A Participatory Planning Approach to Enhancing a Historically Black University–Community Partnership: The Case of the e-City Initiative

Abstract

Little is known about the involvement of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in university–community partnerships. This article describes the planning process in a partnership, named the e-City Initiative, between Jackson State University and its surrounding community. The article highlights the role of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning faculty in facilitating greater participation and decision-making of e-City inhabitants in the planning process. It provides the voice of residents, business owners and other stakeholders living, learning and working in e-City neighborhoods. The article concludes with observations about HBCU university–community partnerships involved in revitalization that engender citizen participation and social justice, and offers suggestions for increasing HBCU public scholarship in the planning and service learning literatures.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank Tom Angotti, William Harris and the two anonymous reviewers for comments on earlier drafts of this work.

Notes

1. For example, Hampton University, founded to provide a normal education to blacks, established a formal education program for Native Americans in 1878 (Lindsey, 1995); and, according to Logan (1969), four white women were the first students to attend Howard University, which was planned to educate a sizable portion of black men and women as well as white men and women.

2. At the time this research was undertaken, Howard University was the only HBCU classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as Doctoral/Research University—Extensive (the highest category).