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February Nineteen...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 19, 2019 at 7:30am

April D. Ryan - American Urban Radio Network, CNN White House Correspondent, Morgan State University Alumni Photo - Central Jersey Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta: "The Presidency in Black and White: My Up Close View of the White House and Race in America"

Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Education, Human Rights, Women's Rights

Morgan State University

Founded in 1867 as the Centenary Biblical Institute by the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the institution's original mission was to train young men in ministry. It subsequently broadened its mission to educate both men and women as teachers. The school was renamed Morgan College in 1890 in honor of the Reverend Lyttleton Morgan, the first chairman of its Board of Trustees, who donated land to the college. Morgan awarded its first baccalaureate degree to George F. McMechen in 1895. McMechen later obtained a law degree from Yale and eventually returned to Baltimore, where he became a civic leader and one of Morgan's strongest financial supporters.

In 1915 the late Andrew Carnegie gave the school a conditional grant of $50,000 for the central academic building. The terms of the grant included the purchase of a new site for the College, payment of all outstanding obligations, and the construction of a building to be named after him. The College met the conditions and moved to its present site in northeast Baltimore in 1917. Carnegie Hall, the oldest original building on the present MSU campus, was erected two years later.

Morgan remained a private institution until 1939. That year, the state of Maryland purchased the school in response to a state study that determined that Maryland needed to provide more opportunities for its black citizens.

From its beginnings as a public campus, Morgan was open to students of all races. By the time it became a public campus, the College had become a relatively comprehensive institution. Until the mid-1960s, when the state's teachers colleges began their transition to liberal arts campuses, Morgan and the University of Maryland College Park were the only two public campuses in the state with comprehensive missions.

Morris Brown College

Morris Brown College, founded in 1881 by the African Methodist Episcopal Church, is a private, coeducational, liberal arts college engaged in teaching and public service with special focus in leadership, management, entrepreneurship and technology. The College is proud of its tradition of serving the educational needs of the best and brightest young minds, while simultaneously providing educational support to students who might not otherwise receive the opportunity to compete on the college level. Students fitting the latter are given the tools they need to increase their potential for earning a college degree.

This is a formula that has proven itself time and again. Among our outstanding alumni are Isaac Blythers, former President of Atlanta Gas Light Company; Eula L. Adams, Executive Vice President for First Data Corporation; Albert J. Edmonds, Retired Lieutenant General of the United States Air Forces; the late Reverend Dr. Hosea Williams, civil rights leader; Thomas J. Byrd, actor of television, film and stage; and Pulitzer prize-winning author, James A. McPherson. Adams and Edmonds were cited recently by Fortune Magazine among the nation’s top African-American corporate executives. The list of our graduates and their accolades go on and on.

Morris College

Under authorization granted by the Baptist Educational and Missionary Convention of South Carolina in 1906, Morris College was established in 1908 "for the Christian and Intellectual Training of Negro youth." This action signaled the beginning of a heroic venture in higher education by a group of men and women less than a half century removed from the blight of American slavery. The majority of these "founding fathers" were poor and without any formal learning, but they possessed an "unfaltering faith in God and a zeal to provide for others the educational opportunities they themselves were denied."

On April 12, 1911, the college received a certificate of incorporation from the state of South Carolina. Initially, Morris College provided schooling on the elementary, high school, and college levels. The college curriculum included programs in liberal arts, in "normal" education for the certification of teachers, and a theological program. In 1915, the Bachelor of Arts degree was conferred on the first two graduates. The institution discontinued its "normal" program in 1929, its elementary school in 1930, and its high school in 1946.

During 1930-32, the school operated only as a junior college, but it resumed its full four-year program in 1933. The word "Negro" appearing in the original certificate of incorporation was eliminated on August 14, 1961 thereby opening the doors at Morris to students of all ethnic groups.

Norfolk State University

Norfolk State College was founded September 18, 1935. The College, brought to life in the midst of the Great Depression, provided a setting in which the youth of the region could give expression to their hopes and aspirations. At this founding, it was named the Norfolk Unit of Virginia Union University. In 1942, the College became the independent Norfolk Polytechnic College, and two years later an Act of the Virginia Legislature mandated that it become a part of Virginia State College. The College was able to pursue an expanded mission with even greater emphasis in 1956 when another Act of the Legislature enabled the institution to offer its first Bachelor's degree. The College was separated from Virginia State College and became fully independent in 1969. Subsequent legislative acts designated the institution as a university and authorized the granting of graduate degrees. In 1979, university status was attained.

From Dark To Missing...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 19, 2019 at 7:00am

An artist's depiction of the filaments of gas that fill intergalactic space, with an inset chart of how those filaments interact with X-rays from a quasar. Credit: Copyright Illustration: Springel et al. (2005); Spectrum: NASA/CXC/CfA/Kovács et al.

Topics: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Cosmology, Dark Matter, Women in Science

Astronomers think they've found a new clue in their continuing quest to solve one of the most substantial mysteries of the cosmos: where about a third of the universe's matter is hiding.

That missing matter isn't dark matter (a whole different head-scratcher), it's perfectly normal, run-of-the-mill matter that scientists simply can't find. And that makes it a massive cosmic annoyance for astronomers. But a team of researchers may have figured out a clue that will help them track down this missing matter, thanks to the NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.

"If we find this missing mass, we can solve one of the biggest conundrums in astrophysics," lead author Orsolya Kovács, a doctoral student at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a NASA statement. "Where did the universe stash so much of its matter that makes up stuff like stars and planets and us?"

Kovács and her research colleagues wanted to explore one popular theory: that the missing matter is hidden in the stringy filaments of warm gas that fill intergalactic space. Those filaments are typically hard to study, since telescopes tuned to the same light our eyes can see can't register these structures.

Astrophysicists Find New Clue in Search for Universe's Missing Matter

Meghan Bartels, Live Science

February Eighteen...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 18, 2019 at 7:30am

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Morehouse Alumni), Coretta Scott King and Yolanda King

Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Education, Human Rights, Women's Rights

Miles School of Law

Miles Law School (est. August 26, 1974 is a law school located in Birmingham, Alabama. It is independent of Miles College.

Miles Law School was founded on August 26, 1974. Among the founders were Bishop C. A. Kirkendoll of the C.M.E. Church, Dr. W. Clyde Williams, former president of Miles College, former Alabama Judge and state Senator J. Richmond Pearson, and Morris Dees, founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Source: Wikipedia

Mississippi Valley State University

Legislation authorizing the establishment of the institution under the name Mississippi Vocational College was enacted by the Mississippi Legislature in 1946. The express purpose for the new college was to train teachers for rural and elementary schools and to provide vocational training.

The groundbreaking ceremony was held February 19, 1950, with the late Honorable Governor Fielding Wright, the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning, the first president of the University, Dr. James Herbert White, and interested friends participating.

The college opened in the summer of 1950 with enrollment of 205 in-service teachers.

Morehouse College

Founded in 1867 in the basement of Springfield Baptist Church in Augusta, Ga., by the Rev. William Jefferson White, with the encouragement of former slave the Rev. Richard C. Coulter and the Rev. Edmund Turney of the National Theological Institute, Morehouse College has had a 150-year legacy of producing educated men and global leaders.

Starting as Augusta Institute under the first president, Dr. Joseph T. Robert, the institution was created to educate black men for careers in ministry and teaching. At the urging of the Rev. Frank Quarles, the school moved to Atlanta’s Friendship Baptist Church in 1879 and changed its name to Atlanta Baptist Seminary.

The seminary moved to downtown Atlanta, and then, in 1885, to a former Civil War battleground site in Atlanta’s West End under President Dr. Samuel T. Graves. By 1897, the institution had become Atlanta Baptist College.

Dr. George Sale was named president in 1890, and Atlanta Baptist College expanded its curriculum and established a tradition of educating leaders for all American life.

During the tenure of the College’s first African American president, John Hope, the College was renamed Morehouse College in 1913, in honor of Henry L. Morehouse, corresponding secretary of the National Baptist Home Missionary Society.

Morehouse School of Medicine

Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM), located in Atlanta, Ga., was founded in 1975 as the Medical Education Program at Morehouse College. In 1981, MSM became an independently chartered institution. MSM is among the nation’s leading educators of primary care physicians and was recently recognized as the top institution among U.S. medical schools for our social mission. Our faculty and alumni are noted in their fields for excellence in teaching, research and public policy.

