The History of HBCUs

When Tamika Thomas went on a field trip to Cheyney University as an elementary student, she left the campus knowing where she wanted to go for college.

Thomas, who graduated from Cheyney in 1994, is currently the university’s psychology professor.

“I went into Cheyney’s science building and saw different African American students who were learning and having fun on campus,” Thomas said.

“When the time came to choose a college to go to, I remembered the Cheyney visit I had. They have a rich tradition of being a teachers college. I knew Cheyney was where I wanted to be,” Thomas added.

Cheyney, formerly known as the Institute for Colored Youth, is the oldest Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the country. Quaker philanthropist Richard Humphreys founded Cheyney in 1837.

Humphreys bequeathed one tenth of his estate to design and establish a school to educate people of African descent with the mission to train teachers and prepare workers for trades.

HBCUs were established in the United States in the early 19th century to provide higher education to people of African descent. The majority of HBCUs were started by philanthropists, free African Americans and churches.

“Cheyney has always been dedicated to educating and uplifting young people in order to give them a solid foundation to stand on,” Thomas said. “It was that way in 1837 and it remains the core of everything that we do now 185 years later.”

During the 1850s, three more HBCUs were founded after Cheyney. The Miner Normal School was founded in 1851 in Washington D.C. Originally established as The Ashmun Institute, Lincoln University received its charter from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1854, making it the nation’s first degree-granting HBCU.

It was the first institution in the world to provide higher education in the arts and sciences for male youth of African descent. In 1896, the institution was re-named Lincoln University in honor of President Abraham Lincoln.

The oldest private HBCU in the country was Wilberforce University in Ohio, which was founded in 1856 by the African American Episcopal Church. It is the first college to be owned and operated by African Americans.

“Lincoln University started as a small seminary,” said Daryl Poe, Lincoln University professor. “As the institution added more schools, it became popular for training a number of Black preachers, doctors and lawyers.

“The university would later become a co-ed institution in the 1950s,” Poe said. “A number of our female graduates have gone on to make history in Black affairs including Saara Kuugongelwa, who is the first prime minister of Namibia.

“Right now, we’re a predominantly female institution,” Poe added. “More than 60% of our student enrollment are female and a significant number of them have built stronger international relations with the Caribbean and Africa.”

More than 90 HBCUs were established between 1861-1900. Shaw University was founded in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1865 and is the first Black college organized after the Civil War.

Two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, the largest number of HBCUs were founded in 1867. Among the nine HBCUs founded that year includes Morehouse College, Alabama State University, Morgan State University and Howard University, according to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

HBCUs in the South were founded following the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery due to the support of the Freedmen’s Bureau, a federal organization that operated during Reconstruction to help former slaves adjust to freedom.

The second Morrill Act of 1890 also required states, especially former confederate states, to provide land-grants for institutions for Black students if admission was not allowed elsewhere, according to the Britannica Encyclopedia.

About 89% of all HBCUs are in the southern region of the United States. However, they can also be found in Illinois, Ohio, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Delaware.

The state of North Carolina has 11 HBCUs, Louisiana has seven and Alabama has 12, according to the Thurgood Good Marshall College Fund. In 1965, HBCUs received official designation by the U.S. Department of Education, according to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

Delaware State University, formerly known as Delaware College for Colored Students, was founded in 1891, by the Delaware General Assembly.

In 1939, Delaware State was one of six HBCUs that were designated to train Black pilots. West Virginia State College, Howard University, Tuskegee Institute, Hampton Institute and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College were also designated training sites.

“Delaware State trained Black pilots for World War II before the military consolidated training in Tuskegee, Alabama,” said the director of aviation programs at Delaware State. Lt. Col Michael Hales in an interview with the Philadelphia Tribune in 2022.

“We have students from our small college who were part of that original group of Tuskegee Airmen. We celebrate that by painting our aircrafts tails red and the university builds on that long legacy to provide opportunities to its students today,” Hales added.

Today, there are 101 HBCUs across the nation. Over their history, HBCUs have educated 80% of the nation’s Black judges, 50% of its Black doctors, 40% of the Black members of Congress and 40% of engineers. Although HBCUs make up 3% of the nation’s colleges and universities, they produce 13% of all African American graduates.

HBCUs have also developed more programming since their inception. Nearly 59% of HBCUs offer undergraduate degrees, 41% offer graduate degrees and 28% offer doctoral degrees, according to the United Negro College Fund.

While HBCUs have definitely evolved over the years, they have also had their share of historical challenges including inadequate funding, staggered enrollment, deferred maintenance and accreditation issues.

“There has been a reduction in HBCUs because of the financial recession,” Poe said. “Part of the problem is some HBCUs have tried to imitate community colleges and other institutions that have more resources.

“I do think some HBCUs may have to close over time due to integration and recession,” Poe said. “These will be the HBCUs that are already teetering on the fiscal border of survival.

“The future of HBCUs will be all about HBCUs reconnecting with their ancestral and cultural base and begin to act as cultural emissaries for a United African and United Caribbean,” Poe added.

Thomas believes HBCUs will shift more to STEM and online learning in the future.

“I see our universities focusing more on STEM and developing more partnerships with graduate schools to create more of a pipeline if the school doesn’t already have a graduate school affiliated with it, ” Thomas said.

“There is also an opportunity for us to have our footprint in online learning,” Thomas added. “Instead of HBCU students just getting educated in brick and mortar buildings we should create our own online presence where students can get their education online if they chose.”