With her fashionable collegiate wear line, Black & Scholared, Kamirria Wallace, a Howard University alumna turned businesswoman, promotes higher education within the black community.
Historically, fewer black students than their counterparts have enrolled in higher education. According to recent studies, enrollment rates rose from 17.9% in 2010 to 22.6% in 2023; nevertheless, the Census American Community Survey indicates that the figure is still below the national average, reported at 32.9%.
Through her purpose-driven fashion line, Kamirria hopes to change those numbers. She founded Black & Scholar in 2020 to leave her girls a legacy at an HBCU. Three years later, the brand has expanded on its goal by providing lines of HBCU collegiate wear that are legally licensed and created to commemorate and promote higher education within the black community. The collections include bags, caps, lapel pins, sweatshirts, t-shirts, and hoodies for graduates.
However, Black & Scholared serves more than simply present and former students. By encouraging young children’s and toddlers’ desires for higher education through the company’s youth line, Kamirria has remained faithful to the inspiration for founding the firm.
Black & Scholar is more than simply a company for Kamirria. She is dedicated to assisting black kids in financing their desire to attend college. As a result, Black & Scholared provides a scholarship fund to assist students with living and tuition expenses. “Education is the key to reducing the wealth gap in the black community,” she declared. I can vouch for the importance of a sense of belonging to students as a graduate of an HBCU. Because of this, we also donate some of our revenues to our HBCU partners.
Kamirria had just one HBCU license when she launched Black & Scholared. 7 HBCUs, including Howard University, Morgan State University, Norfolk State University, North Carolina A&T State University, Hampton University, Virginia State University, and Texas Southern University, now have licenses through the company, which has since grown. Wallace wants to increase the number of HBCUs covered by the company’s license, which now numbers more than 100 nationwide.
“We want to support institutions that offer education and the conditions for black students to flourish,” she stated. In addition to creating a name for ourselves, we also create a legacy.
Black & Scholar has touched more than 500K scholars and given more than $30,000 to the HBCU community since the company’s founding. Currently, the brand is offered online and at well-known department shops like Foot Locker and Barnes & Noble College on HBCU campuses.
About
A community- and purpose-driven apparel company called Black & Scholared® is on a mission to celebrate, support, and promote higher education within the black community. Black & Scholared supports students and alums who want to proudly represent their HBCU school or alma mater by selling empowering collections and licensed collegiate apparel with a portion of proceeds regularly donated to historically black colleges and universities.