MSM is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, Council on Education for Public Health, Liaison Committee on Medical Education and Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Mission

We exist to:

-Improve the health and well-being of individuals and communities

-Increase the diversity of the health professional and scientific workforce

-Address primary health care through programs in education, research, and service

With emphasis on people of color and the underserved urban and rural populations in Georgia, the nation, and the world.

National Society of Black Physicists...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 18, 2019 at 7:00am

President Obama, Bill Nye, Myth Busters and members of NSBP (from homepage)

Topics: Diversity, Diversity in Science, NSBP, Women in Science

By the late 1960s and early 1970s the roster of senior African American physicists included James Young, who was at LANL and later MIT, Joseph Johnson (Southern University), Harry Morrison (Berkeley), Pete Bragg (Berkeley), Charlie Harper (Cal State Haywood), James Davenport (Virginia State), Rutherford Adkins (Fisk), James Lawson (Fisk), Warren Henry (Howard), Herman Branson (Howard), and Howard Foster (Alabama A&M), who kept a roster of Blacks in physics. These senior physicists served as role models and mentors to generations of African American physics students, giving emotional and at times financial support.

Events in the spring of 1972 led African American physicists to start convening for an awards banquet that included a Day of Scientific Lectures and Seminars (DOSLAS). These events not only included the scientific sessions, there would also be a social event and banquet to recognize the accomplishments of a specific member of the African American physics community. Out of these DOSLAS meetings NSBP was founded in 1977.

Founded in 1977 at Morgan State University, the mission of the National Society of Black Physicists is to promote the professional well-being of African American physicists and physics students within the international scientific community and within society at large.

The organization seeks to develop and support efforts to increase opportunities for African Americans in physics and to increase their numbers and visibility of their scientific work. It also seeks to develop activities and programs that highlight and enhance the benefits of the scientific contributions that African American physicists provide for the international community. The society seeks to raise the general knowledge and appreciation of physics in the African American community.

The National Society of Black Physicists is a not-for-profit 501c3 organization in accordance with the Internal Revenue Service.

Site: National Society of Black Physicists

February Seventeen...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 17, 2019 at 7:30am

Meharry Medical College - Instagram

Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Education, Human Rights, Women's Rights

Livingstone College

Livingstone College is a private, historically black Christian college in Salisbury, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Livingstone College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Fine Arts, and Bachelor of Social Work degrees.

Livingstone College along with Hood Theological Seminary began as Zion Wesley Institute in Concord, North Carolina in 1879. After fundraising by Dr. Joseph C. Price and Bishop J. W. Hood, the school was closed in Concord and re-opened in 1882 a few miles north in Salisbury.

Zion Wesley Institute was founded by the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church. The institute changed its name to Livingstone College in 1887 to honor African missionary David Livingstone. That same year, the school granted its first degree. The first group of students to graduate included eight men and two women, the first black women to earn bachelor's degrees in North Carolina. Source: Wikipedia

University of Maryland Eastern Shore

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore opened its doors Sept. 13, 1886, when it was known initially as the Delaware Conference Academy under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Greeting the nine students who showed up that Monday were two educators, Benjamin O. Bird and his wife, Portia Lovett Bird.

Records indicate by the following spring some three dozen students, likely from farming families in the surrounding area, were enrolled.

The prep school-style institution was founded as a branch of Baltimore’s Centenary Bible Institute, which in 1890 became known as Morgan College – the same year federal legislation passed to support historically black institutions that offered instruction in agriculture and related fields.

With the adoption of the 2nd Morrill Act, the “Industrial Branch” of Morgan in rural Somerset County started receiving funding through the state of Maryland – and eventually was rechristened Princess Anne Academy.

This federal source of money also created a relationship with the Maryland Agricultural College, now the University of Maryland, College Park, although the campus in Princess Anne remained a part of Morgan College – at the time a private institution.

The joint-management arrangement enabled the state to continue offering a land-grant education to white students attending College Park while offering African-Americans that type of instruction at what was referred to in some documents as the Eastern Shore Branch of the Maryland Agricultural College.

Meharry Medical College

Meharry Medical College was founded in 1876 by Samuel Meharry and his four brothers in response to an Act of Kindness he had received on a Kentucky road one rainy night—a chance meeting now known as The Salt Wagon Story. In 1886, Dr. George Whipple Hubbard founded a department that would “provide the Colored people of the South with an opportunity for thoroughly preparing themselves for the practice of dentistry,” and Meharry’s dental program opened its doors to nine students, three of whom were physicians. The School of Graduate Studies and Research at Meharry Medical College began in 1938 as a series of short courses in the basic and clinical sciences; in 1947, a Master of Science Degree program was implemented as the first graduate degree, a Ph.D. program was established in 1972, and an M.D./Ph.D. program in 1982.

Today, Meharry receives over 5,000 applications for admission to the M.D., D.D.S., M.S.P.H., and Ph.D. programs, providing opportunities for people of color, individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, and others, regardless of race or ethnicity, to receive excellent education and training in the health sciences and conduct research that fosters the elimination of health disparities.

Miles College

Miles College, founded in 1898, is a premier liberal arts institution located in metropolitan Birmingham within the corporate limits of the City of Fairfield. The noble founders of the institution saw educated leadership as the paramount need in the black community. Miles, which is fully accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and accredited by Commission on Colleges for the awarding of Baccalaureate Degrees, is the only four-year institution in historic Birmingham, Alabama designated as a member of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). Miles College is a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) higher learning institution. The College is one of only 39 HBCUs to have the designation of a United Negro College Fund (UNCF) institution.

Miles College has as its brand civic engagement and activism. As a matter of fact, during the planning stages of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), when members were deciding what test city to implement the Civil Rights Movement, it was proposed to go to Birmingham, Alabama because the students at Miles College were already engaging in civic protests and boycotts against segregated public facilities. In essence, the Civil Rights Movement, in-part came to Birmingham Alabama, because of the activism of students at Miles College, helping to make Birmingham, Alabama the Civil Rights Capital of the world.

The College offers baccalaureate programs with majors such as Accounting, Biology, Business Administration, Chemistry, Communications, Computer and Information Sciences, History, Language Arts, Criminal Justice, Early Childhood/Elementary Education, English, Mathematics, Political Science and Social Work. In sum, Miles offers 28 Bachelor Degree programs in six academic divisions to an enrollment of approximately 1,700 students.

February Sixteen...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 16, 2019 at 6:40pm

Violet Lewis, founded of Lewis Business College, and the first location on Indiana Street in Indianapolis.

Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Education, Human Rights, Women's Rights

LeMoyne College

In 1862, the American Missionary Association sent Ms. Lucinda Humphrey to Camp Shiloh to open an elementary school for freedmen and runaway slaves after the occupation of Memphis during the Civil War. The school, named Lincoln Chapel, was moved to Memphis in 1863 but was destroyed by fire in the race riots after the withdrawal of federal troops in 1866. The school was rebuilt and reopened in 1867 with 150 students and six teachers. The first years were challenging due to the toll that the yellow fever epidemic took on school personnel. In 1914, the school was moved to its present site on Walker Avenue, and the first building, Steele Hall, was erected on the new LeMoyne campus. LeMoyne became a junior college in 1924 and a four-year college in 1930. In March 1957, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. paid his first visit to Memphis and to our campus.

MISSION STATEMENT

LeMoyne-Owen College provides a transformative experience educating students for urban-focused leadership, scholarship, service and professional careers.

VISION

To be an exemplary historically black college providing an excellent liberal arts education that transforms urban students, institutions and communities.

Lewis College of Business (closed 2013)

At the height of the Great Depression jobs were hard to come by, especially for African-Americans who had moved to northern cities. This was worrying for Violet Lewis, a bookkeeper in Indianapolis, Indiana, who was concerned by the number of unemployed black youths she saw in the city. At the time, public and private higher education schools would not accept African American students, so in 1928, Lewis began offering classes in secretarial work at her house. As the school grew, it moved into a storefront, and the Lewis College of Business was founded. To make it through the Great Depression, tuition was set at $2.50 per week for the 20 to 25 students. The program grew in popularity as Lewis became an established figure in the local media and hosted a popular radio show.

