These city leaders want to expand HBCUs beyond the South. Here’s why they say it’s critical as DEI is under attack

Kei’Yanii Dawson dreams of attending a historically Black college where she can take classes and engage in campus life with more students who look like her.

But Dawson, a junior at a majority-White private high school in San Francisco, said that would likely mean going to school far from home and taking on more debt for housing and out-of-state tuition.

However, a growing movement to expand the presence of HBCUs into more communities outside the South could soon give students like Dawson easier access to a Black college.

Officials in cities such as Boston and San Francisco say they are actively working to bring satellite campuses of HBCUs to their communities, hoping to strengthen the pipeline for Black students to pursue higher education and to grow and diversify their local economies.