Liberal City’s Mayor Wants To Attract Historically Black Universities

(StraightNews.org) – San Francisco Mayor London Breed has announced a program to bring black universities to the city. Black 2 San Francisco, initiated by the Human Rights Commission, will bring Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to San Francisco in an effort to build links with institutions developed before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Over the summer, the University of San Francisco and the University of California at San Francisco will provide classrooms and other facilities to the newcomers. They will also cooperate in training and internship schemes and foster mental health programs.

The initiative is part of Mayor Breed’s plans to better utilize empty spaces in downtown San Francisco and re-energize the city’s economy. Breed said she hopes to build partnerships and strengthen the city’s “leadership as a center of education, innovation, and opportunity.”

The university proposals include creating an HBCU campus in the city center, which will serve Bay Area residents as well as HBCU students. The number of newcomers is expected to be around 30,000, and Sheryl Davis, Executive Director of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, described it as a “major accomplishment” that will expand quality education in San Francisco. The first students will arrive in June, but such programs are not new in the US, and comparable schemes have run in other states, including Nevada.

The University of Nevada organized a student exchange with HBCU to encourage new cultural perspectives and allow students to “experience a different academic framework” and “a different cultural environment.”

According to the Higher Education Act of 1965, an HBCU is any black college established before 1964 with a principal duty to educate black Americans. It must be accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or “association determined by the Secretary of Education.”

The first HBCUs were established in the 19th century in Pennsylvania and Ohio but later expanded across the United States. The schools were founded because black students were prohibited from attending mainstream universities.