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.
Albany State University, a historically Black institution in Georgia, has received a $1.8 million donation from John Hope Bryant, founder and CEO of Operation Hope, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing financial literacy and economic education. The funds will provide a $25,000 stipend to 70 Albany State University graduates who want to pursue entrepreneurship, along with an advisory team to help get their businesses started.
A team of scholars from the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University has received a grant from the National Park Service to research the history of public school desegregation in Prince Edward County, Virginia. The funds will be used to compile an archive of materials from Davis v. Prince Edward County, a lawsuit filed in 1951 by the NAACP following the mistreatment of Black students in Farmville, Virginia. Following Brown v. Board of Education, Prince Edward County refused to desegregate and the public school system remained closed for five years.
North Carolina Central University, a historically Black educational institution in Durham, has received a $200,000 gift from alumni Keith Haywood, president of the food service management company FDY Inc., and Marilyn Sutton-Haywood, a longtime higher education administrator at several HBCUs. The donation will be used to enhance the university’s hospitality and tourism administration program. Additionally, the dining room in the School of Business will be named the Keith J. and Dr. Marilyn Sutton-Haywood Dining Room.
Historically Black North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro has been awarded a $4.5 million grant from the United States Department of Education to expand the university’s biomedical research capabilities. The funding will be used to renovate and upgrade the university’s vivarium, as well as purchase new equipment for interdisciplinary biomedical and engineering research.
