The founding of Howard High School in Wilmington, Delaware in 1867 is celebrated on this date.
For more than a century this historic institution played a central role in educating the Black Community of Wilmington, Delaware. The Society for the Improvement of Morals of the People of African Descent was active in its beginning. The school was named for General Oliver Otis Howard, who worked with the Freedmen’s Bureau. Edwina B. Kruse served as Howard’s first principal between 1871 and 1922. From 1902 to 1920, Alice Dunbar Nelson was a teacher and administrator there.
learn more*The Howland Chapel School was opened on this date in 1867. This historic school was for Black students near Heathsville, Northumberland County, Virginia. The building is a rare, little-altered Reconstruction-era schoolhouse built to serve the children of former slaves. The building’s construction was funded by New York educator, reformer, and philanthropist Emily Howland, for whom it is named. […]
learn moreOn this date in 1867, Emma Azalia Smith Hackley was born. She was an African American classical singer, social worker, writer, philanthropist, and activist who championed the use of the Black spiritual among her own people as a tool for social change.
Emma Smith was born in Murfreesboro, TN, the daughter of Henry and Corilla Smith, a blacksmith and a schoolteacher. Corilla Smith had established a school to teach freed black people and their children, but white hostility drove the family out and they moved to Detroit.
learn moreThe founding of St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, N.C., in 1867 is celebrated on this date. It is One of over 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in America.
learn moreThe founding of Fayetteville State University (FSU) in North Carolina in 1867 is celebrated on this date. It is one of over 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities in America.
learn moreThis date marks the birth of Robert Russa Moton in 1867. He was an African American educator, lawyer, and successor to Booker T. Washington as president of Tuskegee Institute.
Born in Amelia County, Virginia, on August 26, Robert Moton enrolled in the Hampton Institute in 1885. After his junior year, he taught and obtained a license to practice law, then returned to Hampton and finished his senior year. In 1900, Moton was elected president of the National Negro Business League and was reelected for the next 20 years.
learn more*Chicago State University began conducting classes on this date in 1867. CSU is one of over 100 Historically Black colleges and Universities in America.
They opened their doors as a teacher training school in a leaky railroad freight car in Blue Island, Illinois. Today the university is a fully accredited public, urban institution located on 161-picturesque acres in a residential community on the Southside of Chicago. During its first year, CSU enrolled 62 students. The current student enrollment is nearly 7,200. The path from then until now has been marked by much change.
learn more*The opening of the Brooklyn Colored School was celebrated on this date in 1867. From 1867 to 1871, this school served Black children from Brooklyn and Oakland, CA. Miss Mary J. Sanderson Grases was the first teacher at 1008 10th Avenue. She was an excellent and kind instructor who continued to teach at the […]
learn moreJames Edwin Campbell’s birth in 1867 is celebrated on this date. He was an African American poet, editor, short story writer, and educator.
Born and raised in Pomeroy, Ohio, he was a forerunner and friend of Paul Laurence Dunbar. Two of Campbell’s writings were “Driftings and Gleanings,” 1887, and “Echoes from the Cabin and Elsewhere,” 1895. Campbell was also president of West Virginia Colored Institute (now West Virginia State College).
James Campbell died in his hometown in 1896.
learn more*The Beach Institute is celebrated on this date in 1867. This 19th-century school in Savannah, Georgia, educated newly freed Blacks. Built by the Freedmen’s Bureau two years later and primarily funded by the American Missionary Association (AMA), it was named in honor of New Yorker Alfred S. Beach, Editor of Scientific American, who donated funds […]
learn moreHampton University was founded on this date in 1868. It is one of 100 Historical Black colleges and Universities in America.
learn more*New Orleans University’s founding is celebrated on this date in 1868. It was a historically black college (HBCU) in Louisiana. New Orleans University was founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church and is affiliated with several preparatory schools in various parts of Louisiana. It originally opened at Camp and Race streets in New Orleans. In 1868, it moved […]
learn more*Straight University was founded on this date in 1868. It was one of over 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities in America (HBCUs). Straight University operated in New Orleans, Louisiana, from 1868 to 1934. Responding to the post-American Civil War need to educate newly freed Blacks in the city and the surrounding region, the American […]
learn more*This date in 1868 is celebrated as the birth date of Jane ‘Nellie’ Datcher. She was a Black botanist and women’s activist. Jane Eleanor Datcher was born and raised in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Samuel and Mary Victoria Cook Datcher. Her maternal grandfather, Rev. John Francis Cook, Sr., was the founding pastor of the […]
learn more*Marcellus Neal’s birth is celebrated on this date in 1868. He was a Black science educator and writer. Marcellus Neal was born in Lebanon, Tennessee, but his family moved to Greenfield, Indiana. Neal excelled academically at the local high school, graduating with distinction. Neal’s high school academic record earned him a scholarship to Indiana University, where he […]
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