Where Everybody Looks Like Me: At the Crossroads of America’s Black Colleges and Culture

Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have long served as “the backbone of America’s black middle class” but today face declining enrollment, eroding federal support, weak endowments, and stiff competition from mainstream colleges. Award-winning journalist Stodghill (Redbone: Money, Malice and Murder in Atlanta), who teaches at Johnson C. Smith University, a historically black university in North Carolina, chronicles the immense hurdles facing HBCUs through in-depth interviews with their leaders, professors, students, and trustees. In an episodic narrative, Stodghill gives starring roles to Howard University’s trustee, Renee Higginbotham-Brooks, and the battle she waged to replace the university’s ineffectual president; Savannah Bowen, a student athlete from Westchester County who chooses Howard over Macalester College, which Stodghill calls a “bastion of white privilege”; John Wilson, Morehouse College’s transformative new president; and Johnny Taylor, the “blunt” CEO of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, who would like to see more black alumni contributing to their alma maters. Though too many pages are devoted to the Howard University trustee battle, Stodghill’s vivid reporting and sense of story highlight the continuing value of HBCUs and clarify the tough decisions being made to ensure their survival. [em]Agent: Leah Spiro, Riverside Creative Management. (Sept.) [/em]