“I wanna be something. I want to try to do my best to save as many Black boys as I can,” Blake Spencer said.
Spencer arrived at Howard as a business major, but soon realized his purpose lay elsewhere. Growing up in Flint, Michigan, where the water crisis shapes daily life, he witnessed firsthand the toll it took on his community.
“I wanted to be a help to the community that raised me,” he said. “I’m just trying to resolve as many medical ailments through environmental racism or through food deserts as much as I can. I just wanted to be a part of that front line.”
Now a graduating senior nursing major, Spencer’s journey reflects that of four other Black men, who also came searching for something and, in discovering who they were meant to be, left transformed.
Blake Spencer, Gregory Allen, Cameron Humes, Ireayo Kuku, and Quincy Baker are part of the 19 percent of Howard students who are Black men, according to Howard’s Institutional Research and Assessment office.
A recent New York Times article spotlighted the gender gap, but their stories speak to much more.
The article highlighted the decline in Black male enrollment at HBCUs. Nationally, the number of Black men enrolled in college has dropped from 38 percent in 1976 to 26 percent today. According to data from Howard’s Institutional Research and Assessment office, 2,002 Black men enrolled in Howard in 2024. Of the 399 Black men seeking a Bachelor’s or equivalent degree, 185 completed the program in four years or less. Of the 1,001 Black women seeking a Bachelor’s or equivalent degree, 652 completed the program in four years or less.
For Spencer, the road to graduation demanded strength.
“After my sophomore year, I had to go back to Flint and work at a steel mill factory for 66 hours a week to pay my financial bill,” he said. Howard’s estimated cost of attendance for 2024-2025 was over $54,000.
Financial strain was only part of it. Many felt pressure to succeed for their families.
“Once my baby brother was born, I was in a leadership position for life.” Allen, a senior supply chain management major from Stockton, California, and the 48th Mr. Howard, said.
Allen never planned to run for Mr. Howard. But in his junior year, he chose to take a leap of faith.
“I didn’t want to graduate with regrets,” he said. That choice led to a defining moment—sharing his baby brother’s story on stage. “It changed me as a man, a brother, a son.”
Kuku, a senior finance major from New Jersey, said overcoming the barriers required letting go of comparison and staying rooted in purpose.
“When it’s your time, it’s perfect timing,” he said. “You can’t compare yourself to everyone else. You just have to keep doing what you were called to do.”
To fulfill their callings, many of the men turned to faith.
“When I came to Howard, the challenges I faced led me closer to God,” said Humes, a political science major from Birmingham, Alabama.
Kuku said prayer led him to Howard when he was deciding between two universities.
“I prayed a lot, and I got an answer that it was Howard,” he said.
Allen also found peace in faith. He leaned on Matthew 6:25-34.
“Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself,” he said. “Every time I need it, that verse shows up.”
Faith didn’t eliminate the struggle, but it gave them strength. Their belief, whether in God, themselves, or their purpose, shaped how they defined themselves and simultaneously what it meant to be a man.
For Spencer, redefining manhood meant unlearning the narratives he grew up with.
“It’s a process of unlearning. Unlearning what you feel like was a necessary component of yourself,” he said. “What do I really like besides everything that I see in the media and what I’ve been socialized to believe I like?”
Spencer said this process brought him to photography, Africana studies and medicine.
He also said imagining a future isn’t something many Black boys get the chance to do. For some of them, it’s hard to do while living in poverty and over policed, violence-filled communities.
“A lot of people don’t realize that kids living in these places don’t really see life beyond 25, 30,” he said. “Since I turned about 13, I’ve had seven friends die,” he said.
For him, the journey to manhood began with belief.
“You have to first realize that it’s possible for me to live past 25, past 30,” he said.
Black boys, however, are often denied the space and resources to make that realization. He added that the inability to imagine a future is due to many reasons outside of our control; however, “we have to learn how to instill that imagination within our youth.”
Baker, a senior political science major and TV and film minor from Staten Island, New York, learned that manhood isn’t a monolith.
“Sometimes it’s about knowing when to ask for help,” he said.
Allen emphasized a point about emotions for young Black men.
“There’s a certain standard men are expected to hold themselves to. But people should be able to feel their feelings. That’s not weakness,” he said.
Reimagining manhood was part of their journey to becoming who they are now.
The gender enrollment gap provided a unique environment to do so.
For Kuku, the 70-30 gender split at Howard was evident, which was explored in the New York Times article.
“I thought people were exaggerating until I got here,” he said.
Still, he never felt out of place.
“Being around girls doesn’t make you less of a man, it teaches you to lead and listen differently.”
Baker agreed.
“A lot of my friends are my homegirls, strong, intelligent Black women,” he said. “Having them as friends gave me a different view of support and community.”
Baker saw himself in the article, especially in a quote from his friend Joshua Hughes about failure.
“We don’t want to fail. Not just for ourselves, but for our families who believed in us,” Baker said.
Spencer felt the article mischaracterized the issue. Rather, the real focus should be on the barriers to the future.
According to Pew Research Center, the widest gender gap in college enrollment today is among white students. White women are now 10 percentage points more likely than their male peers to attend college, while for Black students, the gap is 7 percentage points.
“Before you can ask a Black boy to go to college, you have to first help him believe he’ll live long enough to even get there,” Spencer said.
Spencer also questioned whether higher education should be framed as the sole path to empowerment.
“Is college going to save us? Or do we need to think about things differently?” he said. “Why is an institution the basis of our thought in terms of turning the Black community around? We need to look deeper. College is more about assimilation than it is about saving us.”
Now, shaped by what they’ve learned and who they’ve become, these men are moving forward with clarity and purpose. Allen, a first-generation college student, said he feels like graduating is breaking generational curses.
“Graduating from here, even attending here, it feels like a dream come true, like something really out of a movie,” he said.
He is graduating not only as the reigning Mr. Howard, but also the 21st Mr. HBCU and a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated. After graduation, Allen will be a consulting analyst and hopes to return to and further explore the arts.
At Howard, Spencer found his calling and now plans to serve as a nurse and eventually earn an MD-PhD.
“Saving my community, step by step, as piecemeal as it may seem, is the ultimate goal,” he said.
Humes is pursuing environmental law.
“I saw firsthand how environmental injustices, soil pollution, air pollution, water pollution, all tied back generations,” he said.
His graduation, he added, sets an example for younger people in his family.
For Kuku, graduation is a miracle. He’s entering wealth management and hopes to grow his brand, write poetry, take MMA classes, and collect stories for his children.
Baker is the first in his family to graduate from an HBCU. At Howard, Baker paved a path rooted in both law and film.
“I want to impact the community positively by being a lawyer, being representation people can count on, and offering perspective through litigation and film,” he said.
If they could give advice to their freshmen selves, each man would give a message of perseverance and remaining true to oneself.
“Keep your head up,” Baker said. “Define what works for you. Just break through that glass ceiling.”
Copy edited by Anijah Franklin
