Persistence and Resistance: Black Women Navigating Barriers in Higher Education

… So I toiled along earning my ration
I would not repine for Earth’s pelf,-
When lo, from afar, the faint whisper:
“You have lifted by being Yourself!

“They Also” by Dr. Anna Julia Cooper

For better or worse, a college degree is a gateway to economic advancement.¹ For Black women, although the gate is no longer literally locked, the path leading to it is strewn with obstacles, making the journey to the stability of middle-class life nearly impossible. College may technically be open to all, but the structural and systemic barriers that inhibit and encumber Black women’s access persist.

Black women continue to face racism,² sexism,³ violence,⁴ surveillance,⁵ and exclusion; moreover, in far too many instances, insurmountable financial debt consistently plague Black women as they attempt to navigate the complexities of Blackness, womanhood, and the trials of socioeconomic advancement.

College is no exception. In this report, we examine the causes and conditions that maintain the status quo, and explore how government and advocacy organizations can intervene to promote equity and accessibility. Specifically, we honor the pioneers of Black women scholars in higher education through the first nationwide examination of their postsecondary and post-baccalaureate pathways, via a collaboration between The Century Foundation (TCF) and the Mary Jane Legacy Project (MJLP),⁶ led by principal investigators Dr. Lori Patton Davis and Dr. Nadrea Njoku and funded by the Lumina Foundation through the Fund for Racial Justice and Equity. The project honors the achievements of Mrs. Mary Jane Patterson, the first Black woman to earn a college degree in the United States. For additional information on the project and methodology, refer to the first report in our series.⁷

As an advocate and researcher on Black women’s economic mobility and equity in higher education, I am both honored and well-positioned to provide an analysis of our team’s research data, further highlighting and elevating the needs of Black women. My passion for history has led me to investigate the barriers faced by our predecessors, such as Mrs. Mary Jane Patterson, whose legacy, though marked by significant challenges, exemplifies resilience. She and the Black women in the MJLP study serve as direct examples of how resistance and persistence enabled them to overcome obstacles and navigate the collegiate landscape in pursuit of equitable education.

As a result of this partnership, this report elevates the barriers experienced in decision-making that influence Black women’s college choices and the impact of financial aid and scholarships, or lack thereof, on their collegiate experiences. It also focuses on the myriad detrimental influences that have a compounding impact on Black women’s mental and physical health,⁸ as well as on their social and economic livelihoods. This exploration, which traces trends throughout history, further illuminates the current realities for Black women in higher education. As previously noted, the under-exploration and underrepresentation of Black women’s lived experiences toward college degree attainment in policy research drives this seminal work. To investigate and name the specific barriers inhibiting Black women in the study, our team used intersectionality methodology (IM) as our framework. IM provides the framework necessary for investigation into the most effective ways to accomplish the following:

1. Center Black women.
2. Use a critical lens to uncover power relations.
3. Address power in the research processes.
4. Situate the complex identity markers of Black women.

The research findings provide policymakers with recommendations to leverage their power and influence to holistically advocate for Black women seeking enrichment and advancement through higher education.

The Legacies of Lucy Stanton and Mary Jane Patterson

Earning a college degree has long been viewed as a hallmark of success in the United States. Historically, this opportunity was almost exclusively accessible to white men, but today, a college education is available to all. During the colonial era, white men established a distinctly American system of education and class credentialing, culminating in the founding of Harvard College in 1636. New American ideals, distinct from the Cambridge system, were ingrained in the first nine graduates—all white and male—of Harvard in 1642. These men, who owned, benefited, and profited from enslaved labor, ⁹ were celebrated as ideal representatives of their society. Conferring of degrees during this period affirmed the colonies’ academic achievements by establishing a distinguished and replicable model of higher education. At the time, just as it is now, no academic achievement was more prestigious than earning a Harvard degree.

This system was created by and for white men, with no intention of supporting or addressing the specific needs of Black people, particularly Black women. These structural decisions continue to have lasting consequences today.

