From the projects to the presidency: An African American odyssey

✍ Scribed by Raymond C. Bowen

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1996
• Weight: 742 KB
• Volume: 1996
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0194-3081
• DOI: 10.1002/cc.36819969404

✦ Synopsis

During the past century, millions of African Americans migrated from the rural South to urban areas of the North and West. This outward migration has slowed in recent years because of economic and social factors, and southern urban areas now are actually experiencing "reverse migration," or increases ih the black population. As a result, the overwhelming majority of African Americans live today in urban centers of the United States. Whether urban, suburban, or rural, a significant percentage of those African Americans who attend college begin their postsecondary education at community colleges. Of the six million students who attend community colleges, between 500,000 and 600,000 are African Americans. Although there are more than twelve hundred community colleges in the United States, African American presidents or chancellors make up less than seventy-five of the CEOs. If census projections are correct, minorities will make up one-third of the population early in the twenty-first century (Hodgkinson, 1985>, and if 40 percent of minority educators retire by the year 2000 (Bryant, 19921, we have an opportunity to increase their representation as community college leaders.

No pathway to the community college presidency is easy for minorities. Nevertheless, given the increasing numbers of African Americans and Latinos who attend college, the challenge to help them gain leadership positions is enormous. The current political climate-the reduction in student financial aid, the attacks on affirmative action, the increasingly negative perception of underserved minorities by "majority" culture-complicates the problem further. My pathway to the community college presidency spans several generations of life in the United States; it should not be construed as a model or NEW DlRECrloNs FOR COMMUNITY COUEGES. no 94, Summer 1996 0 Jossey-Bass Publishers