In September of 1939, Lewis College opened its second branch in Detroit on West Warren Street, the first business school in the city to accept African American students. After Lewis realized that running both schools simultaneously would be difficult, she closed the Indianapolis location in 1940 to focus on the Detroit branch. As the school expanded to over 300 daily students through the 1940’s and 1950’s, it moved to Ferry Street near Wayne State University. The transition wasn't smooth - white residents living nearby sued to close the school in 1942 on the grounds that it was a business in a residential area, but Lewis converted the college into a nonprofit and the case was dismissed. Lewis Business College offered courses in typewriting, bookkeeping, stenography, penmanship, and office management. Graduates from Lewis found work at General Motors, Ford, Michigan Bell, and the city of Detroit. Another branch was established in Cleveland, Ohio in 1960, again being the first business school in the city to accept African American students.

Source: Lewis College of Business

The Lincoln University

Originally established as The Ashmun Institute, Lincoln University received its charter from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on April 29, 1854, making it the nation's first degree-granting Historically Black College and University (HBCU).

As Horace Mann Bond, ‘23, Lincoln’s first African American and an eighth president, so eloquently cites in the opening chapter of his book, Education for Freedom, this was “the first institution found anywhere in the world to provide a higher education in the arts and sciences for male youth of African descent.”

The story of Lincoln University dates back to the early years of the nineteenth century and to the ancestors of its founders, John Miller Dickey, and his wife, Sarah Emlen Cresson. The maternal grandfather of John Miller Dickey was a marble merchant in Philadelphia who made contributions to the education of African-Americans in that city as early as 1794. Dickey’s father was a minister of the Oxford Presbyterian Church. After serving as a missionary and preaching to the slaves in Georgia, John Miller Dickey became pastor of that same church in Oxford, Pennsylvania, in 1832. Sarah Emlen Cresson inherited a long tradition of service and philanthropy through the Society of Friends in Philadelphia. John Miller Dickey was active in the American Colonization Society, and in 1851 took part in the court actions leading to the freeing of a young African-American girl who had been abducted from southern Chester County by slave raiders from Maryland. At the same time, having been unsuccessful in his efforts to gain college admission to even the most liberal of schools for a young freedman named James Amos, Dickey himself undertook to prepare the young man for the ministry.

Lincoln University

At the close of the Civil War, soldiers and officers of the 62nd United States Colored Infantry, stationed at Fort McIntosh, Texas, but composed primarily of Missourians, took steps to establish an educational institution in Jefferson City, Missouri, which they named Lincoln Institute. The following stipulations were set for the school:

1. The institution shall be designed for the special benefit of the freed African-Americans;

2. It shall be located in the state of Missouri;

3. Its fundamental idea shall be to combine study and labor.

Members of the 62nd Colored Infantry contributed $5,000; this was supplemented by approximately $1,400, given by the 65th Colored Infantry. On January 14, 1866, Lincoln Institute was formally established under an organization committee. By June of the same year, it incorporated and the committee became a Board of Trustees. Richard Baxter Foster, a former first lieutenant in the 62nd Infantry, was named first principal of Lincoln Institute. On September 17, 1866, the school opened its doors to the first class in an old frame building in Jefferson City.

In 1870, the school began to receive aid from the state of Missouri for teacher training. In 1871, Lincoln Institute moved to the present campus. College-level work was added to the curriculum in 1877, and passage of the Normal School Law permitted Lincoln graduates to teach for life in Missouri without further examination. Lincoln Institute formally became a state institution in 1879 with the deeding of the property to the state. Under the second Morrill Act of 1890, Lincoln became a land grant institution, and the following year industrial and agricultural courses were added to the curriculum.

February Fifteen...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 15, 2019 at 7:30am

Image Source: Lawson State Community College (link below)

Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Education, Human Rights, Women's Rights

Knoxville College

Knoxville College was founded in 1875 as part of the missionary effort of the United Presbyterian Church of North America to promote religious, moral, and educational leadership among the freed men and women. Its mission today is a direct outgrowth of the purpose of its founding.

Knoxville College opened as a normal school for the training of teachers, but was designated a college in 1877. Dr. John Schouller McCulloch, who had been a chaplain in the Civil War, was called as the College’s first president. The school offered teacher training and full college courses in classics, science, and theology. There were classes in agriculture, industrial arts, and medicine (1895-1900). After the erection of its first building, McKee Hall (the administration building) in 1876, students helped construct most of the other buildings on campus. Wallace Hall (1891) and McMillan Chapel (1913) were built with student labor. A former student, William Thomas Jones, designed McMillan Chapel. Most of the bricks for these buildings were made by students at the campus brickyard. In 1904, students made and used or sold one million bricks. The College also owned some timberland (given to the school by a former student) which was used for its lumber needs.

Since there were so few blacks in the early days that prepared for higher education; Knoxville College initially offered classes from first grade through college level. The elementary department was discontinued during the 1926-27 school years, and the high school, or academy, was dropped in 1931.

Lane College

In 1882, one of the nation’s early Black Church denominations founded what has since evolved into Lane College. Now referred to as The Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church, the organization was originally named the Colored Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church in America when it formed in 1870. Among its top priorities was the establishment of schools to educate the newly freed Negroes following the Civil War. This enterprise of building a school in Tennessee was conceived as early as November 1878 at the CME denomination’s Tennessee Annual Conference. The CME church’s first Bishop, William H. Miles, presided over the meeting which convened at the old Capers Chapel CME Church in Nashville, Tennessee. A most pivotal moment of the conference occurred when Reverend J.K. Daniels presented a resolution to establish a Tennessee school. Amid much applause, the resolution was adopted, and a committee was appointed to solicit means to purchase a site. Reverends C.H. Lee, J.H. Ridley, Sandy Rivers, Barry Smith, and J. K. Daniels constituted this committee.

Due to the great yellow fever epidemic of 1878, the committee’s work was hindered; but when Bishop Isaac Lane was appointed to preside over the Tennessee conference in 1879, there was a turning point. He met with the committee, gave advice, and helped to formulate plans for the founding of what would be called the “CME High School” (now Lane College). For $240, Bishop Lane purchased the first four acres of land to be used for the new school, and they were located in the eastern part of Jackson, Tennessee.

On November 12, 1882, the “CME High School” began its first session under the guidance of its first principal and teacher, Miss Jennie E. Lane, daughter of Founder Isaac Lane. This first day of school marked the beginning of a powerful and ongoing commitment to the uplifting of people throughout the south, the nation, and the world.

Langston University

Established in 1897 as the Colored Agricultural and Normal University (CANU), Langston University was envisioned at least seven years earlier with the 1890 Second Morrill Act. It required states or territories with land grant colleges either to admit African Americans or to provide an alternate school for them in order to qualify for federal funds. In 1892 three citizens of the All-Black town of Langston, including David J. Wallace, asked the Territorial Council to locate a college in the town. In 1897 Rep. William Gault introduced House Bill 151, creating the college and placing it at Langston in Logan County. By September 1898 teachers conducted the first classes at a Presbyterian Church and at Langston's public school, during the first building's construction. CANU lured Inman Page from the Lincoln Institute in Missouri to be the first president.

In accordance with the legislation CANU tried to provide African Americans with an industrial and agricultural curriculum, a normal or teacher's college, and a liberal arts curriculum, all with less funding than many Oklahoma institutions that provided just one of these missions. Under Page the university expanded in the number of students and in campus size. By 1915 the student population had grown from 41 to 639, and the campus had six main buildings.

Source: Oklahoma Historical Society

Lawson State Community College

Lawson State Community College, located in the southwestern section of Birmingham, is composed of two main divisions--an academic division and a career/technical division.

The career/technical division was first established as a result of the Wallace-Patterson Trade School Act of 1947. This Act established Wenonah Vocational and Trade School on August 24, 1949. The school opened with eleven instructors and seventy-five students enrolled in ten courses and one related subject. The first president of the school was Dr. Theodore A. Lawson. The initial funding received by the technical division was $75,000.

The academic division began as Wenonah State Junior College, which was founded under Act No. 93 of the May 3, 1963 Legislature. The College was created in 1965 and was named after its first president in 1969. In 1967, Wenonah State Junior College held its first commencement exercise with 33 graduates. In 1968, another milestone was accomplished when the college received its accreditation by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In 1969, there were 300 students enrolled at Lawson State Junior College. On October 1, 1973, Wenonah State Technical Institute and Wenonah State Junior College merged and became one institution known as Lawson State Community College.

