Georgia’s HBCUs Are Growing. So Why Are Fewer Black Men Going to College?

ATLANTA — Historically Black colleges and universities are experiencing renewed interest from students, including a surge in applications at some of Georgia’s best-known institutions. But behind that growth is a troubling national trend: Black men are becoming a smaller presence in higher education.

Students gather outside Graves Hall at Morehouse College in Atlanta. While Georgia’s HBCUs continue attracting students, national data show Black men make up a shrinking share of HBCU enrollment, raising broader questions about the changing relationship between young Black men and higher education.

The divide is particularly striking at HBCUs.

Black men accounted for about 26% of HBCU students in 2022, down from 31% in 2005 and 38% in 1976, according to an analysis of federal education data by the American Institute for Boys and Men. Researchers found there were actually fewer Black men enrolled at HBCUs than there were in the mid-1970s.

The decline is part of a larger gender gap in American higher education, but it presents an unusual contradiction in Atlanta, one of the nation’s most prominent centers of Black higher education.

Atlanta’s HBCUs are attracting more interest

Applications to several Atlanta HBCUs have surged in recent years.

Morehouse College graduates participate in commencement ceremonies in Atlanta on May 17, 2026. Morehouse remains a major pipeline for Black male college graduates even as Black male enrollment has declined across higher education nationally. Photo credit: Ben Gray for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC)

Morehouse College — the nation’s only HBCU dedicated to educating men — received more than 7,000 applications for the class entering in 2024 and reported record enrollment of more than 2,500 students at the time. Demand has remained strong: Morehouse reported 6,217 applications for the class entering in fall 2025, while its acceptance rate dropped to 33%.

Across Atlanta, students and families have cited the cultural environment of HBCUs as part of their appeal.

At an HBCU, Black students can escape the experience of routinely being the only Black student in a classroom, Morehouse admissions official Joseph Breeden told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“You’re just another student,” Breeden said. “There’s more sense of equity.”

But Morehouse’s success also illustrates why the broader numbers require context. Interest among Black men in one prestigious institution can be booming while Black male participation in higher education overall remains a concern.

Where are the Black men going?

The longer-term numbers suggest the issue isn’t simply whether young Black men are choosing an HBCU over a predominantly white university.

Black male enrollment has declined across higher education.

Since 2010, Black male enrollment at HBCUs fell about 25%, compared with a roughly 22% decline for Black men across colleges and universities overall, according to the American Institute for Boys and Men.

That raises a more fundamental question: Why are fewer Black men choosing college at all?

Researchers point to a combination of factors rather than a single explanation. Cost and debt can make college less attractive, particularly when young adults see alternatives that can provide income without requiring four years of tuition. Other men may choose community colleges, technical programs, skilled trades, entrepreneurship or immediate entry into the workforce.

Cost remains particularly significant at HBCUs, whose students disproportionately come from lower-income households and depend on federal financial aid. In Georgia, affordability remains a major challenge even as interest in HBCUs grows.

The implications extend well beyond campus demographics.

College attainment is closely connected to lifetime earnings and economic mobility, meaning the disappearance of Black men from higher education can eventually affect homeownership, family wealth and the pipeline of Black men entering professional and leadership positions.

There are signs the trajectory isn’t irreversible. Researchers found Black male HBCU enrollment began recovering after the steep pandemic-era declines, although it remained below pre-COVID levels in the most recent data included in their analysis.

And Morehouse demonstrates that institutions can still generate extraordinary demand among Black men.

The bigger challenge for Georgia — and the country — is figuring out what happens to the young men who aren’t applying to Morehouse, Georgia State, Kennesaw State or any college at all.

The enrollment numbers identify the trend.

Understanding where those Black men are going instead — and why — may be the more important story.