NAFEO https://www.nafeonation.org The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education Thu, 17 Oct 2024 21:58:10 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 William “Bill” Lucy https://www.nafeonation.org/william-bill-lucy/ Thu, 17 Oct 2024 21:19:10 +0000 https://www.nafeonation.org/?p=2452
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Mr. William “Bill” Lucy, Dr. Lezli Baskerville, & Mr. Lee Saunders

Statement from Vice President Kamala Harris on the Passing of William “Bill” Lucy

William “Bill” Lucy was a giant and a patriot who spent his life fighting for freedom justice and fairness.

As a leader of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) he dedicated his life to improving conditions for working families and advancing the cause of civil rights, human rights, and labor rights. In 1968, alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Lucy helped lead the Memphis sanitation workers strike, where AFSCME members marched under the iconic declaration “I Am A Man,” a term he coined. Lucy believed in the universal values of freedom, dignity, and solidarity, forming the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists and working to end apartheid in South Africa.

Generations of working people and their families continue to benefit from his work and legacy. Doug and my thoughts are with Bill’s family and loved ones.

Beautiful Are the Feet of Mr. William “Bill” Lucy
A Tribute to “A Man!”
A Tribute to THE Man
The Man Who Coined the Freedom Cry, “I Am a Man” and Shaped the Policies, Programs, and Movements that Defined “A Man”
Sunrise: November 26, 1933- Sunset: September 25, 2024
By Dr. Lezli Baskerville, President & CEO
National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO)
Revised and Re-released, October 2024

Beautiful are the feet of William L. Lucy because he dedicated his life to spreading Good News to God’s little ones: those in the dawn of life, our children; those in the sunset of life, our seniors; those in the margins of life, the 7 out of 10 middle-Americans living paycheck to paycheck, the 16 million Americans who are unemployed, seeking employment, and underemployed; the 45 million Americans lacking health insurance; the 60% of African American boys who are being left behind in high school, the nearly 5,000 African American men per 100,000 residents, who are in the American justice system , and others of our Brothers and Sisters who are lost, fallen, left behind, locked up or infirm–those who we call the least of these.

Beautiful are the feet of Bill Lucy and magnificent was this mighty man of faith, caring, courage, vision, discipline, rectitude, humility and action focused on results. His walk and work aligned with the movements for civil rights, workers rights, social justice, economic justice, environmental justice, peace, international human rights and ecumenism at home and abroad. Bill Lucy’s imprimatur can be found on every contemporary movement for freedom and justice, including the National Black Leadership Roundtable (NBLR) where, during my tenure as founding Executive Director the CBC national advocacy network, Mr. Lucy served as a member of my board of directs and offered sage advice on the collaborative efforts at wealth building and family-building among and between of the CEOs of 350 national black organizations.

In the nearly four decades I was privileged to work with Mr. Lucy on projects, policies, and movements for jobs, peace, and justice, for fair wages for workers, for job safety, to Free South Africa, to make Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday a national holiday, to help design and implement the Black Leadership Family Plan, to extend and expand the Voting Rights Act, Civil Rights Act, Fair Housing Act, on other policy campaigns and several political campaigns; and to help to rebuild New Orleans in Katrina’s aftermath, I got to know Bill Lucy not only as “A Man,” but as “THE Man.”

After spending a week in Memphis with HBCU and PBI students, faculty and staff teaching about the labor movement and other allied movements for economic and environmental justice, my last joint with Mr. Lucy was to plant the seed for a partnership between AFSCME and NAFEO to strengthen America’s 106 HBCUs to strengthen and grow the labor movement. Mr. Lucy understood that through these doors would come the lion’s share of African American women and men ready to be educated or trained to serve in the nation’s growth and high need positions in the workforce, equipped to meet the civic, social, political, philanthropic, ecumenical, familial and community ethos needs of today and tomorrow, and those who would disproportionately become part of the ranks of public service workforces and leaders. He also understood that through these doors would come the next foot soldiers and leaders of the labor movement, who would study and grow in these learning laboratories, and who would use their neighboring communities and residents as well as public service workforces as laboratories to spawn new and better solutions to the most challenges issues we confront, and a place to seize greater opportunities to prepare more public service workers and better prepare current public service workers to lift as they serve.

Through the doors of 2-year and 4-year, graduate and professional HBCUs and PBIs, must come and complete, a larger and more potent phalanx of men and women who under the tutelage of AFSCME, its present and past leaders and members, other labor and justice leaders, would learn how advocate, negotiate, agitate, and litigate fair and equitable labor laws, policies, and practices, and add to the growing numbers of potent voices for workers on the job, and in seats at leadership tables. Mr. Lucy, the first Black International Secretary-Treasurer, of AFSCME and the highest ranking black elected leader at that time (1972), who became Secretary Treasurer Emeritus upon stepping down, Mr. Lee Saunders, Mr. Lucy’s successor as International President, AFSCME, discussed this vision. I think Mr. Saunders shares the vision. I hope we can work toward its realization, together.

Beautiful are the feet of Bill Lucy because he was not only the driving force behind the above referenced movements, but he fuelled them with labor union human and financial resources, and with his wisdom and passion. Mr. Lucy was a disturber of false peace wherever it was enabling injustice to thrive. He walked circumspectly and moved mountains “with a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.”

I thank you Mr. William L. Lucy. I thank you my Brother, Friend and Leader.
“Farewell Sweet Prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest,” (Hamlet)

Lezli Baskerville
President & CEO

About NAFEO

The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO) is the nation’s only national membership association of all of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). Founded in 1969, by the presidents and chancellors of HBCUs and other equal educational opportunity institutions, NAFEO is a one of a kind membership association representing the presidents and chancellors of the public, private, independent, and land-grant, two-year, four-year, graduate and professional, HBCUs and PBIs.

Contact NAFEO

(202) 552-3300
600 Maryland Avenue S.W.
Suite 800E Washington, D.C. 20024

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Fair Elections Center https://www.nafeonation.org/fair-elections-center/ Wed, 16 Oct 2024 20:38:45 +0000 https://www.nafeonation.org/?p=2436
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Fair Elections Center

Founded in 2006 by Robert Brandon and a Co-Founder, FEC is a 501 (c )(3) legal network removing barriers to full and unfettered participation in every aspect of the electoral process, including legal, policy, administrative, and the recent escalation of anti-democracy and anti-freedom efforts by states and rogue national and state actors in recent years.

FEC Resource Links Included with Permission of FEC, A NAFEO Partner:

Voting and Policy Resources

Campus Voting Resources

Poll Worker Recruitment Resources

About NAFEO

The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO) is the nation’s only national membership association of all of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). Founded in 1969, by the presidents and chancellors of HBCUs and other equal educational opportunity institutions, NAFEO is a one of a kind membership association representing the presidents and chancellors of the public, private, independent, and land-grant, two-year, four-year, graduate and professional, HBCUs and PBIs.