With its long-standing history, there has been a short list of presidents, Dr. Theodore A. Lawson, 1949-1971; Dr. Leon Kennedy, 1971-1978; Dr. Jesse J. Lewis, 1978-1987; and Dr. Perry W. Ward, 1987 through the present time.

Apathy, Crises and Zappa...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 15, 2019 at 7:00am

Image Source: Five Thirty Eight blog

Topics: Civics, Civil Rights, Existentialism, Politics

So what exactly is a constitutional crisis? We should be clear about what does — and, more importantly, does not — merit this description. It’s possible to have a major political crisis even if the Constitution is crystal clear on the remedy, or to have a constitutional crisis that doesn’t ruffle many feathers.

Political and legal observers generally divide constitutional crises into four categories:

1. The Constitution doesn’t say what to do.

The U.S. Constitution is brief and vague. (Compare it to a state constitution sometime.) This vagueness has one major advantage: It makes an 18th-century document flexible enough to effectively serve a 21st-century society. But sometimes the Constitution leaves us without sorely needed instructions, such as when William Henry Harrison became the first president to die in office in 1841. At the time, it wasn't clear whether the vice president should fully assume the office or just safeguard the role until a new president could somehow be chosen. (It wasn't until 1967 that the 25th amendment officially settled the question.) When Vice President John Tyler took over, no one was sure if he was the real president or merely the acting president, nor was anyone certain what should happen next. Tyler asserted that he was, in fact, the new president, and since then, vice presidents who have had to step into service as chief executive have been treated as fully legitimate, but early confusion took its toll on the perceived legitimacy of Tyler’s presidency.

2. The Constitution’s meaning is in question.

Sometimes the Constitution’s attempt to address an issue is phrased in a way that could allow multiple interpretations, leaving experts disagreeing about what it means and making it difficult or impossible to address a pressing problem. In this way, both the Great Depression and the Civil War created constitutional crises. The problem sparked by the Civil War is obvious: The fight rested on a bunch of unsettled constitutional questions, the biggest of which was about slavery and the federal government’s ability to control it, a subject on which the Constitution was silent. And while the Constitution provided information on how a state could join the union, it didn't say whether one could leave it or how it would go about doing so. It obviously took a war to resolve this crisis.

3. The Constitution tells us what to do, but it’s not politically feasible.

This category of constitutional crisis can crop up when presidential elections produce contested and confusing results. In the 2000 presidential election, when George W. Bush and Al Gore were separated by just a few hundred votes in Florida, the tipping-point state whose electoral votes would determine the winner, the state’s election results remained contested for weeks due to a number of irregularities and a secretary of state who seemed determined to cut a recount short. In theory, the Constitution allowed for various solutions to this problem: Congress could have decided which of Florida’s electors to recognize, or Congress could have determined that neither candidate had achieved a majority in the Electoral College and let the House of Representatives decide on a president (per the process spelled out in the 12th Amendment). Such outcomes, while certainly constitutional, would have been politically infeasible, creating a significant legitimacy crisis for the new president.

4. Institutions themselves fail.

The Constitution’s system of checks and balances sets the various branches against each other for the laudable purpose of constraining tyranny. However, due to partisan polarization, individual corruption, or any number of other reasons, sometimes the political institutions in these arrangements fail, sending the governmental system into a crisis. This was the type of constitutional crisis commentators were seemingly referring to in describing reports that Customs and Border Protection agents (members of the executive branch) weren't following orders from the judicial branch.

Five Thirty Eight blog: The 4 Main Types of Constitutional Crises, Julia Azari and Seth Masket

*****

Today the government will likely not shut down, but a manufactured crisis by the orange neurosis in chief will be declared for a mythological wall that Mexico is decidedly NOT going to pay for. The great Orange Satan will declare a state of emergency because his jester cabinet of Ann "Adams Apple" Coulter, Sean "The Chin in Suit" Hannity, Laura "The Nazi" Ingram and Rush "OxyContin" Limbaugh would not be pleased unless he trapped the genie in Aladdin and wished the wall into existence, because niggling things like physics, civil engineering and eminent domain impedes its instantaneous, vainglorious appearing.

Alas, this racist totem is not going to magically appear along two thousand miles of the Texas-Mexico border (which, if you read history, used to just be Mexico). The aforementioned eminent domain lawsuits will keep spades and plowshares still for years well after Biff Tannen leaves the republic - like he did his businesses, marriages and normal human relationships - in tatters. Narcissus will cobble together a "win" in a breathless display of mendacity we've grown somewhat accustomed to as well as exhausted by; and his slobbering, nodding hoards will salivate like Pavlov's dogs for the dinner bell. If by some stretch of a miracle of WASP-C privilege he manages to dodge jail as easily as he did the Vietnam draft, we'll likely hear his bombast until his last breath...LITERALLY mid sentence in a complete Word Salad stream-of-semi-consciousness riff is how he'll likely expire because of "stamina," or something. Poetically, I'm rooting for some sentence laced with braggadocio and "greatest" in it.

Why, he's opening the door for his eventual democratic successor to declare a national emergency on things like climate change, Green New Deals; school shootings, teen pregnancy and anti-vaccine groups endangering herd immunity. The absolute horror of "little Marco Rubio" would realized sooner than Miami Beach is submerged to meet Aquaman in Atlantis! Liberal dystopia for the alt-right and "alternative facts" types: sanity, survival and the closest thing to Star Trek for the rest of us.

"One of the things taken out of the curriculum was civics," Zappa went on to explain. "Civics was a class that used to be required before you could graduate from high school. You were taught what was in the U.S. Constitution. And after all the student rebellions in the Sixties, civics was banished from the student curriculum and was replaced by something called social studies. Here we live in a country that has a fabulous constitution and all these guarantees, a contract between the citizens and the government – nobody knows what's in it...And so, if you don't know what your rights are, how can you stand up for them? And furthermore, if you don't know what's in the document, how can you care if someone is shredding it?"

"Notes From the Dangerous Kitchen," a review and a quote from Frank Zappa, Critics at Large

It's more likely we have smart phones versus copies of The Constitution - vague a document it is - in our hip pockets. We collectively know about as much of the nanotechnology that goes into them as we do our own Founding Documents.

So, just how WOULD a self-absorbed latter-day remnant of the human species know their rights are being shredded before their very eyes...if they don't KNOW what they are? Or...they might just wake up after long last as in 2018 one year from now, and vote!

February Fourteen...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 14, 2019 at 7:30am

Johnson C. Smith - The Division of Government Sponsored Programs and Research inducted seven students into its Ronald E. McNair Scholars program. This year’s theme is “Defying Gravity: Launching Scholars Academic Success.”

Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Education, Human Rights, Women's Rights

Jarvis Christian College

Jarvis Christian College is a historically Black liberal arts, associate and baccalaureate, degree-granting institution affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The mission of the college is to prepare students intellectually, through academic programs that promote excellence in teaching and learning; socially, through student-centered support programs that encourage positive and constructive communication among peers, faculty, and staff; spiritually, through programs that stimulate spiritual growth and worship; and personally, through interaction that fosters self-development and maturity using different modalities of instructional delivery. The mission further seeks to prepare students for professional and graduate studies, productive careers, and to function effectively in a global and technological society.

Johnson C. Smith University

1867

In 1867, the Rev. S.C. Alexander and the Rev. W. L. Miller saw the need to establish an institution in this section of the South. On April 7, 1867, at a meeting of the Catawba Presbytery in the old Charlotte Presbyterian Church, the movement for the school was formally inaugurated, which by charter was named The Freedmen's College of North Carolina, and these two ministers were elected as teachers.

1867-1876

Mary D. Biddle of Philadelphia, Pa. who, through appeals in one of the church papers, pledged $1,400 to the school. In appreciation of this first and generous contribution, friends requested Mrs. Biddle name the newly established school after her late husband, Major Henry Biddle. From 1867 to 1876, the school was named Biddle Memorial Institute and chartered by the state legislature.

Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary

The seminary’s vision is to be an agile institution providing an array of ministerial formation opportunities for ordained and non-ordained persons actively serving the Church.

