#BlackTechFutures Builds Connection Between Technology, Equity, and HBCUs

Dr. Fallon Wilson watched the events of the Arab Spring occur while she was teaching one of her first courses on technology and sociology at American Baptist College (ABC). As millions of protestors came together to stand against autocratic or corrupt governments, Wilson saw the way participants utilized technology to spread awareness. She began to connect the potential of technology to social justice.

Dr. Fallon WilsonABC, a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) in Nashville, has a history of supporting great civil rights movements and graduating leaders, like the late U.S. Representative John Lewis. The Arab Spring, combined with the advocacy-minded environment of the HBCU, “helped me to understand the need for tech in community empowerment,” said Wilson.

That idea, now canonized in higher education as “public interest technology,” is crucial to the mission of the #BlackTechFutures Research Institution, which Wilson co-founded with Melissa Brown-Sims. As principal investigator, Wilson’s research, housed at HBCU Stillman College and operational in three states, unites local communities by connecting the dots from technology to opportunities, empowering them to change inequitable policies.

“You can’t move forward unless people are fully aligned on the ground in cities driving change,” said Wilson. “Every social movement has this at its core.”

Starting April 25, #BlackTechFutures, in partnership Diverse, is leading #BlackTechPolicyWeek, where panelists from across the nation will discuss ways in which technology can be equitized and how HBCUs, Predominately Black Institutions (PBIs), and community colleges, can be the engines for national change.

“How do we get more Black students into tech? Because racism is such a venerable construct, you have to attack the ecosystem framework and you have to do it all at the same time,” said Wilson. “The truth of the matter is, if a child starts the pipeline where 30% of Black people don’t have the internet or goes to a high school without computer science because that high school can’t afford it, you can’t expect them to go into tech companies or start a tech business. The inequities compound.”

In Birmingham, AL, Nashville and Memphis, TN, and Houston, TX, the four cities currently piloting #BlackTechFutures research, the team assesses the city, identifies leaders and social justice practitioners and "wraps their research around them," said Wilson.