I have found that the presidents of the HBCUs in this study are very influential on their campuses and that their influence is evidenced in a variety of ways that conform to French and Raven's classic typology of social power. The data indicates that the power that these presidents utilize in their work most aptly fits the categories of legitimate, expert, referent and some information power. Furthermore, context serves as an extremely important factor that both promotes and constrains the presidents' capacities to influence major institutional decisions. The aspects of context that seem to have the most impact on the decision-making of these HBCU presidents are severe financial constraint, institutional history and governance structure, and size. The study also surfaced important conversations on these campuses having to do with dilemmas and paradoxes related to institutional mission and the impact of race. Although not a central focus of this research, the impact of race on these campuses is worthy of further consideration. This is a study of leadership and power within context and it offers a comparative analysis of the types of power used by presidents in different situations. It explores how various institutional factors such as constituency expectations, institutional history, internal political pressures, external political pressures and personal characteristics of the president impact decision-making. This study aims to deepen our understandings of the presidencies of three HBCUs and facilitate a comparative analysis of presidential power at these institutions relative to prevailing trends as described in the literature.