Contact NAFEO

(202) 552-3300
600 Maryland Avenue S.W.
Suite 800E Washington, D.C. 20024

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A Reminder to Sisters https://www.nafeonation.org/a-reminder-to-sisters/ Thu, 10 Oct 2024 22:50:16 +0000 https://www.nafeonation.org/?p=2396
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A REMINDER TO SISTERS (All Women) AS TO WHY WE MUST VOTE

Lezli Baskerville, Esquire, President & CEO NAFEO 2024 Women’s History Month Speech Before the United States Department of Agriculture “Valiant Women of the Vote:  Refusing to be Silenced”

I am ecstatic that the First HBCU alumna will soon be nominated to become President of the United States & Head of the Free World. Built on my 40 years as an active and involved Justice Janissary and campaign designer, leader,  manager, and platform plank writer and editor,  and one who as President & CEO of the National Black Leadership Roundtable, led in organizing 24 races for US House of Representatives that won,  10 US Senate races that won, and also ran or played critical roles in many state legislative, and mayoral races, and congressional and state legislative policy campaigns, and  served on the Executive Teams and played other central roles in two presidential campaigns, I was humbled to  share  the following historic context regarding the women’s vote with those in the USDA Farm Production and Conservation Business Center in 2021 and to prophesize a Kamala Harris campaign for the Presidency.  The topic was “Valiant Women of the Vote:  Refusing to be Silenced.” It helps to contextualize the importance of the Harris presidential race and Harris presidency. Because she is a proud HBCU alumna, her candidacy and service as POTUS is of signal importance for the future of   HBCUs, and for increasing diversity in higher education despite the Supreme Court decisions in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard University and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

I bring to this discussion nearly four decades as a Constitutional Justice attorney, a former voting rights litigator, a lead counsel in the 1982 congressional reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act, and service as the co-founding member of the National Congress of Political Black Women, along with my dearly departed and beloved Attorney Shelia High King whose daughter I am privileged to love as my Goddaughter.  I also bring to this exchange my service at the helm of NAFEO, the  52-year-old membership and advocacy association of the 106 HBCUs and 80 Predominantly Black Colleges and Universities, their presidents and chancellors, students  and 7,000,000 active and engaged alumni. 

Central to the mission of NAFEO is tearing down barriers to equal educational opportunity and opening wide the doors of opportunity through avenues such as HBCUs and PBIs– the quintessential equal educational opportunity institutions. As a champion for HBCUs a cornerstone of the NAFEO agendas is (1) restoring, strengthening and maintaining the Voting Rights Act, and (2) “Valuing Our Votes, and Voting Our Values” because NAFEO Nation realizes as do most within the sound of my voice, that voting is the most important action in which anyone can engage, in a participatory democracy.

Voting is the single most important means of wielding power—especially for those of least advantage—those who have traditionally been under-served or ill-served by the systems in America. It is the most important act for closing of the achievement gap, closing the wealth gap, closing the African American male/female education gender gap; ameliorating the health disparities; ensuring the survival and progress of the Nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities and MSIs, and for otherwise attaining a just, peaceful, equitable, sustainable. America. 

My thoughts about Valiant Women of the Vote Refusing to be Silenced are in the context of our Nation having celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the 1920 passage of the Women’s Right to Vote in August 2020. They are in the context of this being the United Nations-designated Decade of People of African Descent; of this being the Decade of the Black Female Voter; and amid an intensifying Black Lives Matter Movement which is engaging a richly diverse group of persons in a movement to end white supremacy, racism, hate crimes and racial, ethnic, economic, judicial, and other injustices in America.  

My thoughts are in alignment with the National Women’s History Month theme, “Valiant Women of the Vote – Refusing to Be Silence,” a theme that I find odd for such times as these. To  unpack this theme, I would need far more than 20 minutes just to explore the meaning of valiant in the context of women voters and then to determine whether in the context of the 2020 US elections, the 50% of White female voters who voted for a candidate who ran on an agenda of splintering America along the lines or race, ethnicity, national origin, maintaining the White heteropatriarchy, and keeping out of America persons of color, Muslims persons from Haiti, El Salvador, and African nations. 

The candidate for whom 50% of White female voters cast their ballot separated children seeking admission to our country in encampments with little sanitation separated from their parents, guardians, and other loved ones and with no or little understanding of English. The candidate declined fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for American Children, for political purposes.

Could someone who voted for a candidate whose record reflected these things, be a valiant voter?

Americans cared greatly about the outcome of the 2020 elections. More people voted in this election than in any election in American history. And more people cast votes for President of the United States in 2020 than in any other presidential race. Women care. They fought. They  showed up. They got millions of others to show up and vote.  Valiant Black Women of the Vote who refused to be silenced, and worked strategically and indefatigably were the margin of victory not only in the presidential race, but in so many races around the country.  The 2020 election was about the soul of our country. The valiant Women of the Vote who refused to be silenced, were victorious.

In the aftermath of the elections of 2020, and as the dust has settled, our discussions among valiant women voters must be about our democracy, our soul, our safety, our health, our sustainability, our freedoms, our democracy, our economic well-being, and justice. Our realizing our Egalitarian Ideal and becoming our best selves as a pluralistic nation, a strong, caring, just, peaceful, inclusive, excellent, diverse nation working together to end White supremacy and close the education, employment, entrepreneurship, economic, wealth, health, sustainability, and justice gaps.

Now, Valiant Women of all parties, races, ethnicities, religions, self-definitions, preferences, stripes, socio-economic strata, and all leanings, must work together on the priority policies and programs to get America on track and keep her there.

The elections of November 2020 occurred amid the taking of the 2020 Decennial Census, increased hate crimes, white supremacy, the worst health pandemic in decades that threatened the stability of not only America, but the world.  It laid bare for many who had not realized the depth of the racial and ethnic health disparities at home and abroad, the gulf between Black, Brown and Native health, health care, and health providers; and graphically demonstrated the racial, ethnic, and gender employment and wealth gaps. 

As Valiant Women of the Vote move collectively across all policy divisions, leaders of diverse Valiant Women of the Vote must meet in conclave to discuss ways of ending the 50-year pattern that has far too many of our White Sister voters choosing to vote to stay in the White hierarchy rather than choosing to lend their potent voices to the battle for our families, our communities, economic justice, closing the persistent disparities that are anchored in racial/ethnic and gender discrimination. Our strength as Valiant Women voters comes from what we can negotiate for America as richly diverse women with different beliefs but a shared belief in our democracy and the power of women united who refuse to be silenced.  

We must have this meeting soon to honor Frances Ellen Watkins Harper an abolitionist, suffragist, poet, teacher, public speaker, writer, reformer, co-founder of the National association of Colored Women’s Clubs, and importantly for those of you in Ag, a farmer who made butter for the market to provide for her four children after the death of her husband.

In an 1866 speech at the National Women’s Rights, Convention in New York, Harper captured the essence of the duality if Black women in the predominantly White female suffragist movement in a speech titled, “We are All Bound up Together:”

In the speech, Harper called on her fellow attendees to include African American women in their fight for suffrage. She emphasized that Black women were facing the double burden of racism and sexism. She urged the women’s suffrage movement to include suffrage for African Americans as well. In response to Harper’s appeal, the Convention organized the American Equal Rights Association to work for suffrage for both African Americans and women. When Black women urged the American Equal Rights Association to support the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, granting Black men the right to vote, the Association splintered and shortly after its founding the organization soon split over the decision of whether to support the Fifteenth Amendment, granting African American men the right to vote. 