However, this system was created by and for white men, with no intention of supporting or addressing the specific needs of Black people, particularly Black women. These structural decisions continue to have lasting consequences today, both at Harvard and across the broader higher education system that Harvard helped shape. A system not designed by or for Black women resulted in white men earning college degrees two centuries before them. White women and Black men earned bachelor’s degrees more than thirty years before Black women, making Black women the last group of American citizens to attain higher education.¹⁰

Ms. Lucy Stanton is recognized as the first Black woman to complete the requirements for the literary degree (LD) in the United States, in 1850 at Oberlin College. In 1862, Mrs. Mary Jane Patterson made history as the first Black-American woman to earn a bachelor of arts (BA) degree, also at Oberlin.¹¹ Before 1862, no institution admitted women or Black people, and attempts at education prior to the Civil War often carried the risk of death. Oberlin College in Ohio and Berea College in Kentucky were among the first predominantly white institutions to admit women and people of color.

Despite her remarkable success, Mary Jane Patterson’s journey was fraught with barriers and challenges unique to her dual identity as Black and as a woman. After Reconstruction, Black women pursued education in large numbers, facing numerous trials and tribulations along the journey. This often-untold history is the cornerstone of our investigation into the parallels between Mary Jane Patterson’s lived experiences and those of today’s Black women striving for the American dream of a college degree. As we work to effect change, specifically at the policy level, it is essential to examine the historical context in which we find ourselves.

Historical Context:Early Efforts into the Fight for a College Education

Battling sexism and racism is a constant reality for Black women. Throughout history, the double bind¹² of being both Black and woman has complicated Black women’s existence in the face of American society’s demoralizing acts of dehumanization, subordination, subjugation, and violence. American society was built on the free labor of Black people. Far too often, the erasure of Black women’s existence renders them invisible and positions them as non-contributors across society’s various landscapes. Despite this, Black women throughout history have resisted oppression and used education to assert their power and influence, effectively altering their own lives and those of Black women today.

Mrs. Ida B. Wells-Barnett, as an influential example, was a former enslaved Black woman, born in Mississippi during the Civil War in 1862. After the Civil War, she attended college and secured teaching jobs to support herself and family. Incensed by the lynchings in the South and their personal impact on her and her community, Wells-Barnett used investigative journalism as a method of resistance and began researching white mob violence. She is credited with publishing the first comprehensive research on the lynchings of Black people in the United States. The Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States¹³ was published in the Chicago Tribune on July 1, 1894. Wells-Barnett’s “computation lynching statistics” account for 241 total deaths by lynching in 1892. Of the 241, 160 Black people were lynched—four of these victims being women. Segmented by state, the data accounts for “accused charges” of rape, murder, race prejudice, assault, and battery, among countless others.

Undeterred by personal violence and scare tactics to silence her efforts, Wells-Barnett organized and mobilized Black leaders to spread the news of lynchings globally. As the founder of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) established in 1896, and a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Wells-Barnett used the power of her education and the pen to expose the violence inflicted upon Black citizens. Her research provides a detailed account of the lives that were snuffed out by prejudice and assaults on humanity via racist and white supremacist violence. She, like many other Black women, were determined to expose the failures of white citizens to protect the life and liberty of all men and women.¹⁴

Black women, many of them formerly enslaved, pursued higher education and became scholar-activists. Committed to reaping the benefits of their education, they established themselves as academics, entrepreneurs, researchers, and leaders determined to improve their community and the conditions of Black men and women in America.

One such example and a contemporary of Mrs. Ida. B. Wells-Barnett, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, employed radical and resistant forms of womanhood. In 1904, she founded the Daytona Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls. The school later became Bethune-Cookman College (now a university).¹⁵ While she is widely known for her nonprofit and policy work, Dr. McCleod Bethune was a business woman and her entrepreneurial pursuits resulted in the establishment of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and several other social organizations for the advancement of Black women. Dubbed the “Female Booker T. Washington” for her emphasis on self-reliance, Dr. Bethune was a powerful visionary, strategist, and a prominent member of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “Black Cabinet” from 1936 to 1942.¹⁶

Despite her brilliance, her life was marred with financial challenges as she struggled to raise and maintain sufficient capital for Bethune-Cookman University. She often wrote, and in some instances pleaded,¹⁷ about the financial struggles she faced as she labored to keep the school open and fiscally solvent. The social and economic challenges she experienced parallel those of Black women entrepreneurs today. After chronicling her storied career in her 1942 address to the school’s board of trustees,¹⁸ requesting her retirement after thirty-eight years as founder and president, the board denied her petition to be removed from her full duties despite having named a successor. As a result of inability to secure a well-deserved respite, Dr. Bethune died of a heart attack on the steps of the Mary McLeod Bethune Foundation, her bequeathed home, in 1955. 

