The paradoxical nature of the discussion at the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education’s 37th annual National Dialogue on Blacks in Higher Education was perhaps best summed up by Dr. John Silvanus Wilson, Jr., executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
“It’s a bad time for another round of negative publicity for us,” he said, referring to an education report from the early 20th century that stated HBCUs needed to garner “dignified publicity” in order to tap into the philanthropic world for financial support.
