We previously reported on the tensions swirling between the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), HBCUs and President Donald Trump. HBCU leaders were supposed to meet with the White House this week, but CBC and HBCU leaders felt holding talks would be a waste of time after hearing Trump's post-Charlottesville remarks. It seemed that the summit would be cancelled.
However, according to the Associated Press, it looks like the meeting will be going forward after all.
Director of communications for the White House Office of Public Liaison and assistant to the president, Omarosa Manigault-Newman, confirmed to the AP that the annual summit had simply been delayed, not cancelled.
"President Trump's commitment to the HBCU Community remains strong and unwavering," Omarosa said. "Registration remains at capacity and we are looking forward to welcoming HBCU presidents, students and guests."
Instead of the full summit, the White House held a two-day meeting with select members of the HBCU community. President Trump was not present for any of the sessions.
During the meeting, the White House announced that lawyer and former NFL player Johnathan Holifield will assume the role of executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
This position has been vacant since Trump's inauguration; as executive director, Holifield will be responsible for the transition of HBCU oversight from the Department of Education to the White House.
Holifield has limited HBCU experience, but does have some experience writing and consulting on innovation and inclusiveness. According to McClatchy, Holifield starts his new position on October 2.
"There is no path to sustain new job creation, shared prosperity and enduring national competition without the current and increased contributions of historical black colleges and universities," Holifield told those attending the scaled-down meeting at the Old Executive Office Building next to the White House.
The reactions to the Holifield appointment have been mixed.
Thurgood Marshall College fund president and CEO Johnny C. Taylor noted that Hollifield “has more than 20 years of multidisciplinary business and government experience, which will help lead the critical work of developing a robust policy and budgetary agenda to positively impact HBCUs.”
On the flip side, the director of the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions at the University of Pennsylvania, Marybeth Gasman, was a bit hesitant. “I have some concerns that Holifield doesn’t have an HBCU experience,” she said. “He does have experience working across a few organizations and his self-published book is focused on inclusiveness. I wish him the best.”
Donald Trump first met with HBCU leaders in February. Although he promised at that time to be an advocate for HBCUs, the White House has done little to follow up on that promise. Many of the president's critics, such as Congressional HBCU Caucus leader Representative Alma Adams (D-NC), feel that the first meeting was more of a publicity stunt than anything else.
In calling for the cancellation of the White House HBCU summit, Adams said, “It would be more productive to hear from the president directly or from his education secretary about what progress they are making on the HBCUs’ request before asking presidents to come back to Washington for another photo op.”
Ty Couey, the president of the National HBCU Alumni Associations, said that "things are out of control" at the White House, adding, "Everyone's uptight in this day and age with our current president and with what's going on."
Couey said that HBCUs are increasingly of the thinking that the White House isn’t “the only game in town,” and that their efforts are better spent reaching out to Congress.
"A lot of our time is not spent on Trump. He's just one individual," Couey said. "We have many friends in Congress that we interact with; we have many friends within the federal government. These are the people we're dealing with, the people who actually get things done."
For her part, Adams plans to launch the inaugural HBCU Brain Trust meeting during the CBC's next annual meeting.
"Despite the ongoing drama and unnecessary distractions of the president's own making, we plan to move forward with opportunities for HBCU leaders to engage in substantive dialogues that put our schools and students first," Adams said.
