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First Educational Efforts
Dutch minister Everadus Bogardus summons a teacher from Holland to Manhattan Island for religious training to Dutch and African children. This is the first example of educational efforts in Colonial North American which are directed toward persons of African descent. -
Rev. Samuel Thomas
White cleric in Charleston, South Carolina establishes first school for African Americans in the British North American colonies. -
Elias Neau
French colonist opens a school for enslaved African Americans in New York City. -
Anthony Benezet
Persuades fellow Philadelphia Quakers to open the first free school for black children in the colonies. -
Free Black Children
A school for free black children is opened in Philadelphia. -
New York City
Free blacks in New York City found the African Free School. This is where future leaders Henry Garnett and Alexander Crummell are educated. -
Boston Public School System
Previously independent African American schools become part of the Boston public school system. -
Theodore Wright
The first black graduate of the Princeton Theological Seminary. -
Oberlin College
Founded in Ohio. It admits African American men, black women and white women. -
African Free Schools
African Free Schools are incorporated into the New York Public School system. -
Institute for Colored Youth
Founded in Southeastern Pennsylvania. It later becomes Cheyney Univeristy. -
Desegregation Lawsuit
Benjamin Roberts files a school desegregation lawsuit on behalf of his daughter, Sarah, who is denied admission to a Boston school. Lawsuit is unsuccessful. -
Lucy Stanton
Lucy Stanton of Cleveland completes the course requirements for Oberlin College and becomes the first African American woman to graduate from an American college or university. -
Ashmun Institute
The first institution of higher learning for young black men is founded by John Dickey and his wife Sarah Cresson. -
Massachusetts Legislature
The Massachusetts Legislature outlaws racially segregated schools. -
Wilberforce University
Wilberforce University becomes the first school of higher learning owned and operated by African Americans. It is founded by the African Methodist Episcopal Church. -
Oberlin College
One third of its students are black. -
Mary Jane Patterson
Generally recognized as the first African American woman to receive a bachelors degree when graduating from Oberlin College. -
Ashmun Institute
Renamed Lincoln University after President Abraham Lincoln. -
Fisk University
Found in Nashville Tennessee as an African American university. -
Morehouse College
Morehouse College is founded in Atlanta, Georgia as an all male African American liberal arts college. -
Howard University
Chartered by Congress in Washington, D.C. Another African American university. -
Richard T. Greener
Becomes the first African American undergraduate to graduate from Harvard University. -
Preparatory High School for Colored Youth
Opens in Washington, D.C. It is the first public high school for African Americans in the nation. -
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Bishop Patrick Healy
Serves as the President of Georgetown University. He is the first African American to preside over a predominately white university. -
Edward Alexander Bouchet
Receives a Ph.D. from Yale University. He is the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from an American university and only the sixth American to earn a Ph.D. in physics. -
Spelman College
First college for African American women in the U.S. founded by Sophia Packard and Harriet Giles. -
Tuskegee Institute
Booker T. Washington opens Tuskegee Institute in central Alabama. -
W.E.B. Du Bois
Becomes the first African American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University. -
African American Teachers
An estimated 30,000 black teachers have been trained since the end of the U.S. Civil War in 1865. They are a major factor in helping more than half the black population achieve literacy by this date. -
Bethune-Cookman University
Educator Mary McLeod Bethune founds a college in Daytona Beach, Florida. -
Association for the Study of Negro Life and History
The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History begins publishing the Journal of Negro History which becomes the first scholarly journal devoted to the study of African American history. -
First African American Women to earn Ph.D. degrees
Sadie Alexander of the University of Pennsylvania, Eva Dykes of Radcliff and Georgiana Simpson of the University of Chicago become the first African American women to earn Ph.D. degrees. -
William Hansberry
William Hansberry of Howard University teaches the first course in African American history and civilization at an American university. -
Channing H. Tobias
The first African American to head the Phelps-Stokes Fund, a philanthropic organization that supports black education. -
William A. Hinton
The first black professor at the Harvard University Medical School. -
Brown v. Board of Education
The Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education declares segregation in all public schools in the United States unconstitutional, nullifying the earlier judicial doctrine of separate but equal. -
Autherine Lucy
Admitted to the University of Alabama on February 3rd. Suspended on February 7th after a riot ensues at the university to protest her presence. Expelled on February 29th. -
President Dwight D. Eisenhower
President Dwight D. Eisenhower sends federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas to ensure the enforcement of a Federal court order to desegregate Central High School and to protect nine African American students enrolled as part of the order. The troops remain at the high school until the end of the school year. -
University of Georgia
Riots on campus fail to prevent the enrollment of the institutions first two African American students. -
University of Mississippi
James Meredith becomes 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 after federal troops are sent in to suppress rioting and maintain order. -
University of Alabama
Despite Governor George Wallace's vow to block the schoolhouse door to prevent their enrollment, two African American students register for classes making them the first African American students to attend this university. -
San Francisco State University
Establishes the nations first Black Studies Program.