During the 1970s, many black colleges faced impending closures due to financial deficits, federal auditing and student aid penalties, and the NAACP-Legal Defense Fund suing to desegregate the schools. HBCU advocates were tasked with justifying why their black colleges remained viable in an integrated society. Analyzing primary sources chiefly from the Jimmy Carter archives, including federal reports, White House correspondences, and newspapers, this dissertation demonstrates how HBCU leadership unified and took their institutions' troubles directly to Carter's White House. Black college officials were determined to do more than save their schools; they wanted the federal government to guarantee long-term levels of increased HBCU appropriations. The institutions' leaders demanded that President Carter create transformative and enduring legislation that catered to black colleges' needs and remained relevant throughout his successors' presidencies. Tony Brown, a black media heavyweight, supported the HBCU activists' positions and provided them with a national platform to voice their concerns. After engaging in many contentious battles with the black college community, in 1980 Jimmy Carter buckled to the pressure by issuing Executive Order 12232, which ultimately created the White House Initiative on HBCUs. This dissertation chronicles the WHI-HBCUs' founding by highlighting the intense political pressure placed on Carter to side with black colleges. Rather than focusing on the underlining policies, programs, and functions of the Initiative, this research pays particular attention to the myriad of complex problems that led to the office's creation. Though limited in scope, this project demonstrates how the Initiative helped to stabilize HBCUs as they moved into the twenty-first century by resetting federal relations with the schools and infusing millions of federal dollars into the institutions. More importantly, this project serves as the first study that answers one fundamental question--how did HBCUs receive their own White House office? [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]