Tag: Education

When we think of Black History Month, we often think of iconic pioneers like Martin Luther King Jr., Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X. But across the Atlantic, Black Brits celebrate their own Black History Month each October, honoring individuals who made diversity one of the UK's greatest strengths. From historical figures who walked British soil long before the transatlantic slave trade to modern pop culture icons, this October celebrates essential names across the Black British diaspora.

At just 10 years old, Richmond native Aleem "The Dream" Saunders took the field at Virginia State University's homecoming dressed in all white, moving alongside the marching band as a drum major-in-training. What began as a childhood fascination with rhythm, sparked by drumming on water buckets as a toddler, has grown into a passion that brought him to the heart of a college football tradition. His mother helped make that dream a reality with a surprise opportunity to experience Virginia State's band up close.

Homecoming season is here, and historically Black colleges and universities across the country are the place to be. We're talking football, marching bands, packed yards, sold-out concerts, step shows, tailgates and parties that bring the city to life. From Southern University's Nobody Does It Better theme to Alabama State's Evolution of a Hornet, Texas Southern's Mission 99, and Howard's I Am My Ancestor's Wildest Dreams, each school brings unique energy. Atlanta's SpelHouse and Clark Atlanta celebrate together, while FAMU honors The Hill, North Carolina A&T marks its Centennial Edition, and Hampton ignites the Blue and White. Whether it's tailgates at Reliant Stadium, the Marching 100 at Bragg, or Yardfest at the Mecca, homecoming brings generations of students, alumni and community together for unforgettable celebrations of legacy, pride and tradition.

Hillman College wasn't real, but tell that to anybody who attended an historically Black college or university. For all its sitcom exaggerations, A Different World understood the rhythms of Black college life: the students with big personalities, the professors with even bigger opinions, the campus romances, the parties, the politics and the debates that could turn a casual conversation into a full-blown symposium.

There was a time when Homecoming at our historically Black colleges and universities meant one thing: everybody was coming home. Students, alumni, cousins, aunties, old classmates and the friend of somebody's cousin who somehow got a tailgate pass. Now, coming home is starting to look like shelling out hundreds on a simple concert ticket and football game, which leaves students out.

We underestimated the Joker for sixty-eight years. Heath Ledger laid bare his interiority without explaining it. Schools are misunderstood, distressed ecosystems capable of tremendous good and tremendous harm. A school more loved than resourced will drift toward disorder, however hard people inside work against the undertow. Black parents face an impossible calculation each summer: this school will see my child, that school will stretch my child, which loss can we afford? We cannot replace a school's missing infrastructure, resources, and attention, even with the will of one powerful Black mother.