JCSTS VALUES HERITAGE

Is grounded in the scholarship and history of the African-American religious experience

JCSTS VALUES TRADITION

Embraces the Reformed tradition of the Christian Church embodied in Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

JCSTS VALUES COMMUNITY

Invites and welcomes individuals with no preference to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, class, or nationality

Kentucky State University

From its modest beginnings as a small normal school for the training of black teachers for the black schools of Kentucky, Kentucky State University has grown and evolved into a land-grant and liberal arts institution that prepares a diverse student population to compete in a multifaceted, ever-changing global society. The University was chartered in May 1886 as the State Normal School for Colored Persons, only the second state-supported institution of higher learning in Kentucky. During the euphoria of Frankfort’s 1886 centennial celebration, when vivid recollections of the Civil War remained, the city’s 4,000 residents were keenly interested in having the new institution located in Frankfort. Toward that end, the city donated $1,500, a considerable amount in 1886 dollars, and a site on a scenic bluff overlooking the town. This united display of community enthusiasm and commitment won the day. The new college was located in Frankfort in spite of competition from several other cities.

Recitation Hall (now Jackson Hall), the college’s first building, was erected in 1887. The new school opened on October 11, 1887, with three teachers, 55 students, and John H. Jackson as president.

KSU became a land-grant college in 1890, and the departments of home economics, agriculture and mechanics were added to the school’s curriculum. The school produced its first graduating class of five students in the spring of that year. A high school was organized in 1893. This expansion continued into the 20th century in both name and program. In 1902, the name was changed to Kentucky Normal and Industrial Institute for Colored Persons. The name was changed again in 1926 to Kentucky State Industrial College for Colored Persons. In the early 1930’s, the high school was discontinued, and in 1938 the school was named the Kentucky State College for Negroes. The term “for Negroes” was dropped in 1952. Kentucky State College became a university in 1972, and in 1973 the first graduate students enrolled in its School of Public Affairs.

Semper Fidelis...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 14, 2019 at 7:00am

Topics: Mars, NASA, Opportunity, Planetary Exploration, Spaceflight

NASA's Opportunity Mars rover was built to operate for just 90 days, but kept going for 15 years. NASA officially declared it dead on Wednesday, and its last message to scientists before it went dark eight months ago is getting a lot of attention.

The rover spent a decade and a half sending data bursts, not words, but according to science reporter Jacob Margolis, scientists at NASA said the last message they received from Opportunity effectively translated to, "My battery is low and it's getting dark."

The solar-powered rover was, in the end, doomed by a ferocious dust storm.

Flight controllers tried numerous times to make contact, and sent one final series of recovery commands Tuesday night along with one last wake-up song, Billie Holiday's "I'll Be Seeing You," in a somber exercise that brought tears to team members' eyes. There was no response from space, only silence.

Thomas Zurbuchen, head of NASA's science missions, broke the news at what amounted to a funeral at the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, announcing the demise of "our beloved Opportunity."

'My battery is low and it's getting dark': Mars rover Opportunity's last message to scientists

ABC Chicago, Associated Press

February Thirteen...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 13, 2019 at 7:30am

Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Education, Human Rights, Women's Rights

Huston-Tillotson University

Huston–Tillotson University is a historically black university in Austin, Texas, United States. The school is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, and the United Negro College Fund. Huston–Tillotson University established in 1881. The University is a member of the Red River Athletic Conference (RRAC). Their colors are maroon and white & their motto is In Union, Strength.

The history of Huston – Tillotson University lies in two schools: Tillotson College and Samuel Huston College. Tillotson Collegiate and Normal Institute was chartered as a coeducational school in 1877 by the American Missionary Society of Congregational churches. Samuel Huston College developed out of an 1876 Methodist Episcopal conference. On October 24, 1952 Tillotson College and Samuel Huston College merged to form Huston-Tillotson College. It then became Huston–Tillotson University on February 28, 2005.

Interdenominational Theological Center

The Interdenominational Theological Center was chartered in 1958 through the mutual efforts of four seminaries that came together to form one school of theology, in cooperation as an ecumenical cluster. The collaborative later added two additional schools and today houses five seminaries and an ecumenical fellowship. ITC is the world’s only graduate theology program with this unique model that is exclusively African American but inclusive to all. all people.

The Sealantic Fund, established by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to support theological education, was a major source of financial support. In 1959, there were 21 faculty members and 97 students in ITC. The new institution occupied the Gammon campus until its own facilities were completed in 1961.

J.F. Drake State Community and Technical College

J.F. Drake State Community and Technical College is the first and only institution of its kind in Alabama. It’s an institution where students can enhance their futures through comprehensive academic and technical training programs.

The Beginnings of a Rich History

As with so many educational institutions, within Drake State’s history lies many of its strengths.

In 1961, Governor George Wallace founded a group of state, two-year technical institutions to support the technical/vocational career education needs of African Americans. Huntsville State Vocational Technical School was one of these schools. Its original campus covered 30 acres of land deeded by Alabama A & M University to the Alabama Board of Education, and the new college opened its doors in 1962 with 27 students enrolled in four programs – auto mechanics, cosmetology, electronics, and masonry.

In 1966, the school changed its name to J. F. Drake State Technical Trade School in honor of the late Joseph Fanning Drake, long-time president of Alabama A&M University. The Alabama State Board of Education granted Drake State technical college status in 1973 and adjusted its name to J. F. Drake State Technical College, allowing the school to offer the Associate in Applied Technology Degree (AAT).

Jackson State University

Jackson State University has a distinguished history, rich in the tradition of educating young men and women for leadership, having undergone seven name changes as it grew and developed.

Founded as Natchez Seminary in 1877 by the American Baptist Home mission Society, the school was established as Natchez, Mississippi “for the moral, religious and intellectual improvement of Christian leaders of the colored people of Mississippi and the neighboring states.” In November 1882, the school was moved to Jackson; in March 1899, the curriculum was expanded and the name was changed to Jackson College.

The state assumed support of the college in 1940, assigning to it the mission of training teachers. Subsequently, between 1953 and 1956, the curriculum was expanded to include a graduate program and bachelor’s programs in the arts and sciences; the name was then changed to Jackson State College in 1956.

Further expansion of the curriculum and a notable building program preceded the elevation of Jackson State College to university status on March 15, 1974. In 1979, Jackson State was officially designated the Urban University of the State of Mississippi. Presently, Jackson State University, a public, coeducational institution, is supported by legislative appropriations supplemented by student fees and federal and private grants.

Anthony "Tony" Mitchell...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 13, 2019 at 7:00am

Anthony "Tony" Mitchell

Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Education, Electrical Engineering, NSBE

“The 2019 BEYA Selection Committee, supported by the Council of Engineering Deans of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and our lead sponsor Lockheed Martin Corporation, have invested in me the authority to announce that Tony Mitchell is the 2019 Black Engineer of the Year,” said Tyrone Taborn, CCG CEO and co-founder of the BEYA STEM Conference.

Anthony “Tony” Mitchell is an executive vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton. He leads strategic development and execution of the management consulting firm’s Justice, Homeland Security, and Transportation business.

Recently, Mitchell served as deputy lead for defense and intelligence business, where he executed strategic initiatives to drive growth and financial performance.

In the community, Mitchell serves as a board member and chair of the Audit Committee of United Through Reading, an organization dedicated to uniting U.S. military families through the gift of reading.

He holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from the General Motors Institute (now known as Kettering University) and an M.S. in information systems management from The George Washington University.

2019 Black Engineer of the Year Award: Anthony "Tony" Mitchell

The Talented Tenth Saga----PLEASE DONATE

Posted by Christopher Love on February 12, 2019 at 10:17pm

The Talented Tenth Saga will be an 8 issue, limited run comic book series and film. This series is unique for many reasons.

First of all, it will feature real people versus hand drawn or CGI characters. This is why actors and actresses will be sought.
Secondly, the main characters in the world of The Talented Tenth Saga will be diverse as the world we live in.
And lastly, all 8 issues will be given out for free and can be read at beauty shops, barber shops, schools, libraries and other organizations in local communities starting in Madison County, Alabama and beyond. The film will be uploaded to YouTube and other platforms for free to enjoy and view.

The comic book can be downloaded on IndyPlanet.com

Please support this project.

https://www.ioby.org/project/talented-tenth-saga

Everyone Deserves Heroes That Look Like THEM

February Twelve...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 12, 2019 at 7:30am

Image Source: Howard University Instagram

Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Education, Human Rights, Women's Rights

Harris-Stowe State University

Harris–Stowe State University is a historically black, public university located in midtown St. Louis, Missouri. The University is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Harris–Stowe State University established in 1857 & their nickname is Hornets. Their colors are black and white and their motto is Affordable, Accessible, Diverse.

