Tom Joyner
RADIO PERSONALITY Tom
Joyner has deep ties to histori-
cally black colleges and uni-
versities (HBCUs). His parents
and both sets of grandparents
attended black colleges, and he
received a degree in sociology
from Tuskegee University. But
Joyner—like so many alumni
of these 100
or so schools,
including
Grambling
State Univer-
sity, Stillman College, and
Morehouse College—is acutely
conscious of the universities’
declining enrollments and
shrinking endowments. Fifty
years ago 75 percent of African
American undergraduates
attended black colleges; to-
day just 20 percent do. “They
were designed at a time when
students could not get into
mainstream institutions,” says
Joyner, 60. “It’s different now.
But these schools still encour-
age kids way beyond the
call of duty.” In 2009—just 11
years after founding the Tom
Joyner Foundation to help
keep students enrolled at
HBCUs—Joyner achieved $55
million in donations, which
has helped put 14,000 students
through college. —S.M.
EDUCATION
ADVOCATE
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