South Carolina Congressman James E. Clyburn has introduced legislation to provide funds for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Historic Preservation Program.
In 1998, the General Accounting Office identified 712 historic buildings and structures on the campuses of HBCUs that it deemed worthy of historical preservation. At the time, the GAO estimated that the cost of restoring the buildings would be $755 million. Congress provided funds to preserve buildings on the campuses of 59 HBCUs. But no funding has been allocated to the program since the 2008 recession.
Congressman Clyburn believes that “the structures on these campuses across the country are living testaments to African American history and deserve to be stabilized and restored. I will continue to work with my colleagues in Congress to preserve our nation’s history.”
With Republicans in control of both houses of Congress, it seems unlikely that there will be much enthusiasm for restoring funds to this program.
I challenge Congressional Black Caucus(CBC) member and Assistant Democratic Leader James Enos “Jim” Clyburn to make a special order speech on the House floor (more sooner than later). The purpose of this speech is to let the White members of the South Carolina Legislature “Ways and Means Committee” know of his disapproval of their legislative actions against SC State University. In fact, I challenge all of the members of the CBC to follow similarly. Let’s see if the CBC will meet this challenge.