We firmly believe that individuals who serve in the military enhance our campus, so we work very hard to ensure that their college experience is a superior one.

It is our goal to help members of the military and their families understand the many options available for funding a college degree. For example, combat veterans who were a Missouri resident when they entered the military may wish to take advantage of the Returning Heroes Act, which allows qualified individuals to take courses for as little as $50 per credit hour. We can also help veterans and qualified family members utilize available resources such as the Montgomery GI Bill, REAP, Vocational Rehabilitation Program, Survivors and Dependents Educational Assistance Program or the Post 9/11 GI Bill.

You have provided a great service to your country. Let us have the opportunity to provide a great education to you!

Hinds Community College, Utica

Hinds Community College, established 1917, is a community college with its main campus located in Raymond, Mississippi, about five miles west of Jackson, the state capital. With an enrollment of nearly 12,000 students at six campuses, it is the largest educational institution in the state, a rarity among community colleges. It’s nickname is the Eagles and the University is a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) and the Mississippi Junior College Athletic Association. Their colors are maroon and white and their motto is The College for All People.

Hood Theological Seminary

Hood Theological Seminary is a graduate and professional school sponsored by the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (A.M.E. Zion) and dedicated to the education and preparation of men and women for leadership in the various ministries and vocations of the Christian church.

The Seminary bears the name of a renowned bishop of the denomination, James Walker Hood, who inspired others in the denomination to join with him in creating an institution for the training of Negro youths for the Christian ministry. In 1879 those pioneers created the Zion Wesley Institute in Concord, NC. Three years later, by invitation of the citizens of Salisbury, they relocated the Institute to this city. Under the leadership of its first president, Dr. Joseph Charles Price, the Institute was chartered by the State of North Carolina in 1887 and renamed Livingstone College in honor of Scottish physician and explorer of central and southern Africa, Dr. David Livingstone.

Hood obtained independence from Livingstone College in 2001 and became a free-standing seminary with its own Board of Trustees. Dean Albert J. D. Aymer was appointed and inaugurated as its first President.

Howard University

Since 1867, Howard has awarded more than 100,000 degrees in the professions, arts, sciences and humanities. Howard ranks among the highest producers of the nation's Black professionals in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, engineering, nursing, architecture, religion, law, music, social work and education.

The University has long held a commitment to the study of disadvantaged persons in American society and throughout the world. The goal is the elimination of inequities related to race, color, social, economic and political circumstances. As the only truly comprehensive predominantly Black university, Howard is one of the major engineers of change in our society. Through its traditional and cutting-edge academic programs, the University seeks to improve the circumstances of all people in the search for peace and justice on earth.

Howard has grown from a single-frame building in 1867 and evolved to more than 89 acres, including the six-story, 400-bed Howard University Hospital. Since 1974, it has expanded to include a 22-acre School of Law West Campus, a 22-acre School of Divinity East Campus and another three-fifths of an acre facility in northeast Washington and a 108-acre tract of land in Beltsville, Maryland.

Howard prepares men and women to advance social justice and the preservation of human liberty. In each of its 13 schools and colleges, Howard University seeks to develop technically competent and morally committed individuals.

Dr. Mark Dean...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 12, 2019 at 7:00am

Dr. Mark Dean - Biography.com

Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Computer Science, Education, Electrical Engineering

Computer scientist and engineer Mark Dean is credited with helping develop a number of landmark technologies, including the color PC monitor, the Industry Standard Architecture system bus and the first gigahertz chip.

Synopsis

Born in Jefferson City, Tennessee, in 1957, computer scientist and engineer Mark Dean helped develop a number of landmark technologies for IBM, including the color PC monitor and the first gigahertz chip. He holds three of the company's original nine patents. He also invented the Industry Standard Architecture system bus with engineer Dennis Moeller, allowing for computer plug-ins such as disk drives and printers.

Early Life and Education

Computer scientist and inventor Mark Dean was born on March 2, 1957, in Jefferson City, Tennessee. Dean is credited with helping to launch the personal computer age with work that made the machines more accessible and powerful.

From an early age, Dean showed a love for building things; as a young boy, Dean constructed a tractor from scratch with the help of his father, a supervisor at the Tennessee Valley Authority. Dean also excelled in many different areas, standing out as a gifted athlete and an extremely smart student who graduated with straight A's from Jefferson City High School. In 1979, he graduated at the top of his class at the University of Tennessee, where he studied engineering.

Innovation with IBM

Not long after college, Dean landed a job at IBM, a company he would become associated with for the duration of his career. As an engineer, Dean proved to be a rising star at the company. Working closely with a colleague, Dennis Moeller, Dean developed the new Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) systems bus, a new system that allowed peripheral devices like disk drives, printers and monitors to be plugged directly into computers. The end result was more efficiency and better integration.

But his groundbreaking work didn't stop there. Dean's research at IBM helped change the accessibility and power of the personal computer. His work led to the development of the color PC monitor and, in 1999, Dean led a team of engineers at IBM's Austin, Texas, lab to create the first gigahertz chip—a revolutionary piece of technology that is able to do a billion calculations a second.

In all, Dean holds three of the company's original nine patents and, in total, has more 20 patents associated with his name.

Biography.com: Mark Dean, Ph.D.

February Eleven...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 11, 2019 at 6:44am

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. visits Fort Valley State College, 1966. Pictured standing next to President Troup (middle).

Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Education, Human Rights, Women's Rights

Fort Valley State University

Since 1895, Fort Valley State University has empowered people to use education as a pathway to maximize their potential through invention, intellectual fulfillment, civic leadership, and meaningful careers. It was founded 122 years ago as a bridge to prosperity for the first generations of free black men and women in America and has a continuing legacy of producing leaders in a broad range of fields critical to human advancement. FVSU’s legacy is built on the belief that every human being is entitled to limitless learning, regardless of the circumstances of its birth. As expressed in its first academic catalog as a college, the institution exists to give students “a better chance in life” and help uplift people, “wherever the college can, through its graduates.”

The chains of physical slavery were broken in the United States by the Civil War, but the chains of mental slavery could only be broken through education. On November 6, 1895, an interracial group of 15 black men— at least half of whom were former slaves— and three white men, petitioned the Superior Court of Houston County, GA to legalize the creation of a school to “promote the cause of mental and manual education in the state of Georgia,” and the Fort Valley High and Industrial School was born. The group’s leader, John Wesley Davison, himself a child slave, was hired as its first principal after its incorporation on January 6, 1896. The school’s popularity was overwhelming, and enrollment pushed the boundaries of its capacity. FVSU is one of few colleges founded by former slaves, including founders Davison, Virgil Gideon Barnett, Peter Fann, Henry Lowman, Thomas McAfee, James Isaac Miller, Charlie H. Nixon, and Thomas W. Williams, who bonded with founders Stephen Elisha Bassett, Allen Cooper, Francis W. Gano, John Howard Hale, David Jones, J.R. Jones, D.L. Lawrence, Alonzo L. Nixon, and Lee O’Neal to create an enduring testament to the power of knowledge to overcome fear and mistrust.

The two original instructors, Principal Davison and his wife Hattie, were undaunted, however, as were the students, who built many of the campus’s original buildings with their own hands, including Founders, Carnegie, Peabody, Patton, and Ohio Halls, as well as infirmary. Much of the funding for the school came from its neighbors, uneducated African Americans who sacrificed their own meager finances to make possible the education of others. The institution’s first goal was to enable the proliferation of education to the masses, and set about training teachers who could then spread knowledge. Teachers were not the only professionals the institution produced, however. One of the first graduates of the young school was Austin Thomas Walden, who graduated in 1902 and became Georgia’s first black judge since Reconstruction.

Gadsden State Community College

Gadsden State Technical Institute began in 1960 as Gadsden Vocational Trade School, a private vocational training school for African Americans. It was founded by Eugene N. Prater, director of the Veterans General Continuation Program for Negroes, in response to discontent expressed by black veterans of Etowah County for being denied admission to the all-white Alabama School of Trades. The new school was approved by the Veterans Administration for training under the G.I. Bill and began to enroll black veterans. By August 1961, enrollment was at 71, and course offerings included auto mechanics and repair, plastering and cement finishing, brick masonry, woodworking, dry cleaning and laundry, general business, and tailoring. The school was identified as part of the state's network of vocational/technical schools and appointed Prater as the director. In 1962, the state of Alabama assumed ownership of the school, and in 1972, it was renamed Gadsden State Technical Institute. The U.S. Department of Education designated this institution as a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) in 1997. The facility now serves as the Valley Street Campus of Gadsden State.

