Notable HBCU Alumni
Before becoming the first female Vice President of the United States, this politician and attorney graduated from Howard University, where she also joined the oldest Greek-letter organization established by African American college-educated women.
Who is Kamala Harris?
In 1960, as student sit-ins were starting to command the nation’s attention, the Shaw University alumna gathered approximately 200 students to begin an organizing effort that would grow into this group.
What is Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)?
The 1837 founding of this HBCU, first named the Pennsylvania’s Institute for Colored Youth, marked the birth of Black colleges in the United States.
What is Cheney University?
Sitting atop hilltop high for more than a century this, this institution in Washington, D.C. has been deemed "The Mecca".
What is Howard University?
This state has the highest number of HBCUs in the United States, with 14 institutions including Tuskegee University and Miles College.
What is Alabama?
Often regarded as one of the primary leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, this Morehouse Man is recognized for his nonviolent resistance and played a key role in securing landmark legislation.
Who is MLK Jr.?
In February 1960, four students occupied seats at the lunch counter of a local Woolworth’s Department Store. When asked to leave, the students refused and remained seated until the store closed. The next day, the student protesters returned, this time with more activists in tow, including students from other HBCUs
What is North Carolina A&T?
Established in 1865, this government agency was created to help former slaves and poor whites in the South after the Civil War. While it provided food and medical aid its most lasting legacy was establishing schools for newly freed African Americans.
What is The Freedmen's Bureau?
Home to notable alumni such as author and Pulitzer prize winner Alice Walker and politican Stacey Abrams, this Atlanta college is the oldest private historically Black liberal arts institution for women.
What is Spelman College?
This American Sitcom and chapter title of The Power of Black Excellence centered around the life of students at Hillman College, a fictional historically Black college in Virginia. Aided by a star studded production and guest stars the show typically addressed issues that were avoided by other shows such as race and class relations, sexual assault, the HIV/AIDs epidemic, racial profiling, colorism, and apartheid.
What is A Different World?
Before this double HBCU alum was the first African-American to serve on the Supreme Court, he was a civil rights lawyer for the NAACP successfully arguing Brown v. Education, which declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional.
Who is Thurgood Marshall?
Held in 1963 and organized by 2 HBCU alum, Bayard Rustin and A. Philip Randolph, this protest was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans and where the iconic "I have a Dream" speech was heard.
What is the March on Washington?
Signed by President Benjamin Harrison this act mandated that states with segregated, race-based college admissions establish separate land-grant institutions for Black students. It extended federal funding to 19 historically Black universities (HBCUs) for agriculture and mechanical arts, addressing the exclusion from the 1862 Act.
What is The Second Morrill Act of 1890?
The first Catholic University founded by a saint and only Catholic HBCU took in a group of Freedom Riders after bus drivers in Alabama refused to take them to Montgomery.
What is Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA)?
This city, home to an ivy, was also planned to be the site of the nation's first HBCU before being rejected in a 700-4 vote by city residents.
What is New Haven, CT?
This Fisk alum and author of The Souls of Black Folk argued that the advancement of African Americans required an academic approach to education that could cultivate a class of Black leaders who could be trusted to guide Black advancement.
Who is W.E.B Du Bois?
This woman founded the Daytona normal institute in 1904 which later turned into her namesake university. She also founded the national council of Negro women, was a key advisor to FDR serving in his "Black Cabinet", and later appointed by Truman as a delegate to the UN founding conference.
Who is Mary McLeod Bethune?
Nearly burning to the ground on the night of Lincoln's assassination, this university was the first college to be owned and operated by Black Americans.
What is Wilberforce University?
This public HBCU located in Pennslyvannia and recognized as the first college-degree-granting HBCU in the country has nurtured many notable alum such as the 2 first African Presidents of Ghana and Nigeria, Kwame Nkrumah and Nnamdi Azikiwe, and even Langston Hughes.
What is Lincoln University (PA)?
This HBCU is NOT considered the "real HU"
What is Hampton University?