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper A Valiant 19th Century Woman of the Vote—Refusing to be Silenced.

Valiant Women of the Vote Today must meet in conclave to have an honest difficult conversation to bring valiant women of the vote of all persuasions together around the most pressing issues of the day. And to help White Valiant Women better understand that often they subject WOC to the same types of racial and ethnic injustices, stereotyping, and discrimination as do their husbands, fathers, and sons. 

We must have the discussion now to honor the memory of Sojourner Truth. You will recall that in 1851 Sojourner Truth asked four times at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio, “Ain’t I a woman,” to emphasize the need to fight for equal rights of not just white women, but of African American women, to the present, when black women  continue to ask of their White Sisters, “Ain’t I a woman?”

We must have all Valiant Women of the Vote convene in conclave to honor dearly departed Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm.

In 1968 voters of New York elected Shirley Chisholm to join the 91st Congress.  She became the first black woman elected to the United States Congress. When she ran for the Presidency in 1972 on the slogan, “Bring U.S. Together…Shirley Chisholm, Unbought and Unbossed,” she became the first black to seek the presidential nomination from one of the two major parties. While she won support from black women, neither white men, white women, nor black men would support her. McGovern won the Democratic nomination, but lost the election by a landslide to troubled Richard Nixon. Congresswoman Chisholm and black women across America asked, “Ain’t I a woman?

We must have the conclave to honor the millions of women of the Rainbow Coalition who got robbed when the National Congress of Political Women refused to even permit us to put in nomination Honorable Shirley Chisholm for the Vice-Presidential candidate for Walter Mondale.

You recall. It was in 1984.  Reverend Jesse Lewis Jackson made his first Presidential bid, building the first national rainbow coalition of Americans of all colors, races, religions, ethnicities, socio-economic strata, all walks of life, and all stripes, registering more voters than any other primary candidate, and energizing the American electorate unlike any other. The Party elected Walter Mondale as its nominee. There was great buzz at that time about Mondale selecting a female candidate. The Party failed to even accept and debate the nomination of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm who had run for the presidency, was senior to the other women who were considered as running mates, and had mobilized more voters than the others. Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro, with less experience than Shirley Chisholm, was given the nod by acclimation of the white women. Most black women walked out of the nominating meeting amid a  hue and cry,  as Black women asked, “Ain’t I a woman?”  Attorney Sheila High King and I, who led the effort to place the name of Fighting Shirley into nomination, as Jackson Delegates to the Convention, retreated to the Jackson headquarters and frustrated by what appeared to us to be a pattern of the National Congress of White Women providing WOC less support than Whites, advanced the idea of establishing the National Congress of Political Black Women.

After each one of these flashpoints the African-Ancestored Sisters rebounded and refused to be silenced.

Now as Valiant Women in every political party and non-party affiliated valiant women voters, we must do something about the Valiant White Women voters who refuse to be silenced, but who continue to reflect the White heteropatriarchy without even realizing it.

Valiant Women of the Vote must vote in conclave to make certain that when now Vice President Kamala Harris is seeking the presidency, she is not blindsided and sabotaged by some of our valiant white Sisters who refuse to be silenced, who suggest then as was suggested as VP Harris was about to secure the nomination of the VP on the Biden ticket, that Senator Harris was too ambitious for the position.  Remember? Too ambitious for the position of VPOTUS.

Hundreds of Valiant Women of the Vote who refused to be silenced called into question the women in the Biden inner circle who raise the possibility of Senator Harris being too ambition. In an opinion editorial on behalf of (NAFEO), the Nation’s only membership and advocacy association representing all of the HBCUs and PBIs with  Thirty-eight of the CEOs of HBCUs and PBIs  being females, mostly black females, and our members have among the most diverse student enrollments of all American colleges and universities, and other educational institutions, enrolling approximately 370,000 female FTEs, disproportionate percentages of whom are black, other persons of color, and ambitious I WROTE:

When our colleges and universities select students for admissions into their institutions, they conduct a holistic review of applicants. They are looking for females who are prepared and who evidence a high degree of ambition, fortitude, determination, courage, optimism, perseverance, passion, an unbridled spirit, a just spirit, a willingness to speak up for right and against wrong no matter the circumstances and regardless of whether they must stand alone. That the inner circle of Presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominees Joe Biden would attempt to kibosh consideration of Senator Harris because she possesses ambition, and the other characteristics viewed by most as essential for exemplary leadership is disturbing. Every one of the women under consideration for the vice presidency possess ambition. It is the black female ethos that gives Senator Harris and the other black female candidates the superabundance of qualifications. All else being equal it is the Spelman College experience of Stacy Abrams,  the Capstone Experience of Senator Harris  (Howard University) and the HBCU Harvest that give them the edge.  

Any one of the black females reportedly under consideration for the Democratic vice-presidential nominee would well serve President Biden and the Nation. Each of these phenomenal women would bring to the position a unique lens, unassailable qualifications, uncanny instincts for people and politics, character beyond reproach, clear understandings and a vision for closing the education, economic, wealth, health, environmental and justice gaps in America, which may not be aligned foursquare with the vision of Joe Biden. But each of the women would pivot to embrace and champion the vision and approach to making America the Beautiful, advanced by the Democratic Party presidential nominee and the Party. Importantly, most of the black females under consideration to serve Joe Biden and the Nation as vice president possess a tremendous and important base of support that they would energize and enthusiastically bring into the fold to move the multitudes to the polls.

Importantly for this discussion, I continued:  

For too long black women have out-paced other American cohorts in moving the Nation closer to realizing her Egalitarian Ideal, but have been sidelined when America has put others in place to run her communities, counties, states, institutions and the Nation.  From 1851 when Sojourner Truth asked four times at the Women’s Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio,  “Ain’t I a woman,” to emphasize the need to fight for equal rights of not just white women, but of African American women, to the dismissing of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm from even having her name put into contention as a possible VP candidate for Waler Mondale,  to the discussions about the VO for the then presumptive Democratic Party nominee for POTUS black women are still asking, “Ain’t I a woman?”

Black women are mighty women. Black women are women of wisdom, diligence, strength, noble character, excellence, and capacity beyond measure, valiance, patience, fortitude, courage and faith. Black women are more precious than rubies, more sterling than silver, and more resourceful than most. In this the Decade of the Black Woman Voter, in which more than 100 black women sought election in the general election, and the year in which the names of at least six black women were reportedly under consideration as running mates for Presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee Biden, selecting the right vice-presidential candidate from this embarrassment of riches is the tough decision Biden must make.

In 2021 and beyond, Black women cannot be left wondering, “Ain’t I a woman?  Prejudice and discrimination against any individual or group because of race, creed, color, national origin, religion, ancestry, age, sex, affectional or sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, marital status, liability for service in the Armed Forces of the United States [or] nationality is inimical to democracy, the cornerstone of our American tradition and menaces to peace and public welfare.”   