Mrs. Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune are well-documented as early Black women leaders who decided to pursue a college education and establish opportunities for Black women to follow. Their struggles positioned them to uniquely understand the critical need to use education for the betterment of their communities and the Black race. Their legacies, blueprints, and strategies of resistance, activism, and bravery in the face of insurmountable odds —though often unacknowledged—are still leveraged today.

Like Wells-Barnett, Bethune, and many other Black women whose lives and experiences have been lost to history during the antebellum period and the Civil War, Black women recognized the critical need for education as a tool for personal, political, and social advancement. As the economic conditions of Black people improved in places like the Black Wall Street of Tulsa, Oklahoma,¹⁹ Black women persisted in their struggle for citizenship, the right to vote, and access to economic mobility and stability through equitable-paying jobs, including those in higher education.

The white women’s suffrage movement excluded Black women because of their racial and gender identities. As Black women mobilized again for Black women’s suffrage,²⁰ higher education became a critical venue for thought leadership and organizing, convening some of the most brilliant Black women (Mrs. Lucy Stanton Sessions; Mrs. Fanny Jackson Coppin; Mrs. Sara Margru Kinson; Dr. Anna Julia Cooper; Mrs. Annie Turnbo Malone, Ms. Lucy Diggs Slowe) of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) emerged as essential institutions committed to educating Black scholars and activists. Where attempts at education once meant death, there was now an influx of college-goers, bright and civically engaged, who were dedicated to civil rights and social justice. College choice, once limited to the few predominantly white institutions like Oberlin and Berea, expanded to include HBCUs established during the passing of the Second Morrill Act of 1890.²¹

Current Context: Persisting in Spite of Discrimination

After the passage of the Second Morrill Act, Black women leveraged the gains won during the nineteenth century toward educational attainment, and at much higher rates than their counterparts. During the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the American college landscape dramatically shifted, with one-tenth of Black students attending HBCUs.²²

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), 53 percent of Black women attended HBCUs in 1976. By 2022, those enrollment numbers increased by 11 percent. NCES data also highlight that 88 percent of Black women attend four-year institutions, while the remaining 12 percent attend two-year institutions. Further, 77 percent attend public institutions while 23 percent attend private. Black women continue to enroll in college at higher rates than their Black male counterparts, all while continuing to navigate complex intersectional realities. However, they account for only 28 percent of the total degrees attained across all sexes and races. When comparing degree attainment, Black women (31.4 percent) have significantly lower rates than their Asian (60.8 percent) and white (43.6 percent) female counterparts.²³ Yet, Black women continue to value higher education and persist despite the obstacles they face in acquiring post-secondary degrees, debunking anecdotal myths that they do not value higher education. However, we cannot overlook how these challenges in college access and attainment hinder the economic, social, and political advancement—mainly because of gendered racism. 

Navigating barriers is a constant and exhausting experience for Black women in academia. Despite high levels of degree attainment, they face intentional disrespect, manipulation, and abuse. Racism and sexism are pervasive, not only affecting students but also Black women striving to break down barriers for themselves and the generations of young women coming behind them. As examples, Dr. Claudine Gay, the first Black woman to serve as Harvard’s president, was used as a political and academic pawn and publicly maligned for taking a stance on free speech similar to that of many other university presidents.²⁴ Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, renowned for her Pulitzer Prize-winning journalistic contributions on the 1619 Project, was denied tenure,²⁵a common experience for Black women in academia—despite her groundbreaking research on the links between systems of enslavement and every facet of American life. If such respected and accomplished Black women academics and professionals cannot escape public assaults, death threats, and vile social commentary, what hope do young Black women, many of whom are seeking college access for the first time, have to avoid similar outcomes? We find every aspect of our existence is subject to dehumanization—our hair, bodies,²⁶ and lives ²⁷ are constantly scrutinized under a microscope. 

Methodology and Participants

As previously mentioned, the intersectionality methodology (IM) framework enabled the team of Black women scholars and researchers to investigate the barriers faced by the research participants, while also humanizing their experiences and stories. Study data illuminate the impacts of limited access to financial aid resources, gendered racism and sexism, familial and personal struggles impacting college choice and degree attainment, and their mental and physical health and well-being.

