08/05/2026
As a student at Howard University, my fellow Californians and I often talked about how incredible it would have been if our home state had its own HBCU. That conversation came back to me when I discovered two forgotten pieces of California history: the Vallejo Industrial & Normal Institute, founded by Charles H. Toney in 1912 as an industrial and teacher-training school, and the Allensworth Institute, envisioned by Colonel Allen Allensworth in 1915 as California’s first Black college, with Assemblyman F.C. Scott’s AB 299 introduced to secure state funding. Inspired by Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee model, neither institution survived long enough to fulfill its promise. I believe that, like Tuskegee Institute and Hampton Institute, they would have evolved into comprehensive universities—Allensworth University and Toney University—and these illustrations imagine that alternate California where those dreams endured. History isn’t only about remembering what happened; it’s also about envisioning what still can be.
My experience in government, public policy, and education advocacy has led me to believe there is an untapped intersection between reparations and education. As California faces declining enrollment at some CSU campuses, I believe there is an opportunity to partner with nonprofits to create culturally centered public universities that honor communities historically excluded from higher education while remaining open to everyone in accordance with Proposition 209—much like HBCUs, Tribal Colleges, and Hispanic-Serving Institutions serve diverse student bodies while preserving distinct cultural missions. This vision should extend beyond the Black community, with similar opportunities for Indigenous, Latino, Asian American, Pacific Islander, and other communities, as illustrated by proposals like Deganawidah-Quetzzalcoatl University. To me, the most enduring form of reparative justice is creating institutions that preserve history while producing opportunity, leadership, and knowledge for generations to come.
