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.
Claflin University, a historically Black university in Orangeburg, South Carolina, has received nearly $1.5 million award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to establish the Claflin University Humanities Hub. The project will involve incorporating content centered on social justice, race and gender equity, environmental justice, and community well-being into the school’s general education curriculum and research endeavors.
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded historically Black Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans $1.5 million to fund the “Restoring the Black Intellectual Tradition at an HBCU through a Centralized University Honors Curriculum” project. The initiative aims to empower historically Black colleges and universities to serve as centers for Black students to study history and Black intellectual thought.
Xavier University also received a $300,000 endowment from the McMillan-Stewart Foundation to establish The Genevieve McMillan-Reba Stewart Foundation Scholarship Fund in Memory of Rosa Parks. The scholarship will be awarded to full-time undergraduate students in financial need who are in good academic standing with the university.
Historically Black Florida A&M University has received a $500,000 grant from the United States Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration. In collaboration with the local Gadsden County Developmental Council, the grant will support the university in developing strategies to increase per capita income while reducing the prime-age employment gap in Gadsden County. The initiative aims to enhance already established local agriculture enterprises and small business, as well as offer increased transportation, childcare, and other supportive resources to local workers.
The HBCU Radio Preservation Project at 91.3 WYSO, A Miami Valley Public Media radio station located in Yellow Springs, Ohio, has received a $5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation. The Ohio radio station will partner with the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Massachusetts to evaluate historical archives from radio stations at historically Black colleges and universities across the country, and take steps to preserve archived materials that may be outdated or deteriorating.