According to the American Association of University Women (AAUW),²⁸Black women who attend college are increasingly likely to earn college degrees, with 64.1 percent earning bachelor’s degrees, 71.5 percent master’s degrees, and 65.9 percent doctoral degrees. MJLP data show that the majority of these women attend predominantly white public colleges and universities (56.3 percent), suggesting that these institutions are more successful in recruiting, financially supporting, and matriculating Black women compared to their institutional counterparts, particularly HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions (MSIs). Despite high enrollment at predominantly white institutions (PWIs), these aforementioned barriers significantly impact their mental health, underscoring the severe consequences of lack of protective interventions.

Key Insights and Themes

1. Black women value college despite the lack of financial aid and the high rates of college debt.

For Black women, the college pre-and-post collegiate journey is rife with complex and often unforeseen obstacles. Familial, social, structural, and systemic barriers hinder Black women from fully realizing the benefits of a college degree and prohibit enriching experiences during their time in college. Unlike their white male counterparts, for whom college is far more likely to be a holistic adventure, Black women are robbed of a true American collegiate experience because they are saddled with systemic roadblocks. In the United States, the college degree is essential for social and economic advancement.²⁹ Yet, among college degree earners, Black women remain the highest college debt holders. According to the Education Data Initiative, Black women have the highest level of student debt following college graduation, at $29,051, compared to other women in white, Hispanic, and Asian populations.³⁰ Additionally, Black women’s student loan debt averages at $75,000. But, more than $1.6 trillion of that debt weighs heavily on Black women.³¹ At the national level, federal policies have done far too little to provide redress for the massive amounts of debt Black women incur as a result of the high cost of higher education and persistent low economic opportunities. 

Despite utilizing a mix of resources, these women still disproportionately struggled to secure adequate financial support for their academic pursuits.

A common theme among the Black women in the MJLP study was their reliance on work-study programs, grants, merit-based scholarships, and an overwhelming amount of student loans to fund their education. Despite utilizing a mix of resources, these women still disproportionately struggled to secure adequate financial support for their academic pursuits. The study highlighted the need for more targeted financial assistance for Black women. For example, Sharane, a full-time employee, non-traditional student, and mother, relied heavily on financial aid. While the accumulation of student debt was a burden, she found employer assistance programs to be beneficial:

I took out a lot of unnecessary student loans and debt that I didn’t necessarily need and I didn’t really have anyone to sit down and explain to me, “this is this,” “you don’t need this.” …I do thank God now that the employer that I do work with, they do offer tuition reimbursement and things of that nature. So I’m able to work a little more strategic as far as what I’m actually going to have to pay for.

2. Discrimination and racism continue to impede access.

Persistent themes of discrimination and racism are prevalent for Black women throughout their pre-and post-collegiate journeys. The recent deaths of prominent Black women college administrators³² highlight the various forms of racial subjugation³³ that Black women face in academia. Microaggressions,³⁴  racist slurs,³⁵ othering, and race-based isolation³⁶ are daily experiences for Black women, particularly at PWIs. A recent study found that 21 percent of Black students reported experiencing discrimination, compared to 15 percent of other students.³⁷ Additionally, 28 percent felt physically unsafe, 26 percent felt disrespected, and 27 percent felt psychologically unsafe at institutions with little diversity. For the Black women in the MJLP study, microaggressions, feelings of isolation, and racism had a significant impact. 

Mariah, who attended a PWI and maintained a predominantly Black inner circle, expressed the need for “self-protection”:

It was a PWI, so it was a predominantly white institution and with a distinct racist history in a distinct racist state…. I created a bubble because I wanted to protect myself. I didn’t want to expose myself to a person who might wish me harm.

Despite the overwhelming nature of these systemic barriers, study participants repeatedly emphasized leveraging community (family and institutional), mentorship, and service-based organizations as resistant and persistent methods for success.

Whitney emphasized community:

Community, community, community. I cannot drive home enough the importance of community… the Black Student Union… Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.

Maggie highlighted mentorship:

The other thing that helped was I decided to become a peer mentor because I just realized I needed to help out some folk that were coming into this place.

