AP FACT CHECK: Black colleges hardly school choice pioneers

DEVOS: "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," she said in a statement after meeting with HBCU presidents and chancellors who were in Washington to lobby administration officials.

Historically black colleges and universities were created in direct response to racism in education — some soon after the Civil War ended in 1865 — as African-Americans were shut out from predominantly white schools.

Racial tensions exploded in 1960s as black students attempted to integrate public colleges in several Southern states, in some cases requiring the National Guard to escort black students into campus buildings and to calm angry mobs.

Though she referred to HBCUs as "an alternative option" and "bucking the status quo," DeVos told the group: "Your history was born, not out of mere choice, but out of necessity, in the face of racism and in the aftermath of the Civil War."