Gadsden State Community College is a public, open door, comprehensive community college under the control of the Alabama Community College System Board of Trustees (ACCS BOT). Comprised of six campuses/centers, present-day Gadsden State began with the merger of Alabama Technical College, Gadsden State Technical Institute, and Gadsden State Junior College on February 28, 1985 to eliminate duplication of courses and to better serve students. Gadsden State has since expanded with the consolidation of the former Harry M. Ayers State Technical College in 2003 and the establishment of additional centers in Anniston and Centre. The college also offers instruction at St. Clair Correctional Facility. Gadsden State is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award associate degrees.

Present-day Gadsden State enrolls approximately 7,000 students on its six campuses. Gadsden State currently offers the associate in arts/science degrees, as well as certificate programs in a variety of career-technical education programs. Gadsden State was the first community college in Alabama with a gross anatomy laboratory, is one of 14 community colleges nationwide to have an aquaculture program, and was among the first to institute an Honors Scholar Program. The International Program has welcomed students from more than 50 countries since its inception in 1968.

Grambling State University

Grambling State University opened on November 1, 1901 as the Colored Industrial and Agricultural School. It was founded by the North Louisiana Colored Agriculture Relief Association, organized in 1896 by a group of African-American farmers who wanted to organize and operate a school for African Americans in their region of the state.

In response to the Association’s request for assistance, Tuskegee Institute’s Booker T. Washington sent Charles P. Adams to help the group organize an industrial school. Adams became its founding president.

In 1905, the school moved to its present location and was renamed the North Louisiana Agricultural and Industrial School. By 1928, after becoming a state junior college and being renamed the Louisiana Negro Normal and Industrial Institute, the school began to award two-year professional certificates and diplomas. In 1936, the curriculum emphasis shifted to rural teacher education; students were able to receive professional teaching certificates after completing a third academic year. The first baccalaureate degree was awarded in 1944, in elementary education.

In 1946, the school became Grambling College, named after P.G. Grambling, the white sawmill owner who had donated the parcel of land where the school was constructed. In addition to elementary educators, Grambling prepared secondary teachers and added curricula in sciences, liberal arts and business, transforming the college from a single purpose institution of teacher education into a multipurpose college. In 1949, the college earned its first accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).

In 1974, the addition of graduate programs in early childhood and elementary education gave the school a new status and a new name – Grambling State University. The university expanded and prospered between 1977 and 2000. Several new academic programs were incorporated and new facilities were added to the 384-acre campus, including a business and computer science building, school of nursing, student services building, stadium, stadium support facility and an intramural sports center.

Hampton University

Other universities simply teach history. Hampton University puts you right in the middle of it. Because, as you'll soon discover, you're not just a part of Hampton University - Hampton University is a part of you.

While our roots reach deep into the history of this nation and the African-American experience, our sights – like yours – are set squarely on the horizons of the global community of the 21st century.

Rich in history, steeped in tradition, Hampton University is a dynamic, progressive institution of higher education, providing a broad range of technical, liberal arts, and graduate degree programs. In addition to being one of the top historically black universities in the world, Hampton University is a tightly-knit community of learners and educators, representing 49 states and 35 territories and nations.

Under a Simple Oak Tree

The year was 1861. The American Civil War had shortly begun and the Union Army held control of Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. In May of that year, Union Major General Benjamin Butler decreed that any escaping slaves reaching Union lines would be considered "contraband of war" and would not be returned to bondage. This resulted in waves of enslaved people rushing to the fort in search of freedom. A camp to house the newly freed slaves was built several miles outside the protective walls of Fort Monroe. It was named "The Grand Contraband Camp" and functioned as the United States' first self-contained African American community.

In order to provide the masses of refugees some kind of education, Mary Peake, a free Negro, was asked to teach, even though an 1831 Virginia law forbid the education of slaves, free blacks and mulattos. She held her first class, which consisted of about twenty students, on September 17, 1861 under a simple oak tree. This tree would later be known as the Emancipation Oak and would become the site of the first Southern reading of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Today, the Emancipation Oak still stands on the Hampton University campus as a lasting symbol of the promise of education for all, even in the face of adversity.

Thomas L. Jennings...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 11, 2019 at 6:30am

Image Source: Mental Floss

Topics: African Americans, Chemistry, Civil Rights, Education, Human Rights, Women's Rights

Thomas L. Jennings (1791-1859) was the first African American person to receive a patent in the U.S., paving the way for future inventors of color to gain exclusive rights to their inventions. Born in 1791, Jennings lived and worked in New York City as a tailor and dry cleaner. He invented an early method of dry cleaning called "dry scouring" and patented it in 1821—four years before Paris tailor Jean Baptiste Jolly refined his own chemical technique and established what many people claim was history’s first dry cleaning business.

People objected to an African American receiving a patent, but Jennings had a loophole: He was a free man. At the time, U.S. patent laws said that the "[slavemaster] is the owner of the fruits of the labor of the slave both manual and intellectual"—meaning slaves couldn't legally own their ideas or inventions, but nothing was stopping Jennings. Several decades later, Congress extended patent rights to all African American individuals, both slaves and freedmen.

Jennings used the money from his invention to free the rest of his family and donate to abolitionist causes.

February Ten...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 10, 2019 at 9:18am

1867 - Fisk University is Incorporated

Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Education, Human Rights, Women's Rights

Fayetteville State University

Celebrating our Sesquicentennial will be a testament to the tenacity of the spirit of seven black citizens and the black community of Fayetteville who established and supported the Howard School on November 29, 1867 for educating black children.

They would indeed be proud today of the diverse student body and world class accomplishments made by FSU in various fields from teacher education to cyber-security. We will commemorate this transformative experience by proudly "Celebrating 150 Years of Excellence in Preparing Educators, Leaders, and Engaged Citizens" during the 2017-2018 academic year.

1865

In 1865, a "sophisticated" education agenda was already underway in Fayetteville's black community. Blacks citizens in Fayetteville were zealots for education and tried to have a school at Evans Chapel prior to 1865 but had problems with financial stability and space. After a request was made by John Sinclair Leary to the American Missionary Association (AMA) for a teacher, they sent Reverend Dickson whose tenure was cut short by illness.

1866

Robert Harris was named the Superintendent of the AMA school in 1866 and appointed his brother Cicero Harris as his assistant. Robert taught the intermediate level, which he called the Sumner School and assigned Cicero the primary grades, which he called the Phillips School. The curriculum at the schools emphasized fundamentals in reading, writing, practical math, and moral development. However financial stability and space were continuing problems due to the large number of schools the AMA was trying to support as well as the number of children and adults who wanted to be educated in Fayetteville.

1867

Black citizens of Fayetteville decided to establish their own school for the education of their children. They held a meeting at Evans Chapel in November of 1867, and agreed to establish the Howard School, named after General Oliver Otis Howard, Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau. They designated David A. Bryant, Nelson Carter, Andrew Jackson Chesnutt, George W. Grange, Sr., Matthew N. Leary, Jr., Thomas Lomax, and Robert H. Simmons, and their successors as Trustees. On November 29, 1867, these seven men signed the deed and paid $136 to Robert Simmons and Henry McNeill for two lots on Gillespie Street so that the Freedmen's Bureau could build a school for the education of black children. Robert Harris became the first Chief Executive Officer of the school when he was designated as Principal of the Howard School. In addition to reading, writing, and math, he expanded the curriculum to include science and geography, trained students to serve as teachers in small rural schools in Cumberland and surrounding counties, and also taught evening and summer school classes, thus greatly increasing the number of blacks receiving an education in the county. The Howard School became the model for graded schools in North Carolina.

Fisk University

Founded in 1866, shortly after the end of the Civil War, Fisk University is a historically black university, and is the oldest institution of higher learning in Nashville, Tennessee. Fisk’s outstanding faculty and students continue to enhance the University’s national reputation for academic excellence, which is validated year after year by the leading third party reviewers, as well as, by the pool of talented applicants and the large percentage of alumni who complete graduate or professional degrees and become leaders and scholars in their fields.

