African American Baccalaureates Surge by 30% From 1991 to 1995
Florida A&M Moves to The Top of the List With Annual Increase of 27%
Almost 20,000 more African Americans received baccalaureate degrees
in 1995 compared to 1991. This represents a 30.2 percent increase in
the number of African American college graduates, from 64,556 in 1991
to 84,108 in 1995.
“That’s good news,” said Dr. Reginald Wilson, director of the
minority office for the American Council on Education, about the higher
numbers of African American baccalaureates.
Dr. Michael Nettles, author of The African American Education Data
Book published by The College Fund/UNCF, agreed, saying, “That’s
phenomenal growth. African American progress in higher education is
steady. The outlook is bright.”
These numbers are the findings of Black Issues In Higher Education’s
sixth annual “Top 100” rankings in which colleges are ranked according
to the number of degrees they confer on African Americans, Hispanic
Americans, Asian Americans and Native Americans (see pg. 44).
According to Wilson, African American women have been driving the increase.
