#nafeo

Elias Blake, Jr. was born in Brunswick, Georgia in 1929. Blake was an education scholar, and a champion of equality in higher education for blacks. He founded the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO) in the 1970s, and garnered a great deal of financial support for HBCUs in this time period.

In this 1982 Commencement speech at the Tennessee State University in Nashville, housed in the Blake collection at the Moorland-Springarn Research Center, Blake outlines the unique and promising history of the university. As a result of a protracted legal effort, in 1979, the Tennessee State University joined two institutions into one: the original Tennessee State University was a HBCU dating back to the 1920s; and the University of Tennessee at Nashville was a white university built in the 1960s. In his speech he celebrates this uniquely inclusive and integrated institution, and enjoins graduates support the continuation of this legacy.

President Obama’s remarks about HBCUs spark controversy

http://player.theplatform.com/p/BCY3OC/Ha5BggifMuHL/select/media/yM_CsfxaSwqZ?form=html

On Thursday, during a town hall meeting at McKinley High School in Baton Rouge, La., President Barack Obamafielded a question from a Southern University student who asked the nation’s Commander-in-Chief for his advice about attending a Historically Black College or University versus a traditionally White…