For centuries, Black higher education and educational institutions have built an astounding history of contributing, of over-delivering while being systematically under-resourced, of making remarkable progress to advance equity while they, themselves, had to confront real inequities. It’s a legacy of which we can all be proud.

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    1619

    First enslaved Africans arrive in British North America.

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    1636

    Harvard, nation’s first college, established.

 

  • For the next 200 years, Black people excluded from higher education.

1800s

  • A century of firsts for Black colleges.

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    1823

    Alexander Lucius Twilight, first Black college graduate in America.

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    1837

    First Black institute founded, Institute for Colored Youth (Cheyney University).

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    1854

    Lincoln University of Pennsylvania becomes the first degree-granting HBCU.

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    1856

    First Black, private HBCU founded, Wilberforce University.

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    1863

    Emancipation Proclamation is signed.

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    1870

    Seven Black colleges and 13 teaching schools established by American Missionary Association and Freedmen’s Bureau.

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    1890

    Second Morrill Land-Grant Act forbids exclusion of Black people in state higher education systems.

1900s

  • Black colleges help descendants of the enslaved progress.

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    1928

    Association of Colleges and Schools begins to accredit Black colleges & universities.

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    1944

    United Negro College Fund created.

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    1954

    U.S. Supreme Court hands down the Brown v. Board of Education decision.

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    1965

    U.S. Higher Education Act officially recognizes HBCUs and provides them dedicated federal funding.

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    1972

    UNCF launches “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

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    1972

    Adams v. Richardson decision orders 10 states in violation of the Civil Rights Act to integrate schools, but not at the expense of HBCUs.

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    1980

    President Carter establishes White House Initiative on HBCUs.

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    1987

    Thurgood Marshall College Fund established.

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    1999

    UNCF administers Gates Millennium Scholars Program.

2000s

  • ICB accelerates institutional transformation.

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    2003

    Supreme Court rules affirmative action admissions constitutional. Photo credit: PBS

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    2006

    UNCF establishes the Institute for Capacity Building.Photo credit: Andrew Huth

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    2007

    ICB launches Fiscal and Strategic Technical Assistance Program (FASTAP).Photo credit: Andrew Huth

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    2008

    ICB launches first Institutional Advancement Program.

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    2009

    The first inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States.

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    2009

    ICB launches Green Building Initiative.

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    2010

    ICB launches Digital Media and Learning in Multicultural Contexts Public Forum Series. Photo credit: Andrew Huth

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    2011

    ICB releases Enrollment Management Best Practices Guide: A Model for Success.

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    2013

    Claflin University's alumni giving hits an all-time high of 52.2%.

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    2014

    Black Lives Matter expands in response to increased police brutality. Photo credit: Austin Chronicle

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    2015

    ICB receives groundbreaking grant to implement the Career Pathways Initiative.

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    2017

    ICB conducts national study on student careers. Photo credit: Andrew Huth

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    2019

    ICB launches the Strategic Finance Institute. Photo credit: Andrew Huth

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    2019

    ICB establishes Executive Leadership Institute. Photo credit:Andrew Huth

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    2020

    COVID pandemic hits Black communities disproportionately hard.

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    2020

    ICB develops lifelong learning partnership strategy with Harvard and Lightcast.

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    2020

    BLM protests spread nationwide following police murder of George Floyd. Photo credit: Watch The Yard

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    2020

    HBCUs and UNCF receive record high donations. Photo credit: Andrew Huth

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    2020

    ICB joins national effort to support excluded populations.

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    2020

    ICB launches online professional development in response to the COVID pandemic.

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    2020

    ICB expands transformation network to eight HBCUs and PBIs.

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    2021

    Howard University alum Kamala Harris, first HBCU graduate to be sworn in as Vice President of the U.S.

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    2021

    ICB launches mental health partnership with Steve Fund. Photo credit: Andrew Huth

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    2021

    ICB, Excelencia in Education and the Coleridge Initiative partner to enhance data capacity at HBCUs and HSIs. Photo credit: Andrew Huth

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    2022

    ICB receives funding to support transformation at seven HBCUs.

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    2022

    ICB announces launch of HBCUv to reimagine online learning. Photo credit: Andrew Huth

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    2022

    UNCF and Thurgood Marshall College Fund announce HBCU Transformation Project, a joint effort.

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    2022

    ICB selected among six organizations for Intermediaries for Scale national transformation effort.

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The Historic Evolution
of Black Adult Education

1906 Frelinghuysen University

An adult education university in the nation’s capital was founded by Jesse and Rosetta Lawson for “colored” working people. Later, the university was led by Dr. Anna Julia Cooper, a Black feminist pioneer who helped advance the “New Negro” movement of the 1930s.

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The Historic Evolution
of Black Adult Education

1931 The Harlem Experiment

Based in New York and Atlanta, the “experiment” was designed to raise literacy in Black communities, where three-fourths of all adults had left primary school before fourth grade. The adult education program focused on taking into account community perspectives—a rare approach then.

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The Historic Evolution
of Black Adult Education

1942 The Atlanta University People’s College

“The college for all people,” was conceived by W.E.B. Du Bois and Ira De Augustine and was designed to engage in intentional community education.

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