The presence of whites at traditionally black public colleges and universities (TBPCUs) is examined for six periods: the pre-Civil War period, 1837-1859; the period of the educational missionary, 1860-1885; the period of reaction to white control, 1886-1916; the decade of the great philanthropists, 1917-1927; the era of the Bureau of Education, 1927-1954; and the desegregation era, 1954-1980. Two colleges for blacks were helped into existence during the pre-Civil War period by whites. During 1860-1885, several TBPCUs traced their origins to private colleges supported by a missionary group or extensions of the federal government's Freedman's Bureau. Most of these schools were administered and staffed almost entirely by whites. During 1886-1916, there was a new supply of black teachers, and land had been set aside by the U.S. Government for agricultural colleges. As colleges were started by several states or came under state control, they did not have as high a proportion of white faculty and administrators as did church-sponsored colleges. However, white influence on higher education for blacks remained high because of money provided by philanthropists. Consideration is given to colleges that were established during each period. (SW)