Every U.S. president since Jimmy Carter has pledged commitment to historically black colleges, or HBCUs.
And just about every year, HBCU leaders gather in Washington D.C., to lobby Congress and the White House. This year President Trump was not there to greet them, which was just as well because the meeting took place amid simmering frustration with the Trump administration.
Much of that frustration is due to what HBCUs consider little or no support from the administration, and what they call a lack of understanding of the financial straits some schools are facing.
But there are other reasons some leaders didn't show up. Among them, President Trump's response to the violence in Charlottesville, Va. Also, Trump's questioning of the constitutionality of federal funding that HBCUs receive for construction projects. "It benefits schools on the basis of race," the president said back in May.
Read more at NPR: http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/09/19/552121259/trump-and-most-black-college-presidents-absent-from-annual-meeting