Photo: Kevin Cosby
The United Negro College Fund has been raising money to support students’ education and development through scholarships and other programs since 1944.
But Dr. Kevin W. Cosby, president of private historically Black college Simmons College in Louisville, Kentucky, thinks it’s time for UNCF to make some major changes, starting with its name.
“The United Negro College Fund should change its name to The United Diversity, Equity and Inclusion fund. Drop the Negro! UNCF dollars should go to all private HBCUS, exclusively. Black dollars not spent exclusively at HBCUS are a terrible thing to waste!” Cosby tweeted.
UNCF supports 37 member colleges and universities and advocates for the importance of minority education and college readiness. It supports more than 60,000 students at over 1,100 colleges and universities across the country, according to its website.
But according to Cosby, it does not support Simmons. Cosby stressed that the UNCF should focus on private HBCUs, who are more need financially as they don’t receive public funding. Public HBCUs rely on federal, state, and local funding.
“As the President of @SCKY_1879, an HBCU, I cannot express my disdain enough towards the United Negro College Fund for blocking us from becoming an affiliate. UNCF scholarships 4 black students can be used at non-HBCUs. They should b restricted exclusively for HBCUS,” he tweeted.
in 2020, there were 101 HBCUs located in 19 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Of the 101 HBCUs, 52 were public institutions, and 49 were private nonprofit institutions, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Dr. Kevin W. Cosby has served as the Senior Pastor of St. Stephen Baptist Church for more than 40 years. It is the largest African American Church in the state of Kentucky. It is also the largest private employer of African Americans in the state. In 2005, Dr. Cosby became President of Simmons College of Kentucky. During its tenure, the once struggling college earned national accreditation from the Association of Biblical Higher Education and expanded its degree programs. Simmons, which was established by former slaves. During his first decade there, Dr. Cosby did not accept a salary to stabilize the college and returned more than $700,000, according to his website.
Dr. Cosby is pro-reparations and in 2021 released the book “Getting to the Promised Land: Black America and the Unfinished Work of The Civil Rights Movement.” The book is a Biblical commentary on the American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS), and delivers Cosby’s argument for reparations using Biblical stories.
Photo: Kevin Cosby, https://drkevinwcosby.com/
