Why The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education?

Note: This essay was written by JBHE founder Theodore Cross in September 1993 for the inaugural issue of The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education It is useful to remember why he started this journal and to revisit the goals he set out.

In August 1991, a young black student, Drew Brown, wrote in The Pittsburgh Courier, "I went to college because my daddy gave me two choices. One choice was college, the other was death." Today, the black teenager's hyperbole comes about as close as you can to perfect truth.

In large part, this is the case because of major changes in the link between educational credentials and economic success. For the vast majority of young black Americans, the road to a better life used to be discovered in industrial employment. But in today's worldwide labor economy, manufacturing jobs are rapidly moving out of the United States. As Lester Thurow has observed, young high schooleducated students seeking blue-collar employment in the United States will face a choice of either working at industrial wages similar to those offered in China, Mexico, or Korea or striving for the higher-paying skills that go with a university or postsecondary education.

Today, white-collar employment is no different. Youngsters with high school diplomas have no credentials. Many corporations won't even hire for the mailroom if one does not have a college degree.

But for young African Americans the dismal outlook for employment is tempered by some good news. Due apparently to opportunities opened up by the civil rights movement, young blacks are now realizing much greater money benefits from college training. Less than a generation ago, there was only a marginal incentive for young African Americans to pursue a college education. Commonly, highly educated blacks endured lifetime jobs as clerks or postal workers. In those days whites were not prepared to accept blacks in higher positions in the economy or in the professions no matter how superior were the educational credentials the black worker offered. In fact, because of intense racial discrimination, the percentage income gap between blacks and whites actually grew wider with each year...