Scholars at the Black Colleges and Universities Shut Out in Election of New Fellows to the American Association for the Advancement of Science

The nation’s historically black colleges and universities are the Rodney Dangerfields of American science. They get no respect.

The black schools get only a few crumbs of the billions of dollars in federal science grants. And black scholars at these educational institutions are rarely honored for their achievements by mainstream science organizations.

Case in point: Recently the American Association for the Advancement of Science announced the election of 486 new fellows. The new electees to the honorary society came from colleges and universities across the United States. But not one of the scholars elected to the AAAS was on the faculty of any historically black college or university.

Copyright © 2008. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.