Blackness as an ascriptive identity informs a number of aspects in relation to scholarship. Educational opportunities open to members of the African American community have historically not been equal to the opportunities afforded White Americans. During and following the Civil War, institutions of high learning for African Americans were formed in order to provide a college-level education. Many of the institutions focused on agricultural endeavors, in an effort to imbue African Americans with practical skills. Though the options in higher learning increased, and attendance at HBCU's continued to be high for decades, currently African American students are not attending them in the volumes that once existed. As noted in TIME's "Historically Black Colleges Are Becoming More White." HBCU's have always enrolled students of all races, but they are increasingly becoming less black. At some, like Bluefield, blacks now comprise less than half of the student body. At Lincoln University in Missouri, African-Americans account for 40 percent of enrollment while at Alabama's Gadsden State Community College, 71 percent of the students are white and just 21 percent are black. The enrollment at St. Philip's College in Texas is half Hispanic and 13 percent black, according to 2011 enrollment data from the U.S. Department of Education (Butrymowicz 2014). Institutions which were at one time predominately African American lost students as colleges and/or universities which were once off limits began accepting them as students. Now that HBCU's must compete against formerly predominately white institutions of higher learning, the issue which generally arises is funding. Ivy League institutions, as well as popular state schools receive millions of dollars in endowments on a regular basis -- mainly from former alumni, foundations, and grant-awarding organizations. HBCU's across the board, however, do not receive equal amounts of funding, either privately or from the state in which they are located, as "many experts, are quick to point out that public HBCU's are often underfunded by their states. Even with the extra money they receive from the federal government, they argue, the schools get less than 3 percent of federal higher-education funding -- slightly less than the proportion of students they enroll" (Butrymowicz 2014). There are supporters and opponents of HBCU's in relation to recruiting methods, educational opportunities offered in comparison at non HBCU's, and funding options. As discussed in Business Insider UK's "There's an unprecedented crisis facing America's historically black colleges." These problems have plagued both private and public HBCU's, and have gotten worse following the financial recession at the end of the last decade, according to University of Pennsylvania education professor Marybeth Gasman -- who heads the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). Ms Gasman stated, "with majority institutions, when a recession hits, they might go from brie to eating cheddar cheese...HBCU's go from cheddar to nothing." (Jacobs 2015) This paper will research the history of the HBCUs, discuss their current relevancy, and review methods which could be possibly utilized in reviving funding and support options. Funding is key to any college/university in terms of expansion, building or rebuilding, and securing and maintaining a top teaching staff. These factors will be examined in relation to the probability of the future of HBCUs, in order to sustain those which are remaining.