Featured image of the Emancipation Oak at Hampton University by Jerry Gammon.
The Story in Brief
This post draws from Activest’s report Fiscal Justice Investment and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), published in November of 2026. An executive summary with action items can be found here.
At this moment of clashing political ideologies, following a massive progressive swing in the American mid-term elections, it’s an important time to consider what institutions to consolidate our investments in. Politically, our Constitution, branches of Congress and confronting the pollution of money in our democracy are vital. Culturally and intellectually – and, yes, economically – America has a decisive moment for centering Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). HBCUs are the legacy schools serving Black American students that were founded prior to 1964. There are 101 public and private HBCUs across the US, with 19 of them being public land grant institutions. They carry the cultural and intellectual legacy of Black America, and they create massive economic benefits for their communities. HBCU enrollment was 289,000 in 2022, and HBCUs generate $16.5 billion in economic impact each year. North Carolina A&T alone contributes more than $2b annually to the state’s economy.
These are not reducible to “historic”; they are contemporary Black institutions. There is not another similar class of institutions leveraging this kind of comprehensive Black cultural and economic power in America.
Doing More with Less
HBCUs have done this with a fraction of the financial resources their predominantly white counterparts have had. Harvard University’s endowment is $56.9B; Howard University, the largest HBCU endowment, is $1.12B.
Since the 1890s the public HBCUs have been legislated to receive equal federal and state investments to those made in predominantly white land grant universities. In reality, states are not meeting the 1:1 match “requirement” established by the Evans-Allen Act in 1977, and they can request a waiver for this 100% match. State allocations are visibly inequitable on a per-student basis: in 2010, North Carolina A&T and Fayetteville State received $7,800 per student, half of the $15,700 received by North Carolina State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The unaddressed financial gap totals $12.6 billion nationally.
Tuition is the primary revenue source for HBCUs, and HBCU students are 80% eligible for federal aid and Pell Grants. That stream is subject to uncertainty, as illustrated by the 2025 cut of $350m in federal grants to HBCUs and the 2026 change in federal rules for Parent PLUS loans. HBCUs also issue debt in a hostile environment, facing higher interest rates and as much as three times the underwriting fees that similarly-rated predominantly white universities do.
Why This Matters for Fiscal Justice
Activest’s core thesis is that racism is costly and inequity is expensive. The primary channels of measuring fiscal justice are accountability, impact, and reduction of harm, which are typically higher-scoring categories for a bond-issuing HBCU. HBCUs offer one of the few consistent avenues for fixed-income investment that resonates with the terms of fiscal justice. Next World Assets has made significant investments in HBCUs, particularly Spelman College and North Carolina A&T, and points to the Howard University Bison Properties development as an exemplary blueprint.
But a key concern remains of how to support debt issuances that are generative, not extractive. That is, how can a bond issuance be an impact investment on the investor side, and a legitimate path toward operational independence on the HBCU side?
The Path Forward
Next World Assets offers a three-tiered framework for scaling HBCU institutional sovereignty: Level 1, catalytic single-bond project financings; Level 2, a regional HBCU separately managed account (SMA); and Level 3, a Pan-HBCU national sovereign SMA backed by pooled philanthropic first-loss guarantees. Alongside this, persistent confrontation of the inequitable inheritance of government disinvestment, especially with regard to Evans-Allen funding, is cultural and political community work including everyone who can participate.
This orientation both honors the calling of the future and seeks to rectify unaddressed harms of the past.