3. Maintaining mental health and wellness is as essential as it is difficult.

Depression, anxiety, loneliness, fear, isolation, suicidal ideation, and fatigue are linked to the systemic and structural barriers faced by Black women.³⁸ In academia, especially at PWIs, Black women often endure cultural and physical isolation, racist encounters with faculty, staff, and other students, and heightened stress from these experiences, compounded by the pressures of college life. In 2018, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin was the first community to declare racism a public health crisis.³⁹ By 2021, thirty-seven states followed suit, with the passing of declarations in each. A 2023 study on the early impacts of disadvantages among Black women revealed that those who faced adversity during their formative years were 34 percent more likely to develop depression, irrespective of their education, financial, or social support.⁴⁰ Too often, young Black women’s college experiences revolve around navigating the pervasive racism in American society, rather than being afforded the opportunity to fully engage in and enjoy the college experience, as their peers are encouraged and able to do.

For Jasmine, repeated encounters with microaggressions and adjusting to a new cultural environment caused significant mental health challenges. Adjusting to a white roommate was an especially steep challenge:

It was a very rough experience. She was white and from a very small town in Texas and she, what I can now call microaggressions at the time, I did not know what to call them, but she made me very uncomfortable. I went to the campus hospital, I’m like “I’m having a heart attack.” My little 18-year-old brain is like, “This is a heart attack.” They were like, “Ma’am, it’s not a heart attack. You’re having a panic attack.”

Christina experienced a lack of representation on her campus, which left her feeling unsupported:

A huge part of it is representation. There was only one African-American professor on campus… The experiences to me were not tailored to things that we were going to do beyond graduate school.

Kioshana struggled with cultural adjustment and racial insensitivity in the classroom during her graduate studies:

There was one example of an exercise that we had to do… I was like, “This is racist.” …I just said that. When I did, the professor… responded to me, and he was a professor of divinity… I said, “I’m not calling you racist, but I am calling this exercise out for what it is.”

Calling out the assignment proved to be a source of strength for her despite the incident’s impact.

These findings highlight the urgent need for the federal government, academic institutions, and their funders to implement clear, necessary policies and practices to create equitable, racism-free pathways for Black women’s success.

The key findings from the MJLP research underscore the persistent challenges Black women face as they navigate numerous barriers and obstacles that negatively impact economic, social, and health outcomes. Additionally, these findings highlight the urgent need for the federal government, academic institutions, and their funders to implement clear, necessary policies and practices to create equitable, racism-free pathways for Black women’s success. Data from various research studies are shedding light on the overwhelming and crushing impacts of racism and sexism that lead to sustained poor health outcomes for Black women attending college. Racism is a public health emergency. Black women continue to be caught in the crosshairs and suffer from stress,⁴¹higher rates of autoimmune disease,⁴² and reduced life expectancy⁴³ as a result.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion established the social determinants of health (SDOH) as a way to explain the nonmedical factors that account for the conditions impacting how people live and work.⁴⁴ SDOH are delineated into the following domains: 

• Economic stability
• Education access and quality
• Health care access and quality
• Neighborhood and built environment
• Social and community context

Data from the MJLP can be situated within two SDOH domains: economic stability and health care access and quality:

1. Economic stability
   1. Financial aid and college debt
2. Health care access and quality
   1. Discrimination and racism
   2. Mental health and wellness

The SDOH highlights the disparities and social injustices faced by un-and under-resourced communities, often stemming from the intentional starving and deprivation of quality access to education—especially at HBCUs, as well as in health care, economic mobility opportunities, fair housing, and jobs, among other necessities.⁴⁵ The connection between SDOH and the participants’ experiences with discrimination and racism highlight the immediate needs of policymakers to move toward federal action and provide immediate and sustained protection for Black women and girls. 

Looking Ahead

In recent years, the increasing frequency of attacks on higher education—from the dismantling of race-conscious affirmative action ⁴⁶to the passage of over 150 legislative bills aimed at undermining academic freedom and university autonomy⁴⁷—signals a significant shift in the landscape of collegiate knowledge creation and attainment. For Black women, the struggles have not abated. Despite being the first Black woman to earn an advanced degree in the 1800s, Mrs. Mary Jane Patterson faced limited opportunities for professional and economic growth. Similarly, Mrs. Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune endured threats of violence, racialized sexism, and misogyny, and also struggled to fully reap the benefits of their college education. These early sheroes resisted the confines of their identities as Black women so that we can attend college unhindered and uninhibited. Yet, the same forces that once blocked their access and infringed upon their potential continue to challenge, constrain, limit, and suffocate  Black women today.

