A Brief Timeline of Black Higher Education
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.
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For the next 200 years, Black people excluded from higher education.
1800s
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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
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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
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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.
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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