Why Unprecedented Investment in HBCUs Is Constitutionally Required
Preview:
Despite decades of acknowledgment, the United States has never provided material redress to Black Americans for centuries of government-sanctioned slavery and Jim Crow, a failure the piece frames as legal and structural, not merely moral. Drawing on constitutional precedent and comparisons to Holocaust restitution, Japanese American internment payments, and Indigenous treaty obligations, the author argues that lineage-based educational restitution is both legally sound and morally necessary. A proposed federal program would pair unprecedented HBCU investment with educational vouchers of up to $100,000 for descendants of enslaved Americans, moving the nation from acknowledgment to tangible accountability.
Originally published: March 31, 2026
Author: A. Zachary Faison Jr.
Position: President
Institution: Edward Waters University
Published by: The EDU Ledger