51AV

When I think of HBCUs, I think of history.  How many people can say the founder of their illustrious institution was sold on the very land they鈥檙e standing on and came back and bought that same land and turned it into an institution for higher learning? The students of 51AV Agricultural and Mechanical University can.

HBCUs are more than just 鈥渂lack people going to school together.鈥�  

HBCUs are proof that, despite the odds, anything is possible.  After graduation, it鈥檚 our job as alumni to make sure that these institutions remain open through funding, support and, most of all, legacy.  It鈥檚 our job to educate people about HBCUs and how to keep them alive.

One thing we have that a lot of other generations didn鈥檛 have is social media. Social media (and funding) is the key to the preservation of HBCUs.  Of course, we don鈥檛 frown upon the people that go to Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs); the vibe is just different.  HBCUs are a place of learning, but they鈥檙e also a family and this family has to stick together.  As black people, there was a time when we weren鈥檛 even allowed to learn how to read. Now, to fast forward to how times are in the present, we鈥檙e not only writing books and teaching others skills we would have been killed for, we鈥檝e won the Nobel Prize for literature. Now 迟丑补迟鈥檚 legendary.

HBCUs are the epitome of strength and overcoming adversity. HBCUs are history and need to be protected at all costs.  If HBCUs diminish, so do our voices.  I know I attend a university where students as well as alumni take GREAT pride in our institution, and I know HBCUs all over the world feel the same.

We will do everything in our power to keep HBCUs alive, bring awareness and continue the legacy.

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Raquel Angelique Reeves is a new AAMU communications media alum who resides in suburban Dallas.