Attending a historically Black college or university may provide Black Americans with a lasting cognitive advantage in later life, a pioneering study has found, suggesting that the environment in which higher education takes place is crucial for long-term brain health.
The research, led by Dr Marilyn D. Thomas of the University of California, San Francisco, and published in JAMA Network Open, analysed data from 1,978 Black American adults who attended college between 1940 and 1980. It concluded that, at age 62, those who had attended an HBCU demonstrated better memory and cognitive function than their peers who attended predominantly white institutions.
Environment Over Attendance
Dr Thomas’s work is distinctive for moving beyond simply measuring years of schooling. “There’s a growing body of evidence demonstrating that those years of schooling differently impact people by race,” she noted. Her team sought to measure whether any exposure to an HBCU environment was impactful for later-life cognition, even for those who may have started at one and later switched. “Our question was, ‘Is any exposure to an HBCU going to have a later life impact on your cognition?’ And the answer was yes,” Thomas said.
The study was designed to account for differing early life experiences. Participants who attended HBCUs were more likely to have had mothers or female caregivers with a college education and to have reported receiving affection during childhood. Even after controlling for such factors, including childhood health and encouragement in school, the association between HBCU attendance and better cognition held firm across the entire timeframe studied.
This period, from 1940 to 1980, was framed by two landmark policies that reshaped American education: the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, which declared racial segregation in schools unconstitutional, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination in schools and public places. The study mined differences between Black students who attended college when they were largely barred from white institutions and those who attended after segregation was outlawed. “HBCU attendees had better cognition across all three of those different time periods,” Thomas stated.
Broader Health Protection and Historical Roots
The cognitive benefits appear to be part of a broader protective health effect linked to the HBCU experience. Separate research published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that Black adults who attended HBCUs had a 35% lower probability of developing metabolic syndrome—a cluster of conditions raising the risk of heart disease and diabetes—by midlife compared to PWI attendees. This benefit was more pronounced for those who grew up in more segregated environments.
These findings underscore the unique role of HBCUs, which were established before 1964 with the mission of educating Black Americans when most other institutions denied them entry. The first, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, was founded in 1837, with a significant expansion occurring after the Civil War. They have historically served as engines of Black professional advancement and economic empowerment.
Dr Thomas’s interest in the subject stems from her broader research into structural racism—the historical and contemporary policies that create racial disadvantages—and health. “It didn’t matter what form of racism I was looking at… the beginning of my work showed that exposure to racism was associated with worse health,” she explained. Noting that higher educational attainment can mitigate some of racism’s impacts, she shifted her focus toward “finding sources of resilience against the negative or adverse effects of racism on later life health for Black adults”.
Her current work, supported by an award from the National Institute on Aging, also explores how HBCU attendance may influence dementia risk and mortality, potentially by increasing cognitive reserve and reducing race-related stressors.
The Power of Culturally Affirming Spaces
The study’s central implication, according to Thomas, is that “culturally affirming spaces actually can help promote and protect cognitive health.” The benefits, she emphasised, extend well beyond graduation, as evidenced by the improved outcomes in participants at a mean age of 62.
This concept aligns with academic research on “counterspaces” in higher education: environments that buffer students from racial microaggressions, affirm identity, and cultivate resilience. At HBCUs, students typically report lower racial stress, a greater sense of belonging, stronger connections, and better mental health and resilience compared to their peers nationally.
These affirming experiences, the study suggests, likely foster improved cognitive engagement, stronger social networks, and better economic opportunities, all contributing to greater access to health-promoting resources and social support in later life.
Thomas described the study as “exploratory” and “a first step,” noting that further analysis is needed to unpack nuances, such as the impact for those who attended an HBCU for graduate school after a PWI undergraduate degree. Another study noted that while HBCU attendance was linked to better cognitive function at age 70, the associations were not statistically significant in that particular cohort, pointing to the need for larger, harmonised analyses.
For Thomas, the findings carry a clear message amid current national debates. “There’s an attack right now on DEI programs,” she said, referring to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives. “But what this [study] does is it shows us actually when you do create environments where socially marginalised people feel more welcome or feel more affirmed, they live healthier lives.”
