In the world we live in today a person can almost choose any college or university they want to to continue their education upon graduation from high school. It really doesn't matter if it is a four year, two year, or technical school, there is a school for any person in any major. What draws a person to attend one certain kind of school compared to another? In this case why is there an increase in Black students attending Black colleges in the past decade? One might say, "Well how can you tell that more students are getting into these colleges, rather than these schools accepting an increased number of students each year?" These are all important questions to ask, and there are numerous reasons and causes for schools to increase the number of students they allow and the number of students wanting to attend these colleges.

I have an older brother and an older sister who both attend a historically black college (HBCU),. I have

always had a lifelong dream of attending an HBCU. In fact I was accepted to both Virginia Union in Richmond and North Carolina A&T in Greensboro before I was accepted into. My main reason for wanting to attend these sc

admitted because of physical appearances and not mental capabilities ("Straight Talk" 122 123).

Speaking in those terms people just do not want to deal with downright racism. Some HBCU's in areas with lots of non Black colleges usually have increased enrollment due to past histories and events that happened at the schools. An example was in Florida in 1988. Incidents of racism on the major White college campuses caused a 19 percent increase at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, another HBCU. It was recorded as the largest increase in enrollment of any of the colleges in the state. Of the 1,876 coeds in the system, 1,327 were enrolled at Florida A&M, while the other universities enrolled the rest ("Racism" 22). Even now Florida A&M has increased enrollment at the school. They reported about 100 more freshman in this year's class than last year's (Geraghty A46).

After attending his first semester in school, "Invisible Man" found he was what he called a "Cultural Zombie." He chose to stay at the school to educate himself about the culture that he was left in the cold by his family. He says his family is Black, but never emphasized being black and the culture that comes with it. One thing he say's he has learned from his unnamed school is who he is and his role as an African American male (Parker 21).

McDonough, Patricia M., Anthony Lising Antonio, James W. Trent. "Black Students, Black Colleges: An African American College." Journal For a Just & Caring Education. January 1997: 9 36

Mangan, Katherine S. "Turnabout at a College In East Texas." The Chronicle of Higher Education. 6 February 1996: A8

Some common words found in the essay are:
Colleges Universities, HBCU's Enrollments, African American, Black Collegian, Straight Talk, Blacks HBCUs, Florida A&M, A&T Greensboro, College Tour, Affirmative Action, black colleges, black students, colleges universities, florida a&m, predominantly white, black colleges universities, students attend, black collegian, chronicle education, white schools, black college, predominantly white schools, collegian october 1996, black students beginning, black collegian october,
Approximate Word count = 1332
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)