The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the current incidence and character of Black student activism at HBCUs. A consortium of HBCUs in the southeastern United States was used due to its rich history of Black student activism in the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements and the precipitous drop in the amount of scholarship that discusses Black student activism at Black colleges after the 1970s. This case study methodology involved in depth-semi structured interviews and document analysis of student and national news mediums. Participants in this study were current students and recent alumni from the classes of 2004-2014. Data was analyzed using both deductive and cross thematic analysis to solicit an in depth nuanced sense of how the participants were making meaning of their lived experiences and defining student activism in their own words (Patton, 2015). Tenets of Critical Race Theory in the context of education (Yosso, 2006) were applied to illuminate narrative accounts of the specific dynamics of the institutional environments that shaped the nature of Black student activism and both empowered and suppressed its expression. Black student activism at HBCUs is integral to the existence of our current integrated society and to our overall system of education and higher learning. The contemporary nature of Black student activism in the context of this study is highlighted to provide additional research in the field of American student activism, as well as underscore the story of students that have been seemingly marginalized in the history of higher education reform.
