What Happens When We Keep HBCU Memories Alive

You can feel HBCU pride when it’s real and Alfonso Scott brings the real. After a quick run of community updates and award-season reminders, we sit down with Alfonso to trace his path from Dayton, Ohio to Miles College in Birmingham, Alabama, including the culture shock that nearly sent him back home. What changed was the thing HBCUs do better than almost anywhere: community. He talks candidly about finding his people, growing through campus life, and carrying that foundation into adulthood. Then we dig into his decade-long passion project, “We’ve Got Something to Talk About,” built from hundreds of interviews with HBCU alumni across generations, schools, and cities. It’s not a single-campus story, it’s a living collage of Historically Black Colleges and Universities told by the people who lived it. If you care about HBCU advocacy, college choice, student success, or simply preserving Black education history, these testimonials explain why HBCU alumni stay so loyal and so loud. We also talk about his HBCU commemorative calendar that pairs images with quotes from the book, plus practical resources for families navigating application season, including the Common Black College Application. Listen for the through-line: when we share our stories, we widen the path for the next student. Subscribe, share this with an HBCU-bound scholar or proud alum, and leave a quick review telling us what your HBCU story says about you.Send us Fan MailSupport the show