Are being nominated and called for confirmation to serve in the Presidential Cabinet and in other covet positions of service and power, Valiant Women of the Vote  cannot be silenced.  We stand on the shoulders of our foremother suffragist, foremother feminists, foremothers of strength, caring character, fortitude, more precious than rubies: White, Black, Native, Asian Pacific Islander, Hispanic,  Hmong, and all other women valiant women of the vote who refused to be silenced. 

But even 100 years after women attained the right to vote, women of color were forced to address the duality of their circumstance as both Black and female, and to highlight for well-meaning White Sisters that although White women are members of an oppressed group based on gender, they still experience privilege based on race and some still lapse  into racial stereotyping, especially when the stakes are high. This dual oppressor/oppressed identity has been a root of tension when White women have been challenged to consider their White privilege or even to support exemplary WOC candidates for elective office, employment, and business partners, and the like. 

As we conclude the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the  1920 passage of the Women’s Right to Vote in August 2020; the United Nations-designated Decade of People of African Descent; the Decade of the Black Female Voter; and amid an intensifying Black Lives Matter Movement to end white supremacy, racism, hate crimes and racial, ethnic, economic, judicial, and other injustices in America, NAFEO and the National Congress of Black Women call for a Valiant Women of the Vote CEO’s Conclave to engage in difficult  discussions and give birth to a new philosophy about Valiant Women of the Vote, clear definition to Valiant Women of the Vote, a clear  direction for Valiant Women of the Vote; and Clear Victories for Valiant Women of the Vote. WOC and hopefully all Valiant Women must refuse to be silenced behind the curtain any longer. We will evolve as one on the issues of justice and democracy.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of House Financial Services Committee and Former Chair of the Committee, Honorable Laura Murphy, one of the nation’s foremost civil liberties advocates, and NAFEO President & CEO, Attorney Lezli Baskerville.
Honorable Renee Baskerville, First Female Mayor of Montclair, New Jersey.
Honorable Renee Baskerville consulting with then Senator Kamala Harris.
Lezli Baskerville addressing the Rainbow Push Citizenship Education Fund Anniversary Celebration on the power and Potency of the Vote.
Ambassador Arikana Chihombori Quao, a Fisk University and Meharry Medical School alumna and a medical doctor, and NAFEO President & CEO, Attorney Lezli Baskerville pause for a photo during the African Union- NAFEO Partnership Pinning Ceremony at AU Headquarters in Washington DC.

About NAFEO

The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO) is the nation’s only national membership association of all of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). Founded in 1969, by the presidents and chancellors of HBCUs and other equal educational opportunity institutions, NAFEO is a one of a kind membership association representing the presidents and chancellors of the public, private, independent, and land-grant, two-year, four-year, graduate and professional, HBCUs and PBIs.

Contact NAFEO

(202) 552-3300
600 Maryland Avenue S.W.
Suite 800E Washington, D.C. 20024

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HBCU PBI Graduates https://www.nafeonation.org/hbcu-pbi-graduates/ Fri, 27 Sep 2024 02:16:07 +0000 https://www.nafeonation.org/?p=2339
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Vice President Harris Stands on the Shoulders African Heads of State Who Graduated from HBCUs and PBIs and

“Trod the Stony Road” to the Presidency of a Nation

HBCU students, administrators, faculty, staff, and actively engaged graduates (of whom there are 7 million!)—along with so many other leaders of economic, cultural, social, fraternal, and faith institutions at home and around the world—are full of excitement about the Kamala Harris for President campaign. Many are working indefatigably to ensure that Vice President Harris becomes President Harris.

Kamala Harris would be the first HBCU graduate—as well as the first African American and Southeast Asian woman—to serve as U.S. president. But others of African ancestry have paved the way for a President Harris. She would have not only former U.S. presidents as mentors but the support of presidents, past and present, of other countries, including the following HBCU graduates.

HBCUs have contributed tremendously to shaping the political and economic landscape of Africa. Their graduates have become heads of state, business leaders, health care professionals, engineers, and environmentalists, just to name a few.

Here are four African presidents who attended HBCUs or PBIs. The living presidents and supporters of past presidents are eager to advance their interests with the United States and advance American interests in their countries. They want to increase trade as well as advance economic, environmental, and humanitarian interests, and work toward a more sustainable, peaceful, and just world. They are eager to work with a future President Harris and her administration.

Nnamdi Azikiwe
First President of Independent Nigeria 

Nnamdi Azikiwe was the first president of independent Nigeria. Born in Nigeria in 1904, he came to the United States in 1925 and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Pennsylvania’s Lincoln University, the nation’s first degree-granting HBCU. Today, Lincoln University educates students in small learning environments. Its diverse, international student body studies in a learning community “built on a culture of innovation and excellence,” and its graduates are prepared to lead or compete in graduate school.

Nnamdi Azikiwe also attended Howard University, founded by Congress in 1867. The Freedmen’s Bureau provided most of the university’s early financial support. In 1879, Congress approved a special appropriation. The charter, amended in 1928, authorized an annual federal appropriation for construction, development, improvement, and maintenance. Today, Howard is one of the nation’s leading research universities, “dedicated to educating students from diverse backgrounds at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional level, with a particular focus on African American students, as well as those of all other racial and ethnic groups from the United States and around the world.”

After completing his graduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania, Nnamdi Azikiwe later returned to Nigeria. He became the third and first Black governor-general of Nigeria in 1960 and the nation’s first president in 1963. President Azikiwe established the Eastern Nigeria Development Corporation, which built the University of Nigeria at Nsukka, the country’s first indigenous, full-fledged university in 1960. He later served as its president.

Kwame Nkrumah
President of Ghana

Kwame Nkrumah succeeded friend and mentor President Azikiwe at Lincoln University. They both attended the University of Pennsylvania for their graduate studies. Kwame Nkrumah was the first prime minister of the Gold Coast, from 1952 until 1957. When the Gold Coast gained independence from Britain, Nkrumah became Ghana’s first prime minister and, later, its first president. He was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity and an influential advocate of pan-Africanism. Although—or perhaps because—President Nkrumah studied in the United States, where he experienced firsthand its racially discriminatory laws, policies, and procedures, Nkrumah was anti-American. In a book on neocolonialism, he discussed how U.S. foreign policy caused or perpetuated many of Africa’s challenges. The United States and Ghana have enjoyed friendly relations since the end of Nkrumah’s presidency. He died in 1972.

Hastings Kamuzu Banda
First President of Malawi 

Hastings Kamuzu Banda served as president for Malawi from 1963 to 1994. He received his undergraduate degree from Ohio’s Wilberforce University, the nation’s oldest private HBCU and one of five African Methodist Episcopal Church’s four-year colleges and universities. Banda earned a medical degree from Meharry Medical College, one of the nation’s oldest and largest historically Black academic health science centers and the first medical school in the South for African Americans. The school, located in Nashville, Tennessee, was founded in 1915. During his tenure as president, Banda gifted the institution $1 million. Banda died in 1997.

