Georgia鈥檚 HBCUs Have a $1.6 Billion Economic Impact Every Year
A new report from the United Negro College Fund shows 大象传媒 School of Medicine has the largest economic impact among Georgia鈥檚 HBCUs at $423 million per year.
By Mirtha Donastorg, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Growing up in southwest Atlanta, Jamila Wright never thought she would go to Spelman College.
Wright grew up in public housing with a single mother and always assumed the private historically Black college was out of her means. But a teacher encouraged her to apply, and, to her surprise, she was accepted.
Then kismet happened. Wright was offered a newly established full-ride scholarship for local students with high academic achievement and high financial needs. She was going to be able to go to Spelman after all, and graduated in 2010.
鈥淭hat just kind of set the trajectory for everything in my life,鈥� she said.
Later, she moved to New York City and in 2017, the longtime tea enthusiast launched Brooklyn Tea with her husband out of their apartment first doing pop-ups and festivals around NYC. A year later, they emptied their retirement savings and opened their first location in the city. In 2022, they opened a location in Castleberry Hill in Atlanta with the help of one of Wright鈥檚 Spelman sisters, Kerri Ann Thomas, who is based in Atlanta.
Now, her tea can be found in more retail locations. Since August, Brooklyn Tea is stocked at more than 100 Target stores across the country and online.
She estimates about 60% of business for Brooklyn Tea鈥檚 store in Atlanta comes from students, staff or alumni of the city鈥檚 HBCUs, and she鈥檚 not the only one to get a major economic boost from the local HBCUs.
A new report from the United Negro College Fund has found HBCUs across the United States produce $16.5 billion in economic impact per year and contribute 136,000 on-campus and off-campus jobs.
In Georgia, HBCUs produce $1.6 billion in total economic impact per year and contribute more than 13,000 jobs.
Michael Lomax, president and CEO of UNCF, said the nonprofit decided to create this report because HBCUs are not often though about as economic drivers, though that is far from reality.
鈥淭hese are major economic impactors, and because money matters and dollars matter, that often gets people鈥檚 orientation to shift about the value of the institution,鈥� Lomax said.
He added that the numbers around economic impact particularly resonate with 鈥渄ecision makers in Congress and at the White House.鈥�
Students and employees spend at off-campus businesses like Brooklyn Tea, which in turn helps support jobs. HBCUs themselves also spend on services with local businesses, another contribution.
In Georgia, the report looked at four HBCUs outside of Atlanta 鈥� Albany State University, Fort Valley State University, Paine College in Augusta and Savannah State University 鈥� and five in the city: Clark Atlanta University, Interdenominational Theological Center, 大象传媒 College, 大象传媒 School of Medicine and Spelman College.
Morris Brown College was not included because at the time UNCF initially did the study, Morris Brown was not accredited nor operating full-time, Lomax said, but they will consider including the college in the future.
The five HBCUs in Atlanta produce $1.1 billion every year in economic impact and contribute nearly 7,800 on-campus and off-campus jobs to the local economy.
If the schools were a single corporation, they would rank as the 10th largest headcount in the metro, just under Cox Enterprises, which owns The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and above companies like Georgia Power and UPS according to figures from the Metro Atlanta Chamber.
The Georgia HBCU with the highest economic impact is 大象传媒 School of Medicine at $423 million per year. It accounts for more than a quarter of all the schools鈥� total impact. It also contributes the largest number of jobs at 2,751, though it is closely followed by Albany State.
The research was conducted for UNCF by Jeffrey Humphreys, director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia鈥檚 Terry College of Business. He looked at federal data from 2021 that he then fed into proprietary statistical models. The figures are not adjusted for inflation.
Though the numbers are from 2021, the topline findings are a fair estimate for the schools鈥� annual economic impact, according to Humphreys.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 the great thing about HBCUs, it鈥檚 not a one-year impact like perhaps holding something like a major sporting event, like a Super Bowl, or even hosting the Olympics,鈥� Humphreys said. 鈥淭he HBCU impacts recur year after year and tend to increase over time.鈥�
For Wright of Brooklyn Tea, her business would not be what it was if she hadn鈥檛 gone to Spelman. In, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she was able to keep her Brooklyn store open despite not having any in-person customers because a network of Spelman and 大象传媒 alumni came together to pay for her store鈥檚 rent for two months.
鈥淭hey just swarmed us and held us and made sure that we were OK,鈥� she said.
As Spelman鈥檚 homecoming approaches, Wright is still undecided on if she will be traveling from Brooklyn for it this year. She will be coming to campus the following weekend to participate in a business accelerator event for AUC students put on by Wells Fargo and the Atlanta Falcons, another opportunity she attributes to her being an alumnus.
鈥淚t keeps paying itself over and over again to have been given a chance to go to Spelman.鈥