Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Historically Black Tennessee State University received a $284,000 grant from the state’s Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities to help students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The funds will go toward the development of a non-degree certificate program that will allow young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities to experience college life while also preparing them for employment. The grant is under the direction of Anita McGaha, director of disability services at the university.
Rice University in Houston, Texas received a $149,995 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to develop the Digital Archive of the Atlantic Slave Trades. This open-access resource will digitize, transcribe, translate and link manuscript materials documenting the South Sea Company and its contribution to the trans-Atlantic and intra-American slave trades.
The University of North Carolina at Pembroke has been awarded a three-year, $500,000 grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield and Healthy Blue to reduce racial disparities for expecting and parenting mothers in rural southeastern North Carolina. Faculty will plan, develop, and implement training activities using evidence-based strategies to reduce and address structural racism and implicit bias among healthcare and education professionals who engage with mothers who are pregnant or parenting. Veronica Hardy, a professor in the department of social work, is the principal investigator for the grant.
Historically Black Delaware State University received a three-year, $438,000 grant from the Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in support of research to combat Parkinson’s disease. Researchers will seek out ways to reverse or prevent progression of the disease.
Temple University in Philadelphia received a $1.3 million grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the construction of its Center for Anti-racism Research. In addition to helping fund the physical construction of the center, a portion of the grant will fund renovations to the department of Africology and African American studies.
Historically Black Tuskegee University in Alabama was awarded a $2 million grant from the Tracking Foundation of New York City. The funds will bolster the Stephen A. Feinberg Scholarship Program, which supports African American students who qualify for Pell grant funding and students whose families have demonstrated financial need but do not qualify for federal support.
