市长的整个任期内都深得民心。
• Land tenure is a leading political issue in many parts of the world.土地的保有权在世界很多地区是主要的政治问题。

3 baton   

n.乐队用指挥杖

参考例句：

• With the baton the conductor was beating time.乐队指挥用指挥棒打拍子。
• The conductor waved his baton,and the band started up.指挥挥动指挥棒，乐队开始演奏起来。

4 rouge   

n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红

参考例句：

• Women put rouge on their cheeks to make their faces pretty.女人往面颊上涂胭脂，使脸更漂亮。
• She didn't need any powder or lip rouge to make her pretty.她天生漂亮，不需要任何脂粉唇膏打扮自己。

5 prominence   

n.突出；显著；杰出；重要

参考例句：

• He came to prominence during the World Cup in Italy.他在意大利的世界杯赛中声名鹊起。
• This young fashion designer is rising to prominence.这位年轻的时装设计师的声望越来越高。

6 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

7 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

8 discriminated   

分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的过去式和过去分词 )； 歧视，有差别地对待

参考例句：

• His great size discriminated him from his followers. 他的宽广身材使他不同于他的部下。
• Should be a person that has second liver virus discriminated against? 一个患有乙肝病毒的人是不是就应该被人歧视？

9 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

10 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

11 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

12 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

13 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 knight   

n.骑士，武士；爵士

参考例句：

• He was made an honourary knight.他被授予荣誉爵士称号。
• A knight rode on his richly caparisoned steed.一个骑士骑在装饰华丽的马上。

15 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

16 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

17 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。