Black Americans were denied the legal right to an education at
almost every level in the first 350 years of American history. Religious
philanthropy played a role in the founding of institutes for the higher
education of Blacks before the end of the Civil War. Cheyney University in
Pennsylvania, the oldest of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities
(HBCU's), was founded in 1837 by a Quaker philanthropist. Since many states had
laws on the books preventing the education of Blacks, primary and secondary
schools were in short supply before the Emancipation Proclamation, let alone
colleges. Some educational institutions, like the Penn Normal School, were
established during the war in coastal areas of the South that came under the
control of the Union army. (University of Virginia Library, 2008)
Most of the HBCU's, however, were founded in the period
immediately after the end of the Civil War up until the institutions of the Jim
crow laws in the 1890's. Some of the colleges were founded as religious institutions
and seminaries. Others were founded as Normal Schools designed to produce
teachers for the newly founded primary and secondary schools in the South. Some
of the HBCU's were originally poly technical colleges and followed a technical
and agricultural curriculum in an effort to "teach the students a
trade". In the Twentieth century, many of these A & T colleges
preserved elements of their traditional curriculum and produced leading
scientists, engineers, and scholars. (University of Virginia Library, 2008)
The goal of this
website is to allow the reader the ability to understand the pertinent history of HBCUs and how
the establishment of HBCUs helped to transform higher education in the United
States not only for African Americans, but for all Americans.