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.
The National Park Service recently awarded $21.8 million in African American Civil Rights Preservation and History Grants to fund 54 projects that will preserve sites and stories related to African American history. Four of these grants were awarded to projects at higher education institutions. Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, received $731,200 to stabilize and rehabilitate the Chestertown Colonial Custom House. Jackson State University in Mississippi received two grants, each worth $750,000, to support preservation efforts at Alexander Residence Hall and Stringer Grand Lodge. Wiley University in Marshall, Texas, received $750,000 to rehabilitate the President’s Home on campus.
The HBCU Radio Preservation Project received a $750,000 grant from the Ford Foundation. The funding will provide unrestricted budget infusions to radio stations at 14 historically Black colleges and universities: Alabama A&M University, Alabama State University, Alcorn State University, Clark Atlanta University, Elizabeth City State University, Jackson State University, Lincoln University of Missouri, Morgan State University, Norfolk State University, North Carolina Central University, Rust College, South Carolina State University, Texas Southern University, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Additionally, the new grant will also provide travel stipends to radio station personnel to attend the 2026 HBCU RPP Symposium in Baltimore in November
The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff received a $100,000 investment from Tyson Foods to support student career preparation and mentorship, as well as outreach to high school students across the Arkansas Delta. Half of the funding will go toward programming in the Office of Career Services, including initiatives relating to professional development, workplace-skills training, and interview preparation. The other half of the investment will expand the Youth Motivation Task Force (YMTF), an annual program that brings employers and seasoned professionals to campus to lead workshops and meet with students. The funds will extend the YMTF’s work into local high schools.
The Yale Film Archive received a new grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation to support the preservation of Set-Up, a 1971 film from the late Nick Doob (1947–2026). A graduate of the Yale School of Art, Doob was an award-winning cinematographer who worked in filmmaking for more than five decades. Set-Up, the sixth of Doob’s films to be preserved by the Yale Film Archive, tells the story of African American Donald Horner, detailing his views on society and his experience of his time in jail.
North Carolina Central University was awarded $4.9 million through the U.S. Department of Education Research and Development Infrastructure Grant Program to expand the HBCU’s research capacity. The funds will help modernize the HBCU’s research facilities, technology, data systems, and administrative processes; provide training, mentoring opportunities, and seed funding to faculty; and strengthen research experiences, financial support, mentoring, and career preparation for undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students.
The Broadwell College of Business and Economics at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina received two awards totaling more than $2.7 million from the U.S. Department of Commerce to expand business education and development programs serving small business owners in Cumberland County and rural communities across eastern North Carolina. Some $1.99 million will be used to support the HBCU’s new Entrepreneur Launch & Accelerator Program. The remaining $740,000 will establish the FSU Entrepreneurship Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) MBDA Rural Business Center for Eastern North Carolina, expanding the HBCU’s business development services to rural business in 23 counties.
