Johnson C. Smith University

Johnson C. Smith University

Johnson C. Smith University is a private, historically black university in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Johnson C. Smith University was established on April 7, 1867 as the Biddle Memorial Institute at a meeting of the Catawba Presbytery in the old Charlotte Presbyterian Church Mary D. Biddle, a churchwoman, donated $1,400 to the school. In appreciation of this first contribution, friends requested that Mrs. Biddle name the newly established school; she did so in the name of her late husband, Captain Henry Jonathan Biddle, who had been mortally wounded during the Battle of Glendale in 1862.

Samuel C. Alexander and Willis L. Miller, saw the need for a school in the south and after the birth of the school, they were elected as some of the first teachers. Its corresponding women’s school was Scotia Seminary (now Barber-Scotia College).

Current President: Clarence D. Armbrister

Official website: www.jcsu.edu