Bola Tinubu
Grand Commander of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

Bola Tinubu has been president of Nigeria since 2023. He was first elected governor of Lagos state in 1999. President Tinubu attended Southwest College (now Richard J. Daley College) in Chicago and later graduated from Chicago State University, a public predominantly black institution (PBI), with a bachelor of science in business and administration in 1979. Chicago State “includes an honors program for undergraduates, and offers bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the arts and sciences.” Chicago State “transforms students’ lives by innovative teaching, research, and community partnerships through excellence in ethical leadership, cultural enhancement, economic development, and justice.” President Tinubu served as an accountant at several US corporations before returning in the 1980s to Nigeria, where he worked at Mobil Oil, later becoming an executive.

The Honorable Gloria B. Herndon, PhD
President and CEO, GB Group Global

Early in my career, I was accepted into the Foreign Service of the U.S. Department of State. Posting as an economic/commercial officer in Lagos, Kaduna, Kinshasa, Monrovia, and Nouakchott. Along with my regular duties, I sought to further the U.S.-Nigerian trade relationship by strengthening the Nigerian American Chamber of Commerce. I spearheaded initial delegation to the U.S. from Lagos and repeated this success by leading the Kaduna Chamber’s first delegation to the United States as well. While in Nigeria, I wrote my dissertation and taught undergraduate economics courses at Ahmadu Bello University. I received my doctorate in Economics and International Law from Johns Hopkins University. Returning to the United States in the mid-1980’s, I continued service at the State Department as a consultant.

Today, I remain engaged in the economic and political affairs of many African countries as adviser to several presidents around the world, including Sultan of Brunei, Presidents of Malawi, Senegal, Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, Cote D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Gabon, Cameron, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, and the SADC, COMESA and ECOWAS regions in Africa, and through my businesses, and as an adviser to the African Free Trade Zone.

About NAFEO

The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO) is the nation’s only national membership association of all of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). Founded in 1969, by the presidents and chancellors of HBCUs and other equal educational opportunity institutions, NAFEO is a one of a kind membership association representing the presidents and chancellors of the public, private, independent, and land-grant, two-year, four-year, graduate and professional, HBCUs and PBIs.

Contact NAFEO

(202) 552-3300
600 Maryland Avenue S.W.
Suite 800E Washington, D.C. 20024

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Kamala Harris https://www.nafeonation.org/kamala-harris/ Tue, 24 Sep 2024 22:56:37 +0000 https://www.nafeonation.org/?p=2276
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The HBCU Family is so Proud of Howard University’s Graduate

Vice President Kamala Harris

Kamala Devi Harris was born on October 20, 1964, in Oakland, California. She is the daughter of immigrants – her father Donald Harris was from Jamaica and her mother Shyamala Gopalan was from India. Harris was raised primarily by her mother after her parents divorced when she was 7 years old.

Growing up, Harris was exposed to both Indian and African American cultures. Her mother took her to visit family in India and also ensured she was connected to her African American roots. As a child, Harris attended civil rights demonstrations with her parents and sang in a Baptist choir.

For her education, Harris attended Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington D.C., where she earned a BA in political science and economics. She then went on to earn her law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1989.

After passing the California bar exam in 1990, Harris began her career as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County. She steadily rose through the ranks of the California legal system, becoming San Francisco’s district attorney in 2003. In this role, she launched initiatives like “Back on Track” to reduce recidivism rates.

In 2010, Harris was elected as California’s attorney general, becoming the first African American and first woman to hold this position. She served in this role until 2016, when she was elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming only the second African American woman ever elected to the Senate.

During her time in the Senate, Harris served on key committees including Intelligence and Judiciary. She gained national attention for her prosecutorial questioning style during Senate hearings.

In 2019, Harris launched a campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination but dropped out before the primaries. In August 2020, Joe Biden selected her as his vice presidential running mate. Following their election victory, on January 20, 2021, Harris was sworn in as the 49th Vice President of the United States. This made her the first woman, first African American, first Indian American, and first Asian American to hold the office of Vice President.

As Vice President, Harris has worked on issues like immigration, voting rights, and women’s reproductive freedoms. She has also represented the U.S. in meetings with foreign leaders.

In her personal life, Harris married lawyer Douglas Emhoff in 2014 and became stepmother to his two children. She is known to her stepchildren as “Momala”.

Throughout her career, Harris has been a trailblazer, breaking barriers and glass ceilings in multiple roles. She has described her approach as: “I am who I am. I’m good with it. You might need to figure it out, but I’m fine with it.

Baby Kamala

High School Graduate Harris

Howard University

Vice President Kamala Harris

About NAFEO

The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO) is the nation’s only national membership association of all of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). Founded in 1969, by the presidents and chancellors of HBCUs and other equal educational opportunity institutions, NAFEO is a one of a kind membership association representing the presidents and chancellors of the public, private, independent, and land-grant, two-year, four-year, graduate and professional, HBCUs and PBIs.

Contact NAFEO

(202) 552-3300
600 Maryland Avenue S.W.
Suite 800E Washington, D.C. 20024

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A Tribute for the Honorable Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee https://www.nafeonation.org/sheila-jackson-lee/ Wed, 07 Aug 2024 00:15:28 +0000 https://www.nafeonation.org/?p=2242
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A Tribute for the
Honorable Congresswoman
Sheila Jackson Lee

It is on this day
That NAFEO must say
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee
Supported NAFEO along the way.

With NAFEO members
Congresswoman Lee would meet
To assist with legislative initiatives
NAFEO needed to defeat.

It is now
That NAFEO stands to salute
To give Congresswoman Lee
NAFEO’s Deepest Tribute.

Congresswoman Lee served NAFEO well
And the legislative history will tell.

As She transcends through the Heavenly Gate,
May Her Spirit be Greeted by the Stars
Because Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee
Assisted NAFEO with their legislative cause.

GOD BLESS – PEACE BE STILL

JOY C. WEST
NAFEO POET JOY
July 20, 2024

About NAFEO

The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO) is the nation’s only national membership association of all of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). Founded in 1969, by the presidents and chancellors of HBCUs and other equal educational opportunity institutions, NAFEO is a one of a kind membership association representing the presidents and chancellors of the public, private, independent, and land-grant, two-year, four-year, graduate and professional, HBCUs and PBIs.

Contact NAFEO

(202) 552-3300
600 Maryland Avenue S.W.
Suite 800E Washington, D.C. 20024

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Statement of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education on Supreme Court Decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. vs Harvard; and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. vs University of North Carolina, et al. https://www.nafeonation.org/nafeo-on-on-supreme-court-decision/ Fri, 30 Jun 2023 17:11:58 +0000 https://www.nafeonation.org/?p=2038
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Statement of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education on Supreme Court Decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. vs Harvard; and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. vs University of North Carolina, et al.

CONTACT: DR. C.A. PAGE, CRLPG@AOL.COM
(202) 552-3300

Today’s decision by the US Supreme Court in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina, et.al., prohibiting the use of race as  one of many factors in college admissions to ensure an excellent, diverse student body, and a robust exchange of ideas and experiences, is a major setback for higher education, democracy, and justice in America. It was anticipated, however, in this climate of ultra-partisanship and increasingly un-democratic actions.

