by Kenneth L. Hardin, I Messenger

The one semester I attended an HBCU before transferring to a predominantly White institution wasn’t long enough to count for me to join the Brotherhood. Oh, how I wish it did. The Black college I briefly attended in North Carolina back in the mid 1990s was poorly funded and administratively mismanaged, staff morale was low, and they were in danger of losing their accreditation. 

I was an older, nontraditional student who had big professional dreams that could not be derailed, a wife, and three small children, and motivated by the fear I couldn’t risk disappointing them. After reviewing my exceptional grades, my academic advisor at this historically Black college sat me down in his office and encouraged me to transfer to a PWI after sharing a laundry list of reasons.

So, I packed up my intellectual property and took it down the road to the PWI who threw scholarship money at me. Had I been older, wiser and more consciously aware of how I was being used as a pawn in an academic chess game, I would’ve recognized I was being played and moved around his politics driven chess board.

Back then, if I was looking through the grown man’s fully aware eyes I have today, I would’ve forgone the appeal of the discolored financial aid money in favor of finding intellectual solace and financial ministration at another HBCU. I’m appreciative and not looking that melanin missing financial gift horse anywhere near its buccal cavity, as I graduated with high honors, and left with zero debt. 

While that’s something to celebrate, I have an emptiness and a disconnect inside me that has remained over the 25 years since I graduated. It’s hard to explain, but it’s the same emptiness and disconnection I feel living in this country without knowing or having a direct connection to my history and heritage in Africa. 

Had I attended an HBCU, I wouldn’t have this feeling. I talked about this with a female cousin who graduated from Winston Salem State University here in North Cack-a-lack. Since her graduation over 25 years ago, she’s been doing it big Willie style in IT with a major financial institution here in N.C. 

Her family has a long history and legacy of HBCU attendance. Her late mom, my wonderful aunt that cancer robbed us of way too soon, graduated from Livingstone College in the early 1970s and her own daughter is currently a legacy student at WSSU. 

I could hear the pride beaming in my cuzzo’s voice as she explained what attending and graduating from WSSU meant to her, and what it’s like watching her daughter travel that same path, “I wanted to attend N.C. State University after high school, but I listened to my parents and chose WSSU. Looking back, I have absolutely no regrets. 

I don’t think I could’ve completed such a challenging curriculum had I not been in the WSSU environment. They took a more hands on approach to learning and cared about me personally, not like a number.” My oldest son received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from N.C. Central University in Durham, N.C.

Between my money for his tuition and the amount I’ve spent on hats, t-shirts and hoodies from the NCCU Book Store, I should be in line for an honorary degree. Joking aside, I’m extremely proud of the man they delivered back to me after his four years as an undergrad and the two spent in their master’s program. 

He left home a somewhat insecure, quiet, and unaware young kid. NCCU shaped him into a strong, proud and successful young African in America, who now co-owns a business with his younger brother. Former NFL greats like Deion Sanders, Desean Jackson, and Michael Vick are showing young men of color they don’t have to flock to larger PWI’s to achieve athletic success. 

There are 50 HBCU schools who field a football program that proves bigger doesn’t always equate to better. We need to encourage our talented young gridiron greats that conferences like the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), and the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) can get them to the Sunday show too. 

At large PWI’s, you may just be a number, but at an HBCU, you’ll be somebody special. Whether on a football field or in a classroom, you’ll feel connected within your spirit and form special relationships with so many brothers and sisters who are walking the same path as you. I missed out on having that. 

(Kenneth L. ‘Kenny’ Hardin is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.)