National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week, 1996

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 6921 of September 20, 1996

National Historically Black Colleges and
Universities Week, 1996

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Since the Reconstruction period, when 24 private black
colleges were founded within 10 years, our Nation's
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
have played a central role in providing access to
higher education for many Americans. Growing steadily
after this early burst, HBCUs fought a hard struggle
for survival over many decades, ultimately proving
themselves to be not only factories of learning, but
also bastions of the core American ideals of freedom,
diversity, and enterprise.

Today, more than 100 HBCUs throughout our country
serve a unique role in educating African Americans.
Although as a group they make up only 3 percent of
American institutions of higher learning, they award
one-third of all bachelor's degrees--and a major
proportion of the graduate degrees--earned by African
Americans each year. Their alumni rolls include scores
of leaders in fields ranging from law to the sciences,
and from the arts to medicine. Often working with
limited resources, these institutions have earned a
reputation for achieving ``the most with the least''
public dollars--consistently keeping tuition costs
affordable, for example, or accepting higher numbers of
students who need special educational or financial
assistance.

Our Historically Black Colleges and Universities are
an enduring beacon of hope offering thousands of our
citizens a critical opportunity to achieve their full
potential. HBCUs give these students not only access to
a quality education, but also a supportive environment
in which to learn and positive role models whose lives
they can strive to emulate. In addition, these
institutions contribute to the pluralism of American
education, giving students a broader choice.
Ultimately, they also help instill and preserve the
African American cultural heritage, in the process
educating all Americans to the richness of the Black
experience.

The future of HBCUs is as bright as their past, and
they are busy developing ways to meet the challenges of
a new century: special outreach initiatives designed to
spread their wealth of resources into the communities
that have grown up around them; cutting-edge projects
in science and technology involving corporate and
governmental partnerships; and international
educational efforts spanning the entire globe.

They will continue at the creative forefront of
American education, offering the tools and skills
necessary to prepare students for today's competitive
and technological society. In this coming week, let us
honor the contributions--past and present--of
Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and let
us treasure forever the rich resource they provide to
our Nation: a proud tradition of well-educated
Americans, eager to make this a better world for all of
us.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of
the United States, do hereby proclaim September 22
through September 28, 1996, as National Historically
Black Colleges and Universities Week. I call upon the
people of the United States, including government

officials, educators, and administrators, to observe
this week with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and
activities honoring America's black colleges and
universities, and their graduates.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twentieth day of September, in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and ninety-six, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and twenty-first.