The results-driven legacy of HBCUs.

Earlier this year, I was honored with the Business Pioneer Award from the 50th Anniversary Commemoration Committee for Brown v. Board of Education. Throughout 2004, there have been numerous events remembering the landmark Supreme Court ruling that struck down the legal segregation of our nation's public schools. The ripple effect of that decision reverberates beyond public schools, impacting every corner of American society, including helping to bring down racial barriers at our nation's institutions of higher learning. In the decades after Brown, for the first time in history, historically black colleges and universities no longer had a monopoly on the best and brightest black students--now there was competition.

Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I am a passionate champion of HBCUs. This is about more than mere racial pride or cultural affinity. It's about the results that these institutions continue to deliver, decade after decade, when it comes to preparing African American students for leadership and responsibility in professions ranging from medicine and law to business and the arts.

Of the schools represented on our latest biennial listing of the BLACK ENTERPRISE Top 50 Colleges and Universities for African Americans, 16 are HBCUs. That's a third of the list, even though HBCUs are a tiny percentage of America's institutions of higher education. In addition, six of the top 10 schools on the list and nine of the top 20 are HBCUs, led by Atlanta's Morehouse and Spelman colleges and Virginia's Hampton University.

The HBCUs on our list are measured not just against one another but against all colleges and universities with a black student population of at least 3%, including prestigious, well-endowed Ivy League schools. This was a deliberate decision on our part when we joined with DayStar Research to create this list, because it reflects the reality that all colleges and universities must, compete to attract African American students.

I am a proud member of Morgan State University's class of 1957, as well as a dedicated and active member of the board of trustees of Howard University. Both Morgan and Howard are on our Top 50 Colleges list. Earl G. Graves Ltd. President and COO Earl "Butch" Graves Jr. and Graves Ventures President and COO Johnny Graves, two of my sons, did not attend HBCUs, although their respective undergraduate alma maters (Yale and Brown) also made our list. However, both are staunch supporters of the legacy, mission, and ongoing work of black colleges and universities. Johnny serves as a member of the board of trustees of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, while Butch serves as a board member of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund (www.thurgoodmarshallfund.org), which raises money for public HBCUs. And of course, we strongly support the UNCF (www.uncf.org), which represents private HBCUs.

We do this because we recognize the competitive advantage--the unique selling point--that HBCUs continue to enjoy, even though--50 years after Brown African--Americans can excel in almost any academic environment. Their edge? The best HBCUs are institutions where the faculty, administration, and staff have a personal, vested interest in teaching your kids as if they were their own. They know that every successful graduate of their institutions adds to their legacy, validates their mission, and leads to the advancement of all African Americans, whether they choose to attend an HBCU or not. When it comes to preparing African American students for promising futures, HBCUs continue to set the bar for all of America's colleges and universities.