Barbara Eubanks, B.A. ’96, is accustomed to curious looks from passersby as her cohorts walk around Paris. She understands why Black high school students from the United States stand out during their week-long dives into culture and international travel.
At one café, in April 2022, a woman was intrigued by the students and struck up a conversation with one of them. “She was just curious who we were, and why we were there,” says Eubanks, owner of Going Global With Barbara (GGWB). “One thing led to another, and we found out she’d actually been the chair of the department I’d majored in [Hilary Silver, sociology] at George Washington University. It was a pretty serendipitous, full-circle moment.”
With early dreams of traveling the globe, Eubanks, a native of Pittsburgh’s Hill District, joined the military right after high school. “The recruiter said ‘Join the Navy and see the world,” she recalls. “So, I was all in. Honestly, it was one of the few options being promoted to students of color.”
WASHINGTON – When the motorcoach pulled up to Capital One
Arena on Sunday afternoon, some fans expected the Phoenix Suns to disembark. Instead,
the Virginia Union men’s basketball team ambled out in maroon sweatsuits and assembled
themselves near a side entrance.
The Panthers were making the first of two visits to an NBA
arena this month. On Sunday, they were special guests of the Washington Wizards;
on Feb. 17, Virginia Union will play in the NBA HBCU Classic as part of the All-Star Game festivities
in Indianapolis. The team has grown accustomed to high-profile events, having
played in the HBCU Tip-Off – hosted by NBA star Chris Paul –
the last three seasons.
VUU head coach Jay Butler appreciates the visibility that big games provide and the subsequent rise in interest.
By
the time Jackson State University was founded in 1877, more than three dozen similar institutions already existed. By the
time Deion Sanders became Jackson State’s head football coach, in 2020, the
U.S. Department of Education had identified more
than 100 such institutions – Historically
Black Colleges and Universities.
HBCUs
have produced some of the NFL’s greatest
players, particularly from the 1950s and into
the 1970s, when most Black athletes were prohibited from attending primarily
white schools to play football. Legendary NFL halfback Walter Payton played at Jackson
State in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Other NFL Hall of Famers from
SWAC schools include Jerry Rice (Mississippi Valley State), Buck Buchannon
(Grambling State) Mel Blount (Southern) and Michael Strahan (Texas Southern), to
name a few.
But as segregation was coming to an end, top Black high school players increasingly attended primarily white institutions, causing HBCU football to fade in prominence. Sanders immediately upset the status quo in December 2021 by signing Travis Hunter, the nation’s No. 1 recruit, who was slated to play at Sanders’ alma mater, Florida State. That was the initial wave of unprecedented media attention on Jackson State and “Coach Prime,” with heightened interest in HBCUs and racial reckoning still rippling through the nation after George Floyd’s murder in 2020.
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