In Support of Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the chair of the HBCU Caucus for yielding to me this evening.

Madam Speaker, we usually approach almost everything in this body by looking at the economic impact that it may have on the budget, on our economy, and sometimes on just a small community.

So let's take a look at the economic impact that HBCUs have on our Nation's economy: $15 billion annually goes into the national economy as a result of the more than 100 HBCUs that exist in the country. These colleges provide pathways of opportunity for millions of Americans, many of whom are first-generation college students.

So investing in HBCUs is something that could be very important for our Nation. And that is why I am a little bit concerned tonight that the FUTURE Act, a piece of legislation that passed this House unanimously, is now sitting in the Senate. We made some attempt when we passed this current continuing resolution to attach that act to the continuing resolution, but for some reason, the Senate, in its wisdom, has decided not to attach that deal to the continuing resolution.

This continuing resolution will expire on December 20. I have no idea what we will do after that to fund the budget. Will there be another continuing resolution? Will we do an omnibus? Will we do a series of minibuses?

Whatever the vehicle may be, I call upon the Senate tonight to attach the FUTURE Act to whatever the next vehicle may be because HBCU's funding of $255 million under title III is wrapped into that act. If it is not enacted, we will see many of these colleges and universities lose their funding.

Irrespective of what the economic impact might be, I want to spend a few minutes talking about the personal, human impact of HBCUs.

Our illustrious chair of the task force, as mentioned, graduated from North Carolina A&T. She graduated two times, as a student and as a professor.

I often tell the story of someone most people in this country either knew or knew about, Ronald McNair.

Ron McNair was from the little town of Lake City, South Carolina, in my congressional district. I just happen to have a congressional district that contains seven HBCUs.

Ron and I were pretty good friends, and as he was about to go up in his final, fatal flight, he stopped by my office. We talked that day because he was talking with the people at the University of South Carolina, who were hopeful that when this flight was over, he would be joining their faculty. Well, we all know that it was a fatal flight.

Ron said something to me on that day that I talk about very often. He said to me: Every time I go someplace to speak or am in attendance, people always talk about my Ph.D. in physics from MIT, but that is not what made the difference in my life.

He said to me that when he left Lake City, South Carolina, and Carver High School, he went to North Carolina A&T. It was on that campus that those professors who had similar backgrounds and experiences that he had, who understood what it was to come from a little rural community, took the time to nurture him and to prepare him for his journey through life.

I told the story to the current president of South Carolina State University, from which I am a graduate. He said to me that he knew Ron McNair up at MIT, where he graduated. He said to me that of all the students on that campus, Ron McNair was better prepared for the journey at MIT than anybody else. That is because these HBCUs take the time not just to explore what may be in the textbooks, but they look at what may be in the life experiences of these students who come there.

I think about those students growing up on the Sea Islands of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, in what we call Gullah Geechee country, who come to colleges and universities not knowing a whole lot about what we call common English, but they know the Gullah Geechee language. They are very smart students who know what to do with calculus and math, and sometimes, they may have problems making a subject and verb agree because of their experiences. They go to these colleges and universities where the teachers, professors, and other students have a similar background.

I know so well because that day that Scott just mentioned, I met my spouse of 58 years on that campus. She was a Gullah woman, but she went on to get a master's degree in library science.

When she passed away a couple of months ago, no one in the State of South Carolina ever got the send-off that she got. Why? Because of the contributions she made.

Come January or February, I believe, whatever the date may be, they are naming the Honors College at South Carolina State University in her honor. Why? Because she demonstrated in her life pursuits that she was worthy of such recognition.

Through our family foundation, she left an endowment at her alma mater of $1.7 million, that for a little Gullah woman who went to an HBCU that took her from where she was and made her what she could be.

That story is repeated time and time again all over this country.

Madam Speaker, I want to say to my friends in the other body, the FUTURE Act is all about the future of people whose experiences may be different from theirs but whose intelligence may even surpass theirs. Let's do what we can to make sure that this country continues to benefit from their life experiences. They are willing to give back if only given the opportunity.

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