Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were created with the sole intent of educating Blacks because White schools would not accept them. In Title III of the Higher Education Act of 1965, Congress defined an HBCU as a postsecondary schooling institution established before 1964 with a primary goal of educating Blacks (Satterfield, 2008). Since Brown vs. Board of Education, 1954 declared it was unconstitutional to legally separate Black and White students into different schools, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination based on race, color, and other identifiers, there has been an ongoing debate regarding the purpose of these colleges and universities in the 21st century. This research is to determine the strengths and weaknesses of HBCUs in modern America by conducting a literature review on documents post 1964 and essentially condensing the collective pros and cons into three overarching points. A preliminary analysis indicates positive attributes of HBCUs and areas where they could improve. The strengths include: 1) Affirming and supportive environment for Black culture; 2) Develops a positive black consciousness; 3) high percentage of graduates entering the STEM fields. Critiques of HBCUs indicate the following: 1) not racially diverse; 2) lack proper funding and resources; 3) hyper-culturally conservative.