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Oldest HBCUs

Oldest HBCUs
Posted By: on July 05, 2005


Oldest HBCUs
(4-year public and private)

1. 1837 Cheyney University of Pennsylvania (Cheyney, PA)
2. 1854 Lincoln University of Pennsylvania (Lincoln University, PA)
3. 1856 Wilberforce University (Wilberforce, OH)
4. 1857 Harris-Stowe State College (St. Louis, MO)
5. 1862 LeMoyne-Owen College (Memphis, TN)
6. 1865 Shaw University The first HBCU in the South (Raleigh, NC)

Source: College Board Annual Survey of Colleges

The history of Black colleges and universities dates back to 1837 when Richard Humphreys, a Quaker philanthropist from Philadelphia, started the Institute for Colored Youth to counter the prevailing practice of limiting or prohibiting the education of Blacks. Today that school is known as Cheyney University. Although the institute started out as a high school, it began offering its first degrees in the 1930's.



Other major HBCU related founding dates:

* 1854 - Ashmun Institute in Lincoln, Pennsylvania, an all-male college and the first institution in the world to provide higher education in the arts and sciences for Blacks (now called Lincoln University)

* 1856 - Wilberforce University in Ohio, affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, became the first co-educational college for Blacks

* 1867 - North Carolina's Barber-Scotia College in Concord, Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, and St. Augustine's College in Raleigh were all founded

* 1867 - MeHarry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, has trained more than one-third of the Black physicians and dentists practicing in the U.S. today

* 1887 - Spelman College in Atlanta, is the nation's oldest liberal arts college for Black women

* 1881 - Tuskegee University was founded by Booker T. Washington in Tuskegee, Alabama

* 1925 - though founded as N.C. College for Negroes, N.C. Central University in Durham, North Carolina became the nation's first state-supported liberal arts college for Blacks

* 1944 - The United Negro College Fund incorporated to raise money and provide services for private Black colleges. Today, the fund has reportedly raised more than $1 billion for 41 institutions since its founding

Today, 103 recognized Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) are dotted across the country in Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and the US Virgin Islands. Alabama has the most with 14.
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Gabrielle Williams
Marketing Intern to the Director of University Relations at Lincoln University of MO University Relations
Unfortunately, the grand writer of this well written article has skipped over my illustrious University, Lincoln University of MO. Lincoln University was founded in 1866 by the enlisted men and officers of the 62nd and 65th Colored Infantries, LU was designed to meet the educational and social needs of freed African-Americans. A few of our notable Alumni include, Lloyd L. Gaines, on of the primary gateways to the Brown VS. The Board of Education. Also, Captain Wendell O. Pruitt, U.S. Army Air Force, fighter pilot of the 332nd Fighter Group (Tuskegee Airmen). As well as. median Joe Tory. In the early 1920s through the 1930s Lincoln was named the "Harvard of the Midwest by W.E.B. Dubois! Lincoln University is the creator and hosts of the ten time Mr. Historical Black Colleges and Universities. To know more about our rich history, reply to me or ask more questions.
Sunday, September 22nd 2013 at 7:09AM
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