Gettin' Schooled
HBCUs and Their post-Civil War Boom
About
As the new year of 1837 dawned not a single institution we now know as an HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) existed in the United States. But that year, on land near Philadelphia, with money (and later a farm) from abolitionist Quakers, a revolution began with founding of The African Institute, now Cheyney University of Pennsylvania.
CU stood alone for more than a decade, and just three other HBCUs (the University of the District of Columbia, Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, and Wilberforce University, in Ohio) would arise in the 24-year span between 1837 and commencement of the Civil War; one school more starting during the war.
What happened at war's end was a virtual explosion--maybe think of it as a reverse "Great Migration". Higher education (and general education, too) for African Americans moved South. More than 90 HBCUs were stood up below the "Mason-Dixon Line" from 1865 to about the turn of the 20th Century.
1865
Atlanta University
With the Civil War just ending, Atlanta University (now Clark Atlanta University) becomes the first African American institution of higher education in the South.
1867
Bells are Ringin'
The year is a watershed in the establishment of schools that began as or would transform into HBCUs; a total of nine (9), all still active today.
1890
Morrill Act (2)
The act powered creation of numerous HBCUs. The downside: its execution facilitated the "separate-but-equal" regime which left many HBCUs underfunded.
1964
HBCU Creation Era Ends
The Civil Rights Movement's legislative success, on the heels of 1954's Brown v Board, ushers the end of "HBCU" official (Department of Education) designation.
- Mary McLeod Bethune