Today, however, Black women scholars, policy advocates, and activists like Kendra Bozarth, Grace Western, and Janelle Jones propose a framework that centers Black women, through initiatives like the “Black Women Best: A Framework We Need for an Equitable Economy.”⁴⁸ This framework centers Black women, illuminating the challenges and needs of Black women and calling for greater attention from government, policymakers, and society at large to support them. The framework addresses complex economic events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, that disproportionately impact Black women. With policy recommendations that highlight specific measures the federal government should take—such as implementing hazard pay, reparations, and living wages—the Black Women Best Framework serves as an advocacy agenda rooted in action and resistance.

Also dedicated to creating legislation that advances Black women beyond gendered racial divides, Congressional Representatives Robin L. Kelly (D-IL), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY), and Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-1), co-chairs of the Caucus on Black Women and Girls, introduced the bipartisan Protect Black Women and Girls Act. This legislation aims to address the “targeted discrimination, harassment, and violence against Black women and girls.”⁴⁹ Under the review of an interagency task force, the Protect Black Women and Girls Act would examine the conditions Black women and girls face across various sectors of American society, including education, healthcare, housing, and economic development. The legislation calls for a thorough investigation into how the American dream can be realized for Black women and girls—a vision once articulated by Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, who was denied respite and retirement even after decades of service to the country.

This legislation, introduced in the House, has yet to secure a Senate sponsor. The House and the Caucus on Black Women and Girls should initiate a call to action by crafting an advocacy strategy to secure Senate sponsorship, thereby enabling the committee to advance the bill. This crucial legislation is vital to ensuring social protections for Black women and girls who, despite numerous barriers, leverage their college educations—particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)—to make significant and lasting contributions to the STEM and other essential workforces. As products of the American higher education system, these women drive innovation in STEM and other fields such as business, entrepreneurship, secondary and post-secondary education, and the social sciences.⁵⁰ Their impactful contributions are essential to bolstering national competitiveness.⁵¹ To date, no legislation that focuses on Black women has been passed.

Recommendations

The Black Women and Girls Act champions a justice-focused and holistic approach to tackling the injustices faced by Black women and girls in the United States. To achieve meaningful impact, it is crucial to pursue comprehensive policy responses that address the unique needs of Black women across all sectors of society, with a particular emphasis on higher education, given its critical role in economic mobility and, ultimately, national and global competitiveness. Accordingly, the following recommendations are presented to the attention of federal policymakers and allied advocates.

The Department of Education should mandate effective financial education before college. Equitably fund school districts to provide all students with access to education and resources to prepare them for college. Black families receive far too little direct support as they navigate the collegiate experience. The responsibility to make major financial decisions should not solely rest on the shoulders of 17- and 18-year-olds. Students need more support from their families to ensure accurate completion of the FAFSA.

Families have varying structures and definitions, particularly in marginalized and minoritized communities. However students define “family,” their designated representatives should be included in all phases of the college decision-making and preparation processes.

The Department of Education should mandate best practices that support state college readiness programs to assist with mandatory Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion. Modeled after the Maryland College and Career Readiness program⁵² and the Louisiana Center for College Access college readiness and preparedness services program,⁵³ the DOE’s program would ensure parents understand the financial implications their families are engaging in and make the best financial decisions for themselves and their children.

The Department of Education should invest in redesigning its public website with the focused-goal of making it easier for users to search and find necessary information. The utilization of more comprehensive dashboards and structured, user-friendly designs will decrease the uncertainty of resource collection. With equity in mind, families unfamiliar with navigating complex and lengthy resources will be more supported and empowered.

Furthermore, the Department of Education should do more to educate and support parents in engaging the financial aid (and particularly the FAFSA) processes. MJLP findings suggest that students whose parents have not obtained bachelor’s degrees face increased barriers and therefore require more support in aiding their students in their pre-and post-baccalaureate journeys. Programs focused on college enrollment must take a holistic approach by educating parents as well as prospective students in the college enrollment process. Far too many young Black women are assuming the weighty responsibility of enrolling, financing, and navigating the post-secondary experience.

