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Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but Shoddy Scholarship
Review: I actively work with most of the U.S.'s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), however, having never graduated from an HBCU, I sought out this reference guide to get a better understanding and appreciation of these wonderful institutions of higher learning. Although there are some interesting tidbits about all of the HBCU's the research overall is weak and the work is intellectually lazy. For example on page 38, referencing one of the co-authors previous books as the source of this thought, the authors claim that the hypothesis that the programs and curriculum of historically whites schools are of excellence and quality has largely not been tested. However, based upon the accomplishments, achievement and earning power of HBCU graduates, HBCUs can claim that their programs are of excellence and quality. First of all, if the quality of education of historically white schools has not been tested, then how does U.S. News and World Report rank colleges and universities each year? Secondly, if the authors are using the accomplishments, achievement and earning power of their graduates as a measure of HBCU academic success, wouldn't that also be a basis for measuring predominately white colleges? Lastly, the authors offer no empirical data proving their claims about HBCUs, not to mention figures, which compare HBCUs with traditionally white schools. Also on page 39 the authors quote someone who states, "It is hardly an accident that Martin Luther King Jr. was an alumnus of Morehouse College rather than of Harvard College", insinuating that it is because of discrimination that black leaders like MLK couldn't enter schools like Harvard. Perhaps, but let's look at the facts. The first African American to graduate from Harvard was Richard T. Greener way back in 1873. Sociologist WEB DuBois was the first African-American to earn a PhD from Harvard and Carter G. Woodson, the founder of Black History Month, earned his PhD from Harvard back in 1912. It may have been discrimination that prevented MLK from entering Harvard but that is difficult to tell since the school did have a track record of admitting at least a few blacks. Also, there's an important question that isn't asked either by the person quoted or the authors: Did MLK apply to Harvard? If he didn't then it is indeed hardly an accident that he is not an alumnus of Harvard. The book is filled with dogmatic claims that aren't sufficiently supported by data, previous research or common sense. Here's another example. With regards to defining race, the authors claim that, 'Race and Racial Identity, the designation of people of common ancestry, tells you who a person is.' Really? Writer, Toni Morrison, disagrees: '...the important thing is to know people as individuals. So knowing that an individual is Asian or white or black is knowing next to nothing. It's knowing some cultural information which one can assume, but one must [might?] be wrong. But one must know much more than simply a racial marker. Knowing another persons race is like knowing their height or some other almost irrelevant piece of biological information.' Go to the library and skim through this book if you want to learn more about black higher education but I caution you not to take this book too seriously. The authors certainly didn't.
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