It defies logic that one would have a disease, and try to cure it but be prohibited from focusing on the disease itself . If someone has cancer, for example, focus must be on a cancer-specific remedy.  De jure or intentional race discrimination is the disease that has resulted in vestigial impacts of the disease today, in the form of race deficits in education, employment, socio-economic strata, wealth, health, housing, environments, justice, and so many other arenas. Since race exclusion is  a major cause of  the racial deficits in America, the problem must be attacked by considering race. among a host of other factors the Supreme Court has found acceptable under the U.S. Constitution,  time and again, under right-leaning-majority Courts and left-leaning-majority Courts. To remedy the race deficits flowing from the race-based intentional exclusion of African Americans,  and the  vestigial impact on their progeny requires a race-based remedy.  To cure race and ethnicity-deficits in America, we must root out its causes and cut down its branches. We must consider race in remedying the race deficits in America.

The Court argues anew that which the High Court addressed, and provided an exception decades ago in Bakke and  succeeding cases. The High Court found in those cases in  which an entire race of people was denied access to the opportunities and bounty of America based solely on their race,  remedial actions that consider race among other factors, could be considered in remediating the de jure discrimination and its lingering vestigial impacts if the remedy is narrowly tailored to meet a compelling governmental interest.

It defies logic to suggest that the race deficits in America should be addressed on a case-by-case-basis, by the thousands of Black students who seek admissions to colleges that understand the educational value of a richly diverse student body and take affirmative steps to seek out, enroll, and retain a diverse student body. Such an approach is as counter intuitive as it was to attempt to address coronavirus on a case-by-case basis, months on end, while tens  of thousands of Americans were being compromised by the disease, and worse.

HBCUs are equal opportunity institutions and were founded for those who were left out of the American higher education systems because of their race. They are non-racial, non-MSI, mission-based institutions that have been educating Blacks and disproportionate percentages of others who were locked out of participation in American education institutions based on race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, religion, and other non-bona fide criteria. They have also become the institutions of choice for increasing numbers of students and families who believe in the values of HBCUs: excellence, faith, family, fortitude, service and leadership. With no race or no ethnicity criterion, HBCUs on average have student bodies that are more than 30% non-Black.

Many universities have more students drawn from the top 1% of the income distribution than the bottom 40% of the income distribution, e.g., example, University of Virginia, Washington University- St. Louis, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. HBCUs have the highest share of students from families with incomes in the bottom 20% of the income distribution and do better than average for American colleges of moving those students to the top 20% of the income distribution. HBCUs are the best return on higher education dollars. Just 3% of American colleges are   graduating I on 5 Black engineers, 42% of Blacks with advanced degrees in STEM, and 1 in 7 Black medical school graduates, and more than 50% of Black law school graduates. See Blacks in STEM: Understanding the Issues, by Dr. William E. Spriggs, NAFEO Senior Economist.

As the nation’s only national membership and advocacy association for all HBCUs and PBIs dubbed “The Voice for Blacks in Higher Education,” NAFEO, for more than forty years has represented the HBCUs in litigation, to encourage more equitable resource investments in HBCUs aligned with their missions and return on investments. It has provided voice for the HBCU Community in diversity cases, challenged the disparities in funding between public historically White higher education institutions and public historically Black institutions.  NAFEO deplores the Court’s action today and recommits to continuing to educate, agitate, collaborate,  motivate and forge ahead with the modification of policies that are inimical to diversity and democracy. Having fostered diverse student bodies without consideration of race or ethnicity for more than forty years, NAFEO vows to continue providing  guidance to the higher education community, policy makers and shapers with regard to best practices.   NAFEO will use today’s set-back as a set-up for a come-back  and a restoration of the law as it existed  prior to today’s Students for Fair Admissions, Inc., Supreme Court decisions, threatening excellence and diversity in higher education, threatening to retard efforts to close the racial deficit in higher education, employment, socio-economic status wealth, health, housing, and justice.

NAFEO is intrigued by the notion of using “lineage” as an immediate non-racial substitute for “race consciousness,” to root out the disease of  race deficits primarily resulting from  de jure or intentional race discrimination.

NAFEO thanks and aligns with the extremely thoughtful and compelling dissenting opinion of the newest member of the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Jackson, also the first Black female Supreme Court Justice. NAFEO will immediately lead its members, policy shapers,  and others in discussion about how to broadly position and leverage much of what Justice Jackson included in her dissenting opinion. It aligns  with that which NAFEO included in its Supreme Court amicus curiae brief  in the Bakke case, on behalf of NAFEO, the HBCUs and PBIs,  National Black Caucus of State Legislators, and the National Bar Association, referenced  in the opinion of Justice Thurgood Marshall. We will also lead discussions about the pros and cons of advancing the notion of using “lineage” as a substitute for race in diversity cases.  Stay tuned, and join us!

Lezli Baskerville
President & CEO
National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO)
Member, Biden-Harris Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans
20-plus years as Constitutional Justice Lawyer; Equal Educational Opportunity and Equal Employment  Opportunity Litigator
(202) 552-3300
LBaskerville@nafeo.org

About NAFEO

The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO) is the nation’s only national membership association of all of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). Founded in 1969, by the presidents and chancellors of HBCUs and other equal educational opportunity institutions, NAFEO is a one of a kind membership association representing the presidents and chancellors of the public, private, independent, and land-grant, two-year, four-year, graduate and professional, HBCUs and PBIs.

Contact NAFEO

(202) 552-3300
600 Maryland Avenue S.W.
Suite 800E Washington, D.C. 20024

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Juneteenth 2023 Call to Action to Clarify What HBCUs Are and Are Not https://www.nafeonation.org/juneteenth-2023-cta/ Wed, 21 Jun 2023 16:45:12 +0000 https://www.nafeonation.org/?p=2011
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(202) 552-3300
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Juneteenth 2023 Call to Action
to Clarify What HBCUs Are and Are Not