Provide culturally relevant support at academic institutions. The unnecessary burden of racism and sexism for Black women limits their ability to fully immerse themselves in the collegiate experience. Academic institutions need to do more than provide lip service regarding these social deficiencies. The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Brown v. Board of Education reshaped the American education landscape.⁵⁴ This year marks seventy years since the ruling, and Black students, specifically Black women, are still experiencing assaults, blatant and sustained racism, marginalization, and discrimination on American college campuses. Our institutions must actively work to denounce racism and sexism in all forms and end centuries of unrelenting abuse. To do this, institutions should continue to do the following:

Endow HBCUs, empowering these culturally relevant institutions to compete in the higher education landscape and attract and retain Black women seeking diverse and supportive institutional ecosystems.⁵⁵

Predominately white institutions should partner with HBCUs to glean research-based insights into how best to create culturally relevant and affirming environments for Black women as a means of honoring Black women’s choice to attend either institutions. Black women receive far too little culturally relevant support on college campuses. Institutional designations offer different experiences and navigating either predominantly white colleges and universities or historically Black colleges and universities, depending on your cultural context, can be a significant barrier in college acclimation. 

All academic institutions should fund social support systems before, during, and after a student’s first semester—similar to summer bridge programs—to address the specific needs of Black women in community-building and social network utilization. College administrators must work to establish culturally relevant resources that readily identify and immediately address microaggressions and overt forms of racism on their campuses. Programs that incorporate diverse mentorship, promotion of self-awareness, and African- and Black-centered pedagogy should be a priority for college deans and chief academic officers.

Black women need to advocate for their needs by building coalitions before, during, and after their collegiate experiences. Navigating college as a young person empowers them to effect change on their own behalf. We see this throughout the study data, but it needs to be amplified.

Intervene more effectively in acts and trends of discrimination and racism. Black women face pervasive gendered racism, and merely acknowledging its presence on American college campuses is insufficient. Members of the Caucus on Black Women and Girls must continue to advocate for the passing of legislation that outlines effective interventions against gender and race-based biases while establishing federal protections for Black women on college campuses and across the United States. Supporting House Resolution 1062,⁵⁶ introduced by Representative Jahana Hayes,⁵⁷ which declares racism a public health crisis, should be a bipartisan priority.

Incorporate bill language that reframes racist narratives and tropes of Blackness and Black womanhood in the United States and equips Black women with knowledge that informs and affirms their identities toward identifying and resisting racist and oppressive systems and structures. Also, it is crucial to disseminate responsible educational assets for white communities on the ways their ideologies negatively impact Black women and puts the onus on them to deconstruct oppressive and racist systems toward equitable and inclusive educational, social, political, and professional environments. These assets should incorporate data that informs these communities on the ways racism negatively impacts them.⁵⁸

Finally, partner with think tanks and research institutions across the United States to bolster research development in support of progressive policy solutions that center the lived experiences of Black women because when Black women win, we all win.⁵⁹

In mental and physical health, prioritize wellness over resistance. Black women are expected to develop coping strategies to navigate racialized and gender- biased environments. Instead of teaching Black women how to ignore, avoid, and cope with gendered racism, the Department of Health and Human Services, as part of the Interagency Task Force on Black Women and Girls, needs to expand the social determinants of health (SDOH) to include a domain that acknowledges the needs of women and, more specifically, Black women, and provide effective and action-oriented mechanisms that address and ameliorate gendered racism.  

Addressing structural racism before Black women enter college should be a priority for higher education institutions, as well as the federal and philanthropic organizations that support them. Communities highlighting the resistance of Black women and academic institutions should direct more resources to support the overall mental health and well-being of Black women who experience racism and sexism at higher rates than other students. Implementation of mental health strategies, protocols, and practices that go beyond the development of coping mechanisms is also crucial. The long-term effects of the intersectional experiences are far too damaging and detrimental to be ignored. 

Conclusion

Despite facing generations of denials, Black women have forged legacies that continue to yield benefits. However, there is a pressing need to remove all barriers inhibiting Black women’s success. Only then can equity and parity with their counterparts be fully realized. This report not only highlights historical and present-day examples of how Black women are persisting and resisting in their pursuit of college degrees, but also emphasizes the necessity of a policy agenda specifically focused on their needs. As college debt, discrimination, and racism continue to hinder Black women’s progress, this report, as part of the larger MJLP series, offers recommendations for how the federal policymakers and advocate organizations must take immediate and sustained action to unabashedly advocate for them. While the journey to higher education has been, and continues to be, fraught with challenges, Black women, as they always have, persist!

“Black women do the work regardless. We going to work harder than other people. I’m not saying that to be biased because that’s what I know.”—Dr. Kelly, study participant

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Tags: higher education, Student protections, black women