In Black Education We Trust

Dear aunties, uncles, parents, grandparents, older siblings, big cousins... everybody,

Show an incoming HBCU freshman a little extra love this week.

Think back to your first day on campus. The nerves. The excitement. The uncertainty. The feeling of stepping into a place that would end up changing your life.

As back-to-school season rolls around, I can't help but think about the day my parents dropped me off at Howard. At the time, I had no idea that campus would shape who I am and completely change the course of my life.

Right now, families all over the country are packing cars, making dorm runs, holding back tears, and saying goodbye to their babies as they begin this new chapter. It's exciting, but it's emotional too.

So let's remind them that they're not doing this alone.

Let's remind them why we believe in Black education.

Trust in the classrooms that have shaped generations of leaders. Trust in the professors, mentors, coaches, and classmates who will pour into them. Trust in the lessons they'll learn inside and outside of the classroom. And trust our young people to rise to the moment, to make good decisions, and to become the people they're meant to be.

One of the greatest gifts of an HBCU is the community. On every campus you'll find future doctors, teachers, artists, engineers, entrepreneurs, politicians, scientists, athletes, and storytellers. Some are carrying on a family tradition. Others are the first in their family to ever step foot on a college campus. But they all arrive with the same hope… to build a better future.

Dreams like that deserve to be protected. Encouraged. Watered. Sometimes all it takes is someone saying, "I'm proud of you," or "You've got this."

So I have one favor to ask this week.

Call an incoming freshman. Text them. Check in on their parents. Encourage a family that's about to make that drive to campus.

Remind them that it truly takes a village to raise a child, and there is no village quite like the HBCU village.

In Black education, WE TRUST… Forever and always.

Love,

Tahir “Legacy” Murray