  1. Join the NAFEO campaign to clarify for  policy makers, policy shapers, media, funders, partners, investors, parents, students, administrators  and everyone in or seeking higher education in America, what HBCUs  are and what they are not. Lend your potent voice to educating the HBCU Community, and all of its supporters, partners, beneficiaries, investors, interpreters, champions, and challengers about the centrality of  HBCUs to American. Progress. HBCUs are America’s quintessential equal educational opportunity, mission-based colleges and universities, born out of America’s deplorable history of slavery, intentional discrimination and subjugation. HBCUs suffer manifest lingering vestigial adverse impacts from the American history that an increasing number of states are voting to strike from American classrooms, discourse, and virtual venues—wipe out as though slavery and its vestiges never happened. . They do not want to clarify that HBCUs are NOT minority-serving institutions (MSIs). They have no race or ethnicity criterion. MSIs are Hispanic-serving Institutions (HSIs), Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). HSIs, AANAISIs, and PBIs are institutions, like HBCUs that are central to America’s ability to realize important goals, but they are disproportionately predominantly White institutions that enroll a certain percentage of low-income, underrepresented minority students, and which must document underfunding relative to other institutions in their service area.  Neither Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) nor HBCUs are MSIs. Both the non-racial, non-ethnic institutions. HBCUs and TCUs are central to closing the educational, employment, economic, wealth, health, housing, sustainability, peace, and justice gaps in America, as are the MSIs. But HBCUs and MSIs are not fungible. America must invest in HBCUs and TCUs first, to eliminate the vestigial impact of  de jure discrimination—the race/ethnicity deficit,  and on top of that, invest in  these richly diverse institutions an equitable  share of the broader higher education dollars that will enable them to thrive and realize their missions, priorities and goals in the highly competitive higher education system in America. My sons and daughters please lend your voices and votes to this important clarification. Failure to make this critical clarification could be the death knell for HBCUs and TCUs.
  1. As the Agriculture Bill is being reauthorized, use your investigative, research, quantitative, economic, legislative, and other honed skills and understandings to determine whether certain provisions in the bill perpetuate vestigial discrimination against 1890 land-grant institutions— perpetuate the race deficit resulting from the American system of slavery or concretizae the vestigial impacts of slavery in agricultural programs, services, and funding floors. If so, act collectively to modify,  clarify and/or eliminate the provisions.
  1. For America to optimize its security and competitiveness in the 21st Century, it must have an excellent, diverse, inclusive, military workforce/service corps; world class diverse scientists, technologists, engineers, mathematicians (STEM workforce).  The Department of Defense is required to create plans that include non-racial/non-ethnic,  mission based HBCUs, and Tribal Colleges, as well as Minority-serving Institutions (MSIs), that have a race/ethnicity criterion–HSIs, AANAPISIs, PBIs. The research of NAFEO, UNCF, and TMCF shows that HBCUs are punching far above their weight in STEM. The late Bill Spriggs, the Senior Economist for NAFEO until his death in June 2023,  reported for NAFEO in Blacks in STEM: Understanding the Issues, 2018, that despite some decline in Black graduates from HBCUs, I in 5 Black engineers graduate from HBCU. In another report for NAFEO on HBCUs and STEM, Dr. Spriggs reported that HBCUs, just 3% of American colleges and universities, account for 42% of Blacks graduating with advanced degrees in STEM. Four of the top 20 leading producers of Black Baccalaureates in Science and Engineering are HBCUs. Ten of the top 50 baccalaureate institutions who graduate Blacks who earn doctorates in Science and Engineering are HBCUs. These and other data demonstrate that neither the US Department of Defense nor America can realize their excellence, diversity, skilled professional proficiency, pipeline, R & D, global understandings and cultural sensitivities requirements without increased HBCU participation. HBCUS can provide the level of participation that will enable America to realize its Defense scientific, technological, Engineering, diversity labor force needs, and service corps needs, with targeted funding to well positioned HBCUs to enable them to run FFRDCs and UARCs, establish themed Research Centers of Excellence, scholarship. internship, apprenticeship, fellowship initiatives and a NAFEO-Amesite driven AI technical skills eLearning platform that has a 95% success rate.  A modest comprehensive program  of this nature is projected to cost $500,000,000 for a 10-year period. Would this be an important investment of our  tax dollars in America’s security, potency,  and peace?
  1. IN 2022, AFTER NEARLY FOUR DECAES OF ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGAL ACTION, IN Coalition for Equity and Excellence v. Md. Higher Educ. Commission,

THE STATE OF MARYLAND COURAGEOUSLY AND  CLEARLY ESTABLISHED A BLUEPRINT FOR EVERY STATE IN AMERICA THAT STILL MAINTAINS A DUAL & UNEQUAL HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM– ONE HISTORICALLY WHITE AND ONE HISTORICALLY BLACK–TO DETERMINE THE WAYS IN WHICH THE STATE PROGRAMMATIC AND APPROPRIATIONS DECISIONS ARE CONTINUING VESTIGIAL IMPACTS OF THE DE JURE DISCRIMIANTION THAT GAVE RISE TO SPLINTERED HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEMS, WITH PUBLIC HBCUs CONTINUING TO SUFFER THE VESTIGIAL IMPACTS OF AMERICAN INTENTIONAL DISCRIMINATION—A RACE  DEFICIT IN FUNDING, FACILITIES, FACULTY, RESEARCH & PROGRAMS.  IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS AND PERHAPS  EARN A SCHOLARSHIP OR FELLOWSHIP TO WORK ON THIS CHALLENGE, CLICK HERE (PLEASE INLAY. LINK TO REPORT ON MARYLAND CASE.)

Be focused, determined, engaged, affirmative, creative, filled with joy, resolute about continuing the struggle to uproot the interlocking injustices of racism  and classism,  and about effectively leveraging  HBCUs and  PBIs as laboratories in which to research, identify and apply new revolutionary solutions to the challenges of today.   Happy Juneteenth.  A Luta Continua!

About NAFEO

The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO) is the nation’s only national membership association of all of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). Founded in 1969, by the presidents and chancellors of HBCUs and other equal educational opportunity institutions, NAFEO is a one of a kind membership association representing the presidents and chancellors of the public, private, independent, and land-grant, two-year, four-year, graduate and professional, HBCUs and PBIs.

Contact NAFEO

(202) 552-3300
600 Maryland Avenue S.W.
Suite 800E Washington, D.C. 20024

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NAFEO Nation, America’s HBCUs and PBIs, Salutes and Bids Farewell to Dr. William E. Spriggs, Its 30-Year Pro Bono Senior Economist, and America’s Quintessential Justice Economist https://www.nafeonation.org/dr-william-e-spriggs/ Wed, 21 Jun 2023 16:29:39 +0000 https://www.nafeonation.org/?p=1998
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NAFEO Nation, America’s HBCUs and PBIs, Salutes and Bids Farewell to Dr. William E. Spriggs, Its 30-Year Pro Bono Senior Economist, and America’s Quintessential Justice Economist

It is with a profound sense of loss and an attendant tanking of the stock in the Battle for American Justice that we announce the passing of Dr. William R. Spriggs, who until his death was the NAFEO pro bono Senior Economist for more than three decades. The indefatigable efforts of Dr. Spriggs substantially advanced the social justice and economic welfare efforts in America and strengthened the educational and economic foundations of all HBCUs and PBIs. He shaped policies, designed and led strategic actions, and quantified the fact that public investments in HBCIs yield the best return on higher education dollars.

Lezli Baskerville, President & CEO of NAFEO, John Pierre, Chancellor of the Southern University Law Center and Chair of the NAFEO Policy, Advocacy & Law (PALs) Presidential Work Group, and the HBCU and PBI communities, extend our deepest sympathies to Bill’s wife, Jennifer, and his son, William, who frequently attended the annual NAFEO Presidential Peer Seminar where Bill spoke, and became part of the “NAFEO Nation.”

Armed with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College cum laude and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Bill became a Justice Economist par excellence, a champion of HBCUs, people of color, working people, and people marginalized by American systems, including economic systems, theories and approaches that kept those of least advantage as second class citizens. The majority of the policy documents NAFEO advanced and supported were influenced by his keen eye, his knowledge, and insight as the best justice economist in the world.

