Historically Black colleges and universities have been mentioned so many times in recent years that the acronym for them--HBCU--has become common.
What is less often discussed is why HBCUs exist in the first place: because Black Americans, especially in the South, were long denied admission to universities for white students, even public ones.
Adam Harris, staff writer at The Atlantic and former staffer at the Chronicle of Higher Education, shows how even today money that is supposed to go to HBCUs is often withheld by states.
Harris's book is The State Must Provide: Why America's Colleges Have Always Been Unequal--and How to Set Them Right.
The author visits with an overview of the situation.