Historically black colleges and universities

Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. During the period of segregation in the United States prior to the Civil Rights Act, the overwhelming majority of higher education institutions were predominantly white and disqualified African Americans from enrollment. For a century after the end of slavery in the United States in 1865, most colleges and universities in the Southern United States prohibited all African Americans from attending, while institutions in other parts of the country regularly employed quotas to limit admissions of blacks.Nikki Giovanni, poet (Fisk University)Claude Mckay, poet (Tuskegee University)W. E. B. Du Bois, sociologist (Fisk University)Michael Strahan, athlete (Texas Southern University)Kamala Harris, U.S. Senator (Howard University)James Clyburn, Congress (South Carolina State University)Common, musician, writer (Florida A&M University)Ralph Abernathy, civil rights activist, minister (Clark Atlanta University, Alabama State University)Marian Wright Edelman, civil rights (Spelman College)Lonnie Johnson, inventor, NASA engineer (Tuskegee University)Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician (West Virginia State University)Oprah Winfrey, media mogul (Tennessee State University)Spike Lee, filmmaker (Morehouse College)Martin Luther King Jr., civil rights (Morehouse College)Alcee Hastings, Congress (Fisk University, Howard University, Florida A&M University) Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. During the period of segregation in the United States prior to the Civil Rights Act, the overwhelming majority of higher education institutions were predominantly white and disqualified African Americans from enrollment. For a century after the end of slavery in the United States in 1865, most colleges and universities in the Southern United States prohibited all African Americans from attending, while institutions in other parts of the country regularly employed quotas to limit admissions of blacks. There are 101 HBCUs in the United States, including both public and private institutions (down from the 121 institutions that existed during the 1930s). Of these remaining HBCU institutions in the United States, 27 offer doctoral programs, 52 offer master's programs, 83 offer bachelor's degree programs, and 38 offer associate degrees. Most HBCUs were established in the South after the American Civil War, often with the assistance of religious missionary organizations based in the northern United States. Those HBCUs established prior to the American Civil War include Cheyney University of Pennsylvania in 1837 and Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) in 1854. Another HBCU established prior to the American Civil War is Wilberforce University, founded 1856 via a collaboration between African Methodist Episcopal Church of Ohio and the Methodist Episcopal Church (the latter a predominantly white denomination); Wilberforce was also the third college to be established in the state of Ohio. After the end of the Civil War, Shaw University, founded in 1865, was the first HBCU to be established in the South. The year 1865 also saw the foundation of Storer College (1865–1955) in Harper's Ferry, WV. Storer's former campus and buildings have since been incorporated into Harper's Ferry National Park. In 1862, the federal government's Morrill Act provided for land grant colleges in each state. Some educational institutions established under the Morrill Act in the North and West were open to blacks. But 17 states, mostly in the South, required their systems to be segregated and generally excluded black students from their land grant colleges. In response, Congress passed the second Morrill Act of 1890, also known as the Agricultural College Act of 1890, requiring states to establish a separate land grant college for blacks if blacks were being excluded from the existing land grant college. Many of the HBCUs were founded by states to satisfy the Second Morrill Act. These land grant schools continue to receive annual federal funding for their research, extension, and outreach activities. In the 1920s and 1930s, historically black colleges developed a strong interest in athletics. Sports were expanding rapidly at state universities, but very few black stars were recruited there. Race newspapers hailed athletic success as a demonstration of racial progress. Black schools hired coaches, recruited and featured stellar athletes, and set up their own leagues. In the 1930s, many Jewish intellectuals fleeing Europe after the rise of Hitler in Nazi Germany immigrated to the United States and found work teaching in historically black colleges. HBCUs made great contributions to the war effort. One example is Tuskegee University in Alabama including, where the Tuskegee Airmen trained and attended classes. After the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954, the legislature of Florida, with support from various counties, started a series of eleven junior colleges serving the African-American population. The purpose was to show that separate but equal education was working in Florida. Prior to this, there had been only one junior college in Florida serving African Americans, Booker T. Washington Junior College, in Pensacola. The new ones, with their year of founding, are: