The Field and Function of the Negro College in STEM 2025

African Americans are still underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers. This fact has had profoundly negative impacts on both the lives and fortunes of African Americans, as well as our society as a whole. This pattern of underrepresentation does not result from an inherent mental deficiency or lack of interest in science by African Americans. Rather, this results from historical and ongoing discrimination against this group throughout American society. This paper recounts this discrimination in the context of society as a whole and higher education with a specific emphasis on STEM careers in biology and organismal biology in particular. It offers concrete recommendations for changing the enterprise of science such that it can foster greater inclusion of African Americans via the support for and expansion of the capacity of Historically Black Universities and Colleges (HBCUs).