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Harvard College
Harvard College, the first higher education institution in what is now the United States, is established in Newtowne (now Cambridge), Massachusetts. Harvard was founded in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and named for its first donor, the Reverend John Harvard, who left his personal library and half his estate to the new institution. Although nothing remains of its earliest buildings, brass markers in the middle of Massachusetts Avenue now indicate wh -
Cheyney University
Cheyney University was established on February 25, 1837, through the bequest of Richard Humphreys, making it the oldest institution of higher learning for African Americans.
At its founding in 1837, the university was named the African Institute. However, the name was changed several weeks later to the Institute for Colored Youth (ICY). In subsequent years, the university was renamed Cheyney Training School for Teachers (July 1914), Cheyney State Teacher’s College (1951), Cheyney State College ( -
Ashmun University
Ashmun Institute, the first school of higher learning for young black men, founded by John Miller Dickey and his wife, Sarah Emlen Cresson; later (1866) renamed Lincoln University (Pa.) after President Abraham Lincoln. By an act of the Pennsylvania legislature, Ashmun Institute, the first college founded solely for African-American students, is officially chartered.
Established in the rolling farmlands of southern Chester County, Pennsylvania, Ashmun Institute was named after Jehudi Ashmun, the -
Wilberforce University
Wilberforce University, the first black school of higher learning owned and operated by African Americans, founded by the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Its president, Daniel A. Payne, became the first African American Uniiversity president in the country. Founded in 1856, Wilberforce University can trace its origin to a period of history before the Civil War, when the Ohio Underground Railroad was established as a means of escape for all those blacks who sought their freedom in the North f -
Howard University
In November 1866, shortly after the end of the Civil War, members of the First Congregational Society of Washington considered establishing a theological seminary for the education of African-American clergymen. Within a few weeks, the concept expanded to include a provision for establishing a University. The new institution was named for General Oliver O. Howard, a Civil War hero. It was the first black law school. -
Meharry Medical College
Meharry Medical College, the first black medical school in the U.S., founded by the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Meharry Medical College was founded in 1876 as the Medical Department of Central Tennessee College of Nashville , under the auspices of the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1900, Central Tennessee College became Walden University , and by 1915 the College gained a separate corporate existence from the university -
Spelman College
Spelman College, the first college for black women in the U.S. The Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary was established on April 11, 1881 (1881-04-11) in the basement of Friendship Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, by two teachers from the Oread Institute of Worcester, Massachusetts: Harriet E. Giles and Sophia B. Packard.[1] The school was originally named Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary and was sponsored by the American Baptist Women's Home Mission Society. Giles and Packard began the school wi -
Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute
Booker T. Washington founds the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama. The school became one of the leading schools of higher learning for African Americans, and stressed the practical application of knowledge. In 1896, George Washington Carver began teaching there as director of the department of agricultural research, gaining an international reputation for his agricultural advances. -
Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls
Mary McLeod Bethune, an African American educator, founds the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls in Daytona Beach, Florida. It merges with the Cookman Institute in 1923 and becomes a coeducational high school, which eventually evolves into Bethune-Cookman College, now Bethune-Cookman University -
William Leo Hansberry
William Leo Hansberry teaches the first course in African civilization at an American university, at Howard University. William Leo Hansberry (1894-1965) was the first academician to introduce a course on African history in a university setting in the United States in 1922. He taught a History of Africa, both ancient and contemporary, for 42 years at Howard University -
United Negro College Fund
Frederick Douglass Patterson establishes the United Negro College Fund to help support black colleges and black students. The organization has 27 member colleges and universities, and its first campaign receives the support of many prominent Americans including President Roosevelt and John D. Rockerfeller -
Brown v Board of Education
A decision made by the Supreme Court that initiated educational reform throughout the United States and was a catalyst in launching the modern Civil Rights Movement. Bringing about change in the years since Brown continues to prove difficult. But the Brown v. Board of Education victory brought Americans one step closer to true freedom and equal rights -
Little Rock Nine
One of the most famous cases of integration was the story of the Little Rock Nine, which took place in Little Rock, Arkansas. Governor Orval Faubus had the National Guard block nine black students from entering Central High in Little Rock because he didn’t want to integrate Little Rock’s schools. President Eisenhower heard of this and sent Federal Troops to protect the nine black students -
Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee
On February 1, 1960, a group of black college students from North Carolina A&T University refused to leave a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina where they had been denied service. This sparked a wave of other sit-ins in college towns across the South. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC (pronounced "snick"), was created on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh two months later to coordinate these sit-ins, support their leaders, and publicize their activ -
Ruby Bridges
In November 1960, six-year-old Ruby Bridges Hall became the first African American child to desegregate an elementary school. Although she only lived a few blocks from the William Frantz Elementary school in New Orleans, Louisiana. Marshals had to escort Ruby because of angry segregationist mobs that gathered in front of the school. For an entire year, she was the only student in her class since white parents pulled their children from the school in protest. She wrote about her experiences in h -
Project Head Start
Project Head Start, a preschool education program for children from low-income families, begins as an eight-week summer program. Part of the "War on Poverty," the program continues to this day as the longest-running anti-poverty program in the U.S. -
Arthur Garrity
Federal Judge Arthur Garrity orders busing of African American students to predominantly white schools in order to achieve racial integration of public schools in Boston, MA. White parents protest, particularly in South Boston -
University of Phoenix
The University of Phoenix establishes their "online campus," the first to offer online bachelor's and master's degrees. It becomes the "largest private university in North America." -
No Child Left Behind Act
The controversial No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is approved by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush on January 8, 2002. The law, which reauthorizes the ESEA of 1965 and replaces the Bilingual Education Act of 1968, mandates high-stakes student testing, holds schools accountable for student achievement levels, and provides penalties for schools that do not make adequate yearly progress toward meeting the goals of NCLB -
College of William and Mary
The College of William and Mary is established in Virginia. It is the second college to open in colonial America and has the distinction of being Thomas Jefferson's college. On February 8, 1693, King William III and Queen Mary II of England signed the charter for a “perpetual College of Divinity, Philosophy, Languages, and other good Arts and Sciences” to be founded in the Virginia Colony. And William & Mary was born
