HBCU Making Moves
Tour

Our HBCU Making Moves Tour focuses on exposure to the rich legacy of the HBCUs and the unlimited opportunities an HBCU college education provides.

Our History

It all started in 1987, when Carl Ray put four boys on a plane, flew them to Atlanta, rented a van, and took them to Tuskegee’s Homecoming.

That one trip became the beginning of something much bigger. By the time of Carl’s passing in 2014, he had exposed more than 5,500 high school and community college students to HBCUs through the tour.

By 1988, Carl was joined by Reginald Braddock, Brenda Long, and John Wright, his Tuskegee classmates, fellow graduates, and lifelong friends. Together, they helped build the foundation for the tour that continues today as the HBCU Making Moves Tour

After Carl’s passing, the tour continued with a new name, but the mission remained the same. Brenda Long and Reginald Braddock remain connected to the work, helping carry forward the same tour legacy they helped build from the early years.

Since then, the number of students served has grown to well over 6,000. We have never stopped. We continue this work because we understand the commitment, the duty, and the responsibility that come with exposing students to college and showing them what is possible.

The impact on young people, especially our young men, has been life-changing. Students who once never imagined themselves going to college have gone on to enroll, graduate, and become successful in their lives and careers.

Today, the HBCU Making Moves Tour carries Carl Ray’s original tour legacy forward by helping students see college as possible, experience the power of HBCUs firsthand, and move toward enrollment, graduation, and success.

What Is Our HBCU Making Moves Tour About

The HBCU Making Moves Tour is not just a college tour. It is an experience rooted in exposure, identity, and possibility, grounded in the belief that when young people see what is possible, they begin to imagine more for themselves.

Carl Ray started this tour because he understood that many students, especially Black students from California, had never seen an HBCU campus, had never walked through a college environment built with their history in mind, and had never experienced what it feels like to be surrounded by Black academic excellence, leadership, culture, tradition, and pride.

That is why we take students to Historically Black Colleges and Universities. HBCUs offer something different from a traditional college visit. Students are not only introduced to classrooms, dorms, admissions offices, and campus life. They are introduced to institutions where Black students have been educated, affirmed, challenged, protected, and prepared for leadership for generations.

On these campuses, students see professors, administrators, alumni, and current students who reflect who they are and who they can become. They experience environments where their identity is not treated as an obstacle, but as a source of strength. They see Black excellence not as an exception, but as the expectation.

The tour also includes cultural and historical sites connected to African American history, struggle, achievement, and resilience. These experiences help students understand that college is not only about earning a degree. It is also about knowing who they are, where they come from, what they are part of, and what responsibility comes with opportunity.

We continue these tours because the impact is real. Students who once never imagined themselves going to college have returned from the tour with a new sense of pride, purpose, and direction. Many have gone on to enroll in college, graduate, and build successful lives and careers.

What Makes Our Tour Different

The HBCU Making Moves Tour is led by chaperones who have attended HBCUs and understand the culture, expectations, and life-changing impact of the HBCU experience firsthand.

Because our team has lived the experience, they do more than supervise students. They help students process what they are seeing, ask better questions, understand campus life, and recognize the unique power of HBCUs as institutions built to educate, affirm, challenge, and prepare Black students for leadership and success.

Our chaperones have a personal interest in each student’s growth, academic goals, and next steps. Throughout the tour, they provide guidance, encouragement, accountability, and honest insight to help students make informed decisions about college.

HBCU Pride

It is history, culture, memory, excellence, and responsibility carried from one generation to the next. It reflects the love poured back into these institutions by generations of students, families, alumni, and communities who understand the role HBCUs have played in survival, achievement, and future opportunity.

HBCU Life

HBCUs give students a place to be valued, respected, nurtured, challenged, and encouraged to reach their full potential. It is where students learn more about themselves, build confidence, and see Black men and women achieving at a high level. It is sisterhood, brotherhood, leadership, and lifelong connection.

Why Choose an HBCU?

An HBCU can feel like a home away from home. It is a place where everybody is somebody, where students find family, community, culture, support, and a sense of belonging. Students experience traditions, music, conversations, and campus life that reflect who they are and remind them that they are part of something powerful.