Scouting the Territory

I've narrowed down my topics to two entirely new ones, or rather, two versions of the same thing; either "The Experience of Black America in Higher Education" or "How Has Racism and Socio-Economics Affected Black America's Experience of Higher Education?". I'm leaning towards the former, but I've yet to truly decide.

I searched "black history" in the Rutgers data base and immediately came up with results pertaining to my topic almost perfectly. Looking online, I also googled exactly the first phrase "the experience of black America in higher education" and it was surprisingly useful.
For articles I found:

• Baker, Dominique J; Britton, Tolani. “Hate Crimes and Black College Student Enrollment.” Center for Education Policy Analysis, 6 Jan. 2021, cepa.stanford.edu/content/hate-crimes-and-black-college-student-enrollment. This fits in perfectly with my topic, focusing mainly of the contemporary aspects of my topic. It also includes hard numbers which makes for good analysis.
• Gasman, Marybeth, et al. “‘Building Bridges, Not Fences’: A History of Civic Engagement at Private Black Colleges and Universities, 1944–1965.” History of Education Quarterly, vol. 55, no. 3, 2015, pp. 346–379., doi:10.1111/hoeq.12125. Again, this is spot on for what I'm looking for. It covers the history of black America in regards to higher education leading up to the Reagan era.
• Libassi, CJ. “The Neglected College Race Gap: Racial Disparities Among College Completers.” Center for American Progress, www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-postsecondary/reports/2018/05/23/451186/neglected-college-race-gap-racial-disparities-among-college-completers/. Another contemporary view on the experience of black America in higher education, specifically on the aspects of racism and stratification.
• Ogbu, John U. “Collective Identity and the Burden of ‘Acting White’ in Black History, Community, and Education.” The Urban Review, vol. 36, no. 1, 2004, pp. 1–35., doi:10.1023/b:urre.0000042734.83194.f6. The identity of who is and isn't black has long been a topic of debate and turmoil, ranging from the socio-political realm to that of law itself. Identity is at the heart of what it means to be black in America.
• Patterson, Tiffany Mitchell, and Christine McWhorter. “Black Music Is American Music: Learning Underrepresented Aspects of Black History in College through Critical Race Media Literacy.” International Journal of Multicultural Education, vol. 22, no. 2, Eastern College, Department of Education, 2020, p. 145–, doi:10.18251/ijme.v22i2.2451. Much of the US is centered around media, especially music. Music has also been a keystone of black history, most notably jazz and the blues. This article looks at race issues through an interesting light that I hadn't previously considered.

The first, the former a report the latter an article, include hard numbers to study which make them solid points of study and data. They also pertain primarily to contemporary America, also important and downright vital to my topic.


The books I found are as follows:

• Davis, F. James. Who Is Black?: One Nations Definition. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005. This one was also introduced to me by my Minorities class, but it's more significant in the way that it's what inspired me for the topic, at least in part. The question of who is black is pervasive, and a lot trickier to answer than one might think. The text covers what it means to be black in America, how that compares to foreign cultures, and how it has built race relations.
• Henry, Charles P. Black Studies and the Democratization of American Higher Education. Palgrave MacMillan, 2019. Again, this fits into previous readings so far as the democratization of higher education goes, primarily Cooper and Zaloom.
• Kendi, Ibram X. Stamped from the Beginning: the Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. The Bodley Head, 2017. I think it impossible to talk about Black America at all without talking about the history of racism, and similar to Ebony & Ivy (listed later), this will go back to the beginning, but it will also lead to an examination of the present.
• Kendi, Ibram X. The Black Campus Movement: Black Students and the Racial Reconstitution of Higher Education, 1965-1972. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. This is set between the 60's and 70's, most likely matching well with Cooper's In Loco Parentis, looking deeper into the racial movements of the time than Cooper's more broad approach.
• Roberts, Dorothy. 2011. Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-Create Race in the Twenty-First Century. New York: New Press. Like with the previous book, race relations are important to any discussion about Black America (unfortunately). This book was actually introduced to me by my Minorities in America class, so it's a reliable source.
• Wilder, Craig Steven. Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of Americas Universities. Bloomsbury Press, 2014. This book was actually recommended by my mother, a historian of modern America. It details how slavery literally and figuratively built Ivy League schools. It goes back to the earliest days of Black America's interactions with higher education, and as such I think it will be a vital look from then to now.

As for controversies, there is a lot of debate around the role of racism and slavery in the US, programs such as affirmative action, and how we approach these topics in today's society.

As a note, my best friend is bi-racial, half black and half white, though she effectively passes as black on a daily basis. She is, in part, what inspired me on this topic. I care, and I want to understand, and should she be willing, I think she would be a good person to interview as she has been in college for a long while. That's not her job or duty though, and if she says no it is perfectly understandable and acceptable, but we've always had interesting and enlightening discussions in the past, so I hope she'll agree.