Tuskegee Institute : Cuba ’ s HBCU
Booker T . Washington
In 1901 , twenty years after the Tuskegee Institute was created – and just three years after Cuba gained its freedom from Spanish colonial rule – four Afro-Cuban students showed up at the rural Alabama school .
They arrived with a letter from Juan Gualberto Gomez , a leading Afro Cuban intellectual and hero of Cuba ’ s independence war . Gualberto asked Tuskegee ’ s founder , Booker T . Washington , to admit the group , which included his son , Juan Eusebio Gomez .
In return , Juan Gualberto Gomez promised to create “ an association ” with Tuskegee that would “ send every year a number of students to Tuskegee .” And , in fact , dozens of Afro-Cubans attended Tuskegee during the first two decades of the 20th century . Today , Tuskegee is one of 107 historically Black colleges and universities ( HBCU ) that were created primarily for the education of former slaves and their descendants . And given the many Afro-Cubans who attended Tuskegee , it can aptly be called Cuba ’ s HBCU .
Juan Gualberto Gomez
One of the Cubans who attended Tuskegee was Luis Delfin Valdes .
Valdes graduated from Tuskegee ’ s architectural program in 1908 . After returning to Cuba , he joined a group of Afro-Cuban intellectuals , businessmen , politicians and thought leaders in creating the Club Atenas . For more than half a century , the club was a safe space for Afro-Cubans to congregate for social , political and cultural functions . It was the most influential organization for Afro-Cubans during a time when racial discrimination in Cuba was widespread .
Valdes was the architect of the building the club moved into in 1930 .
A symbol of Havana ’ s Afro-Cuban elite , the building , which is still standing , hosted some of Cuba ’ s most important African-American visitors ; among them Mary McLeod Bethune , W . E . B . DuBois and Langston Hughes . n
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