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Milestones in African-American Education
From AOL Research & Learn
1837
Institute for Colored Youth founded by Richard Humphreys; later became Cheyney University.
1854
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.
1856
Wilberforce University, the first black school of higher learning owned and operated by African Americans, founded by the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
1876
Meharry Medical College, the first black medical school in the U.S., founded by the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
1881
Spelman College, the first college for black women in the U.S., founded by Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles.
1922
William Leo Hansberry teaches the first course in African civilization at an American university, at Howard University.
1944
Frederick Douglass Patterson establishes the United Negro College Fund to help support black colleges and black students.
1954
In the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., the Supreme Court rules unanimously that segregation in public schools in unconstitutional.
1957
President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends federal troops to ensure integration of the all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. The Little Rock Nine were the first black students to attend the school.
1960
Black and white students form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), dedicated to working against segregation and discrimination.
1962
James Meredith is the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi; on the day he enters the university, he is escorted by U.S. marshals.
1963
Despite Governor George Wallace physically blocking their way, Vivian Malone and James Hood register for classes at the University of Alabama.
1969
The Ford Foundation gives $1 million to Morgan State University, Howard University, and Yale University to help prepare faculty members to teach courses in African American studies.
First Published: 10/27/04