Dr. Spriggs served as a senior fellow at the Economic Policy Institute where he used his position, voice and passion to keep the economic plight of those of least advantage central in the discussions. From 1988 to 2004, he served as Executive Director of the National Urban League’s Institute for Opportunity and Equality, where among other duties he was editor of the State of Black America 1999, the nation’s seminal publication on the economic and social status of diverse segments of the African American community, and the opportunities to further strengthen Black America. While serving at the Urban League, Dr. Spriggs led research on pay equity that won the NUL the 2001 Winn Newman Award from the National Committee on Pay Equity. Bill represented the NUL on various boards including the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the Black Leadership Forum and the National Coalition for Black Civic Participation. His research and strategic thinking were so valuable that he was asked to serve on the Black Leadership Forum, a national association of the presidents and CEOs of the nation’s leading black advancement associations, even though he was not a president or CEO of a kindred association. Bill gave congressional testimony on behalf of the NUL, on how various policies would affect Black and low-income communities, and participated in the UN World Conference Against Racism, Xenophobia and Related Forms of Intolerance. He contributed language adopted in the Programme of Action relating to documenting racial disparities and incorporating closing racial disparities within efforts to achieve the Copenhagen goals for World Social Development.

Bill was our dear friend and Brother, a brilliant justice economist, who used his all to level the playing fields in America, with quantifiable favorable results. Bill walked humbly through life, loved justice, and meted out mercy.

Farewell Dr. Spriggs, we thank you. We love you and we’ll see ya on the other side. Good night Sweet Prince, and bands of angels sing thee to thy rest.

With profound gratitude and appreciation,

Lezli Baskerville, Esquire
President & CEO
NAFEO
Work Group

John Pierre, Chancellor
Southern University Law Center
Chair, NAFEO Policy, Advocacy & Legal (PAL)

About NAFEO

The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO) is the nation’s only national membership association of all of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). Founded in 1969, by the presidents and chancellors of HBCUs and other equal educational opportunity institutions, NAFEO is a one of a kind membership association representing the presidents and chancellors of the public, private, independent, and land-grant, two-year, four-year, graduate and professional, HBCUs and PBIs.

Contact NAFEO

(202) 552-3300
600 Maryland Avenue S.W.
Suite 800E Washington, D.C. 20024

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Juneteenth Letter From Dr. Lezli Baskerville, President & CEO of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education to the 700,000 HBCU & PBI Students 2023 https://www.nafeonation.org/juneteenth-letter-2023/ Wed, 21 Jun 2023 16:21:17 +0000 https://www.nafeonation.org/?p=1988
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Juneteenth Letter From Dr. Lezli Baskerville, President & CEO of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education to the 700,000 HBCU & PBI Students 2023

My Dear Sons and Daughters:

Today, June 19 (known as Juneteenth) , as we celebrate the abolition of slavery in Texas, fully two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, four months after passage of the Constitution’s 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, and two months after Robert E Lee surrendered, we are lifting those of you who are continuing to advance the Black Lives Matter Movement, the Lose the Noose Movement, any movement for educational, economic, employment, environmental, housing, health, justice, or to protect First Amendments rights, the reproductive rights of women, and the rights of others to go an come as they please unhindered or interfered with because of their religion, culture, ethnicity, sexual orientation, self-identity (others). We are lifting those of you who are working indefatigably to protect democracy in America against tremendous odds, and especially to protect the most fundamental of our rights, the right to vote and to have every vote duly cast, counted.

As President and CEO of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, NAFEO, I am so proud that in every state, HBCU and PBI students have joined with other students and young adults in leading or supporting the launching of the Twenty-first Century revolution that is being televised, and “social media-rized,” thereby swelling and internationalizing the ranks of those on the right side of history as never before. Your HBCU and PBI education and training grounds are well equipped to arm you with what you need to move the Nation closer to realizing the Egalitarian Ideal, and making the world more peaceful and just.

HBCUs and PBIs remain at the creative forefront of American education, offering the tools and skills necessary to prepare students to promote peace at home and abroad; secure our communities and our homeland; meet pressing global and community health care needs; fight injustice with the power of ideas; close the achievement, economic, wealth, and health gaps; and open doors of opportunity to those who are ill-served by many of the systems in our communities and the Nation.

You, my Sons and Daughters, knew where and how to lead today’s revolution because at your college or university, you are receiving not only vital academic preparation, but you are being trained in education, liberation, economics, theology, technology, and justice. Your faculty are preparing you to leverage your discipline to move individuals and communities of least advantage to higher ground. No matter what you are studying, faculty on your campus want you to understand that the degree you receive must not only be used to improve your quality of life and that of your families, but must also be leveraged for the good of the whole.

Since their inception, HBCUs have been fertile germination, organization, and training grounds for every Twentieth and Twenty-first Century movement for civil rights, social and economic justice. Recall the “Mighty Men of Morehouse” who rose to lead the national civil rights movement and international movements for peace and justice; Medgar Evers, for whom Medgar Evers College, CUNY, is named, an alumnus of Alcorn State University who helmed the Mississippi NAACP and was gunned down while organizing voter registration campaigns in the State; Ella Baker who as a student at Shaw University in 1960, founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the precursor of the student justice associations of today, and one of the most influential organizations of the Civil Rights Movement.

There were the North Carolina A & T students whose sit-in at the segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter launched the national sit-in movement; the “Legal Eagles” from Howard University worked around the clock without the benefit of computers, dictaphones, the Internet, or sleep to prepare compelling district, circuit, and Supreme Court briefs in every landmark civil rights and social justice case since the period just after the Civil War. The University of the District of Columbia students swelled the ranks of protesters at the South African Embassy until Apartheid crumbled. Countless other HBCU students, faculty staff, and alumni have been shaping, advancing, and supporting the efforts to prod the creation of a more just, equitable, and peaceful world. Today, Attorney Justin Hansford, CEO of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University School of Law and an elected member of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent for 2022-2024, just used that international forum to raise the issues of reparations and racial justice.

HBCU/PBI students, I am so proud of you every day, but especially today as you continue to be the heart and soul of the movements for civil and human rights, economic justice, and a peaceful and just society. Do not grow weary of fighting for justice ‘for in due season, we will reap the harvest if we don’t give up.’ The organized and strategic actions of HBCUs and PBI students who preceded you in leading the movements of their time, yielded among other things: the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the Voting Rights Act of 1965; the Fair Housing Act of 1968; the crumbling of Apartheid; the passage of environmental justice laws; and just recently, the protection of the employment rights of LGBTQ workers, and the protection from deportation of our brown and black Brothers and Sisters who are also DREAMers. Remain focused, determined, strategic, courageous, optimistic, resilient, passionate and persevering. NAFEO and I are here to support you in any manner of means.

About NAFEO

The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO) is the nation’s only national membership association of all of the nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs). Founded in 1969, by the presidents and chancellors of HBCUs and other equal educational opportunity institutions, NAFEO is a one of a kind membership association representing the presidents and chancellors of the public, private, independent, and land-grant, two-year, four-year, graduate and professional, HBCUs and PBIs.

Contact NAFEO

(202) 552-3300
600 Maryland Avenue S.W.
Suite 800E Washington, D.C. 20024

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