The numbers of African American women presidents, provosts, and vice presidents of colleges and universities have increased over the past few decades. However, even with the slight increases, there are still significant disparities in regards to African American women in positions of leadership (American Council on Education, 2018). The intersection of race and gender may potentially cause African American women to experience discrimination and bias based upon either race or gender or both (Davis, 2016). This qualitative study examined the perceptions of African American women presidents, provosts, and vice-presidents of four-year, private Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) as to how they believe they were able to attain and remain in positions of leadership at their current and/or former institutions. The study more specifically examined the roles that race and gender play in the attainment and retention of senior leadership positions. By exploring the experiences of African American women senior administrators, four-year, private HBCUs can create environments that are more inclusive to African-American women and identify the best leaders, regardless of race or gender, to guide the institutions into the future. This study revealed that the participants attributed their senior leadership position attainment to work ethic, integrity, discipline, education and work experience. The participants also discussed some of the barriers to retention in senior leadership positions including work-life balance, not understanding the politics of an institution, not getting along with the board or stakeholders, not producing positive results, and sexism or gender biases. In relation to racial and gender bias and discrimination, most of the participants stated that at some point in their career they have experienced some type of bias or discrimination whether it was racial or gender related. For the most part, the racial discrimination was experienced at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) or corporate organizations. Some of the participants, however, stated that they have not experienced racial bias or discrimination at HBCUS. Many of the participants noted that although they had not experienced racial discrimination at HBCUs, they had experienced gender discrimination and biases at HBCUs.