[music] Before this long first year of the Trump Administration, African-Americans had Donald Trump’s number on racial issues. But even for the man who may be the most polarizing president in our country’s history, it’s sometimes useful to be seen with a group of black folks. Often, when Trump feels the need for a photo op, he’s turned to America’s historically black colleges and universities — HBCUs. It hasn’t always gone well for Trump … or for the colleges. News report: “A head of a black college who met with President Trump has called the experience troubling.” “New developments tonight outrage at one of America’s oldest historically black colleges.” “Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is taking some heat today from historically black colleges.” Today, these institutions produce 70% of all black dentists and doctors, 50% of black engineers and public school teachers and 35% of black lawyers. Yet the Trump Administration’s handling of HBCUs has ranged from out-of-touch to outright bizarre. And the Administration doesn’t seem to understand the critical role these schools have played for more than 150 years. My own family’s trajectory was shaped by these schools. In the thick of the Jim Crow era, my parents set my family on a path toward the middle class. [music] In the 1930s, my mother graduated from Talladega College, a black college near Birmingham, Alabama. My father graduated from Howard University and Howard Dental School. His parents were laborers. It was Howard, near where he grew up in Washington, DC, that helped my father create a different life for himself when even the nation’s capital was segregated. [MUSIC - COBB & EDWARDS, “SCHOOL DAYS”] “School days, school days, dear old golden rule days. Reading and writing and arithmetic, taught to the tune of a hickory stick. You were my girl in calico … ” Black colleges were redefining what it meant to be black in America. You weren’t doing something with your hands. You were pursuing a career where education and intellect mattered. These colleges not only gave black students an education, they provided sanctuary. It was a protective, insulated environment where they could talk. They could exchange ideas. They could be themselves. And at least for that time period, for those moments, they didn’t have to deal squarely with segregation and inequality. [singing] “Freedom, freedom, yeah, everybody!” The free intellectual space at HBCUs led to the bold strategies of the civil rights movement. Nearly every prominent black leader of the 20th century, from Thurgood Marshall to Martin Luther King, was educated at a black college. And black college students have always been out front demanding equality now, not later. It was HBCU students who started the sit-ins. We felt it was incumbent upon us, because we were young people. We were students. And we had a responsibility. We were going to be the future leaders. They were the backbone of Freedom Summer. “We hope to send into Mississippi, the summer, upwards of 1,000 students, who will engage in a program designed to open up Mississippi to the country.” And they risked their lives in the fight for desegregation during the Freedom Rides. Newscast: “A college student came down from Nashville with the avowed purpose of testing Birmingham’s segregation laws.” [singing] Freedom! In contrast to their students, HBCU administrators, mindful of their schools’ dependence on government or rich benefactors, have usually adopted a more conservative stance. When the young activists thought their school presidents were in the way, the students took them on, too. The present administration are the children of last generation. We’re the men and women of this generation and the generations to come. Either they’ll come with us or be left behind. Most likely, they’ll be left behind. [crowd chanting] HBCUs are still critical engines for black economic progress today. And they remain anchors of the ongoing movement for justice. But HBCUs are also facing an economic crisis. With small endowments, many of these institutions rely on federal funding to survive, which makes them vulnerable to the harsh currents of national politics. In dealing with the Trump Administration, HBCU leaders are between a rock and a hard place, caught between a powerful but antagonistic president and a community that feels targeted by him. [band playing] Given the importance Trump places on appearances, I wasn’t at all surprised to hear that he had invited an HBCU marching band to his inauguration. But I was especially pained to learn that it was the band from my mother’s Alma mater. One more time, for the Talladega College White Tornado Band. [band playing] When you have somebody whose policies and personal politics are so anti-black, the optics of saying, let’s get some black kids from a small school, put them on a bus, and have them sing and dance for us just don’t look or feel good. [band playing] What it felt like was a modern-day minstrel show. [band playing] Needless to say, Talladega felt a backlash from the African-American community for participating. But it also got some concrete benefits. They made a lot of money off of that from people who had never given to a black college before. It was funded by conservatives. To help send them there, they bought new uniforms, instruments. They took a lot of abuse, because there is this polarizing nature about President Trump with black folks. The tension only seemed to increase with every interaction. In February, Donald Trump invited a group of HBCU presidents to the Oval Office. The college presidents hoped it would be a chance to make their case for funding. So they felt they had to attend, like it or not. When the White House calls, you go, whether you agree with the person’s politics or not. You go, because it could be an opportunity. Optimistically, it could be the opportunity to do something very beneficial for your institution. The black community went berserk. Why are you meeting with him? Why are you doing all of this? 90% of African-Americans, 92%, didn’t vote for President Trump. And here you have this large group of these black college presidents in the Oval Office with the president. There is a portrait of Andrew Jackson on the wall. I was so far back near Andrew Jackson that, in 95% of the pictures, I was not going to be seen. And that was intentional. I was hiding. I’m not ashamed to say it. I was hiding. They had an idea that this was going to be a great thing for the president. But it didn’t come out to be a good thing. Because the story was not so much the black college presidents. It was Kellyanne Conway on the couch. [music] A photo of the president’s counselor is getting a lot of attention right now. “On photos taken yesterday have sparked a bit of a debate online about White House decorum.” That moment gave some marching orders to HBCU leaders to say, “Look, you’re not going to get much more than a photo op.” That moment, I think, was just the height of weirdness. The HBCU presidents walked away empty-handed. And things between them and the Trump Administration would get even weirder. Newscaster: “Secretary Betsy DeVos tried to make a case for school choice programs.” “She said, HBCUs are real pioneers when it comes to school choice.” We have these institutions, because there was a lack of choices for black students. And so to imply that they are somehow beacons of choice speaks to such a gross misunderstanding of why HBCUs exist. [MUSIC - “POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE”] When the president of Bethune-Cookman University in Florida invited DeVos to speak at commencement, many students saw it as pandering to an administration that held black schools and black students in contempt. Thank you so very, very much for this great honor. Over the course of my career, I’ve invited a number of controversial speakers with diverse ideologies to campus, but not at the black college commencement. You’re taking a day that is the culmination of four, maybe five, or six years of hard work, for many folks, the first time that their family has seen somebody walk across the stage with a degree. To sully that — there was no other possible outcome. The students didn’t have a true voice. So the only way they could engage in conversation was to stand up and turn their backs. “If this behavior continues, your degrees will be mailed to you. Choose which way you want to go.” Lemieux: I was so proud. That is the spirit of what HBCU life is all about, standing up for what’s right. It was younger people saying, we’re going to participate in a sit-in. Students forced their institutions to acknowledge the Black Lives Matter movement. HBCU students, historically, have had to push schools to be more progressive and to do the right thing. For HBCU leaders today, doing the right thing isn’t so simple. Reconciling their collaboration with the Trump Administration and the values of their institutions seems almost impossible. But despite being caught in a game of political football, HBCUs are still a critical incubator for the ongoing struggle for justice and equality. And in these polarizing times, I hope HBCU students continue to be in the forefront of the struggle forward, just as they have been for more than 150 years. [MUSIC - BEBE WINANS, “LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING”] “Lift every voice and sing ‘till Earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmonies of liberty. Let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies. Let it resound loud as the roaring seas … ”