The Resegregation of American Higher Education

A new report from U.S. Department of Education finds that African-American college students are increasingly enrolling in schools where a large percentage of the student body is black. The data shows that in 2004, 12 percent of all African-American undergraduates were enrolled at historically black colleges and universities. Another 31 percent of all black undergraduates were enrolled in colleges and universities not classified as historically black institutions but where blacks were at least 25 percent of the total student body. Eleven percent of all African-American college students were enrolled at campuses that are predominantly Hispanic.

Minority enrollments at historically black colleges have increased nearly 43 percent since 1984. At other colleges and universities where the student body is at least 25 percent black, minority enrollments have nearly tripled since 1984. One reason is because the number of colleges and universities at which blacks make up at least 25 percent of the student body has increased from 200 in 1984 to 622 in 2004.

Copyright © 2007. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.