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Passing of Civil Rights Act
1875 - The Civil Rights Act is passed, banning segregation in all public accommodations. The Supreme Court rules it unconstitutional in 1883 -
Booker T. Washington and Tuskegee University
Booker T. Washington becomes the first principal of the newly-opened normal school in Tuskegee, Alabama, now Tuskegee University. -
Founding of Spellman College
1881 In Atlanta, Georgia, the first traditionally black woman's college is founded by Harriet E. Giles and Sophia B. Packard. Originally called the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, it now is known as Spelman College -
Founding of Huston-Tilloston University
The collaboration of diligent black people and concerned white philanthropists from the North was the impetus behind the formation of what is now Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, Texas. Chartered in 1877 and opened in 1881 under the name of Tillotson Collegiate and Normal Institute by the American Missionary Association in Austin, Texas, Huston-Tillotson University was among the earliest all-black private colleges established in the Lone Star State. Today Huston-Tillotson University is aff -
Founding of Arkansas Baptist College
Arkansas Baptist College is the only Baptist Historically Black College and/or University (HBCU) west of the Mississippi River. In 1884 the executive Board of the Convention of Colored Baptists hired Reverend J.P. Lawson, a white Baptist minister from Joplin, Missouri, to serve as the principal and teacher. At the same time a block of land was purchased at 16th and High Streets within the Little Rock city limits where several buildings were erected. The campus remains at this site today. -
Founding of University of Maryland Eastern Shore
The University of Maryland, Eastern Shore is a historically black land grant institution located in Princess Anne, Maryland. The school was initiated under the auspices of the Delaware Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church and began as a branch campus for Morgan College (Morgan State University) in 1886. The school initially served as a feeder school for the Centenary Biblical Institute that served African American students from the eastern shore of Maryland and was located at Princess -
2nd Morrill Act Is Enacted
The Second Morrill Act is enacted. It provides for the "more complete endowment and support of the colleges" through the sale of public lands, Part of this funding leads to the creation of 16 historically black land-grant colleges. -
Founding of West Virginia State University
The West Virginia Colored Institute was one of seventeen schools created after the expansion of the second Morrill Act. This 1890 act provided support to the states that chose to create and fund higher education for African Americans during the period when racial segregation was a central feature of public and private education. -
Founding of Delaware State University
Delaware State University is a public historically black university with its main campus in Dover and two other campuses in Wilmington and Georgetown. The school was established in 1891 as State College for Colored Students after passage of the Morrill Act of 1890 which gave land-grants to establish public colleges for African Americans. Like many of the other schools designed under the Morrill Act, the college was racially segregated and focused mainly on teacher and agricultural training. -
Founding of Texas College
Texas College is a historically black College (HBCU), located in Tyler, Texas. The college was originally proposed by several ministers within the Colored Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church. The Church founded the college, the third all-black institution in the state, on roughly 25 acres of land near Tyler in 1894. -
Founding of Bluefield State College
Bluefield State College is one of the first historically black colleges to become a predominately white institution. The college was opened in 1895 as the Bluefield Colored Institute after the expansion of the Morrill Act in 1890 to provide funding for African American colleges from the sale of public lands. U.S. Senator William Mahood of West Virginia helped to pass the bill that funded its creation -
Plessy vs. Ferguson
1896 - Homer Plessy, a 30-year-old African American, challenges the state of Louisiana's "Separate Car Act," arguing that requiring Blacks to ride in separate railroad cars violates the 13th and 14th Amendments. The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Louisiana law stating in the majority opinion that the intent of the 14th Amendment "had not been intended to abolish distinctions based on color." Thus, the Supreme Court ruling in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson makes "separate but equal" policies leg -
Founding of Langston University
March 1897 the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature created a land grant college to train African American teachers, calling it the Colored Agricultural and Normal University. Classes opened in the fall of 1898 in a church in the town of Langston. Langston had been founded in 1890 as part of an African American movement to establish towns in the territory where they could live without harassment. The founders named their town for John Mercer Langston, a black Oberlin graduate whose political ca -
Founding of Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls
1904 - 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. -
Founding of Jarvis Christian Institute
Founded in 1912 near Hawkins, Texas, the Jarvis Christian Institute (renamed Jarvis Christian College in 1927), owed its existence to both the philanthropy of white Disciples of Christ and to the initiative of African American Disciples of Christ. On the one hand, J. J. Jarvis and his wife, Ida Van Zandt Jarvis, felt morally and divinely obligated to lift up formerly enslaved Africans in the Lone Star State. Mr. Jarvis, prodded by his wife, graciously gave 418 acres of land near Hawkins to estab -
Founding of Tennessee State University
Tennessee State University (TSU) is a historically black, comprehensive, four-year co-educational university located on a 500 acre campus in Nashville, Tennessee. With over 10,000 students, including nearly 1,900 graduate students, it is one of the largest historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the nation. It is the only state funded HBCU in Tennessee.
