“They saw that the system wasn’t working, that there was an absence of opportunity, so they took it upon themselves to provide the solution,” DeVos said about HBCUs.

However, the school choice argument is one often used by proponents of charter schools, which DeVos has actively supported. Additionally, her argument rings eerily similar to the separate but equal argument of giving people a choice to get an education where they want and not where the government tells them too.

DeVos statements outraged many because it ignores the fact that HBCUs were created because Black people were denied entry into the institutions that they wanted to attend.