The purpose of this paper is to describe a collaboration between Florida International University (FIU; a Hispanic-Serving Institution) and Florida Memorial University (FMU; a Historically Black College or University) to research how to best support language teachers as well as minority language learners in Spanish foreign language teaching and learning. In 2019, Dr. Melissa Baralt was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to support this collaboration to improve modern language curricula and teacher-training, with an aim of improving Spanish language courses for African American and Black diaspora students, who remain significantly underrepresented in foreign language programs. This paper is co-written by our team: Dr. Uju Anya, expert in the raciolinguistic affinities and needs of black language learners and expert consultant on this project; Dr. Déborah Gómez, director of the Spanish-language program at FMU; Dr. William Hobbs, chair of Humanities Program at FMU; Habey Echeverría, Ph. D. student of Spanish and Afro-Caribbean studies at FIU; Amber Robinson, undergraduate student (formerly at Howard University, and now a student at FIU), and Dr. Melissa Baralt, PI on the project. In this paper, we describe the problem that led to the current project and grant. We then discuss the theoretical background and evidence demonstrating why higher institutions must address this issue on a larger scale. Next, we describe how we are working together to raise awareness and to address the problem, explaining our grant activities and key deliverables. We include sample pedagogic tasks and teacher-training materials. We conclude with a brief description of current challenges, and then make specific recommendations that have come out of our project. It is our hope that this project may serve as an example of how collaborations between HSI’s and HBCU’s can be powerful catalysts for what we hope is systemic change to best serve our students and better prepare the nation’s bilingual work force.