Brian McClure, PhD
Brian grew up in Fort Washington, Maryland. After graduation, he attended Hampton University in Hampton Virginia, where he received his Bachelors degree in History. He would go on to attend North Carolina Central University, in Durham North Carolina. There, he received his Masters degree in History and Public history. Brian completed his Doctoral studies at the University of Memphis, where he studied 20th Century African American history.
Tracae M. McClure, Ed.D.
Tracae is a Gullah descendant from the Sea Islands of South Carolina. She also attended Hampton University and completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics. Upon graduation, Tracae joined Teach for America and taught secondary mathematics in Durham, North Carolina. Later Tracae decided to return to school to pursue a Masters degree in Educational Research and equip herself with the research skills needed to assess the “State of HBCUs.” Currently, Tracae is completing her dissertation requirements as a doctoral student in the Higher Education Administration program at George Washington University. During her doctoral studies, Tracae was afforded the opportunity to intern with the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (WHI-HBCU), and the American Institutes for Research (AIR).
State of HBCUs 
Improving Black Student Achievement
By Embracing The Concept Of
African American Ancestral Obligation
Thomas E. Duval DDS, MPH
African Americans (AAs) owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the previous generations’ hopes and efforts to bring a better day of opportunity to the next generation. All AAs owe the responsibility of researching and learning their culture and history so they can inform the future generations to lead a purposeful, moral life of achievement; and give something back to their respective communities. This is the ancestral obligation every African American (AA) should accept and pass on to their children.
AA adults, especially leaders, must accept, learn, and embrace AA culture, art, and history to impart ancestral obligation to motivate AA youth to want to learn! At-risk AA youth need this information to develop positive self-esteem, to know their place in the world, to appreciate hallowed grounds, and to be motivated to finish high school. Middle class high achieving AA youth need this knowledge to be inspired to give something back to their AA community. AA history must become an integral accepted part of the authentic history of United States for the continuance of making a more perfect union. At-risk AA targeted educational motivational strategies that do not include ancestral obligation are doomed to failure. American history textbooks and curricula that do not significantly include the contributions of AAs are incomplete and non-authentic.
American history curricula in public schools should be changed for K-4th grades to include the period to the end of the American civil war. AA children should not be introduced to the study of American history when most of their ancestors were slaves. Several studies have shown many if not most at risk AA boys are completely academically turned off to school by the fourth grade. All of our children need to know the ideals of the American Declaration of Independence and the abstruse flaw of slavery in the original United States Constitution. Our children need to know how America continued and continues today to make a more perfect union!