From its earliest days, Fisk has played a leadership role in the education of African-Americans. Fisk faculty and alumni have been among America's intellectual, artistic, and civic leaders in every generation since the University's beginnings.

In 1865, barely six months after the end of the Civil War and just two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, three men — John Ogden, the Reverend Erastus Milo Cravath, and the Reverend Edward P. Smith — established the Fisk School in Nashville.

The school was named in honor of General Clinton B. Fisk of the Tennessee Freedmen's Bureau, who provided the new institution with facilities in former Union Army barracks near the present site of Nashville's Union Station. In these facilities Fisk convened its first classes on January 9, 1866. The first students ranged in age from seven to seventy, but shared common experiences of slavery and poverty — and an extraordinary thirst for learning.

1867 - Fisk University is Incorporated

The work of Fisk's founders was sponsored by the American Missionary Association — later part of the United Church of Christ, with which Fisk retains an affiliation today.

Ogden, Cravath, and Smith, along with others in their movement, shared a dream of an educational institution that would be open to all, regardless of race, and that would measure itself by "the highest standards, not of Negro education, but of American education at its best." Their dream was incorporated as Fisk University on August 22, 1867.

Florida A&M University

FAMU’s academic achievements are what set it apart as a unique learning experience. In 2014, FAMU was recognized among the 2014 U.S. News & World Report’s “Best National Universities.” The U.S. News & World Report lists FAMU as the top public historically black college or university in the nation for 2015. It is also listed among The Princeton Review’s “Best in the Southeast” colleges and is one of the top picks for providing a high quality education at an affordable price in Florida, according to The College Database (2013).

FAMU values diversity in thought, perspective, and culture. The University enrolls nearly 10,000 students hailing from across the United States and more than 70 countries, including several African countries, the Bahamas, Brazil, Indonesia, China, and the United Arab Emirates, to name a few. The student body includes representatives from all ethnic, socio-economic, and religious backgrounds.

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University was founded as the State Normal College for Colored Students, and on October 3, 1887, it began classes with fifteen students and two instructors. Today, FAMU, as it has become affectionately known, is the premiere school among historically black colleges and universities. Prominently located on the highest hill in Florida’s capital city of Tallahassee, Florida A&M University remains the only historically black university in the eleven member State University System of Florida.

In 1884, Thomas Van Renssaler Gibbs, a Duval County educator, was elected to the Florida legislature. Although his political career ended abruptly because of the resurgence of segregation, Representative Gibbs was successful in orchestrating the passage of House Bill 133, in 1884, which established a white normal school in Gainesville, FL, and a colored school in Jacksonville. The bill passed, creating both institutions; however, the stated decided to relocate the colored school to Tallahassee.

Thomas DeSaille Tucker [1887-1901], an attorney from Pensacola, was chosen to be the first president. Former State Representative Gibbs joined Mr. Tucker as the second faculty member. In 1891, the College received $7,500 under the Second Morrill Act for agricultural and mechanical arts education, and the State Normal College for Colored Students became Florida’s land grant institution for colored people. The original College was housed in a single white-framed building and had three departments of study and recreation. At about this time, the College was relocated from its original site on Copeland Street to its present location, and its name was changed to the State Normal and Industrial College for Colored Students.

Florida Memorial University

Florida Memorial University is a private, coeducational, and Baptist-affiliated institution that has the distinction of being one of the oldest academic centers in the state, and the only Historically Black University in South Florida.

In 1879, members of the Bethlehem Baptist Association founded the school, then called Florida Baptist Institute, in Live Oak to create “a College of instruction for our ministers and children.” The Reverend J. L. A. Fish was its first president. Despite a promising start, racial tensions soon cast a shadow over the Institute. In April 1892, after unknown persons fired shots into one of the school’s buildings, then-President Rev. Matthew Gilbert and other staff members fled Live Oak for Jacksonville, where he founded the Florida Baptist Academy in the basement of Bethel Baptist Church. They began holding classes in May 1892, with Sarah Ann Blocker as the main instructor. The school in Live Oak, however, continued to operate even after this splintering.

In 1896, Nathan White Collier was appointed president of the Academy, a post he held for 45 years. President Collier recruited renowned composer and Jacksonville native, J. Rosamond Johnson, to teach music at the school. While in the employ of the Florida Baptist Academy, Rosamond composed music for “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” a poem written by his brother, James Weldon Johnson, creating the song that has since been enshrined as the “Negro National Anthem.” It was first performed by a choir that included students from Florida Baptist Academy at a celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday in 1900.

February Nine...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 9, 2019 at 7:30am

Elizabeth City State University

Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Education, Human Rights, Women's Rights

Dillard University

In 1869, with the support of the Missionary Association of the Congregational Church (now the United Church of Christ) and the Freedman’s Aid Society of the United Methodist Church, Straight University and Union Normal School were founded. Later, they were renamed Straight College and New Orleans University, respectively.

Gilbert Academy, a secondary school, was a unit of New Orleans University. Straight College operated a law department from 1874 to 1886. New Orleans University in 1889 opened a medical department, including a school of pharmacy and a school of nursing. The medical department was named Flint Medical College and the affiliated hospital was named the Sarah Goodridge Hospital and Nurse Training School. The medical college was discontinued in 1911, but the hospital, including the nursing school, was continued under the name Flint Goodridge Hospital.

In 1930, New Orleans University and Straight College merged to form Dillard University. The trustees of the new university called for the implementation of a coeducational, interracial school, serving a predominantly African American student body adhering to Christian principles and values. The university was named in honor of James Hardy Dillard, a distinguished academician dedicated to educating African Americans.

Dillard students continue to excel academically, winning major awards such as the Luard Scholarship and gaining placement in prestigious graduate programs throughout the nation.

University of the District of Columbia

The University of the District of Columbia is historic and modern, all at the same time. Public higher education in the District originated in 1851 when Myrtilla Miner founded a “school for colored girls” in Washington, DC. In 1879, Miner Normal School joined the DC public school system. Similarly, Washington Normal School was established in 1873, as a school for white girls. The latter institution was renamed Wilson Normal School in 1913, after James O. Wilson, Washington’s first superintendent of public schools. In 1929, Congress enacted a statute that converted both normal schools into four-year teacher’s colleges. For several years, Miner Teachers College and Wilson Teachers College were the only institutions of public higher education in the city. After the landmark U.S. Supreme Court school desegregation decision, Brown v. Board of Education (U.S. 1954), the two colleges merged in 1955 to form the District of Columbia Teacher’s College. Over the next decade, D.C. residents petitioned for an expansion of higher education that would provide training for careers other than teaching. In 1966, Congress enacted the District of Columbia Public Education Act, which established Federal City College and Washington Technical Institute.

Although these schools were still very new, many Washingtonians continued to advocate for a comprehensive university. The City Council authorized the consolidation of the three schools, and in 1976, began the monumental task of creating a new University of the District of Columbia. In 1977, under President Carter’s leadership, UDC began consolidating its academic programs. These efforts culminated in the establishment of five colleges: Business and Public Management; Education and Human Ecology; Liberal and Fine Arts; Life Sciences; Physical Science, Engineering, and Technology; and University College and Continuing Education.

Edward Waters College

Edward Waters College (EWC) is, distinctively, Florida’s oldest independent institution of higher learning as well as the state’s first institution established for the education of African Americans.

Edward Waters College began as an institution founded by blacks, for blacks. In 1865, following the Civil War, the Reverend Charles H. Pearce, a presiding elder of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, was sent to Florida by Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne. Observing the fast-paced social and political changes of the Reconstruction era, Rev. Pearce immediately recognized the need for an education ministry, as no provision had yet been made for the public education of Florida’s newly emancipated blacks. Assisted by the Reverend William G. Steward, the first AME pastor in the state, Pearce began to raise funds to build a school.

This school, established in 1866, was to eventually evolve into Edward Waters College. From the beginning, EWC was faced with both abject poverty and widespread illiteracy among its constituents resulting from pre-war conditions of servitude and historical, legally enforced non-schooling of African Americans. However, the school met the needs of its community by offering courses at the elementary, high school, college, and seminary levels. Construction of the first building began in October 1872 on ten acres of land in Live Oak. Further support for this new educational institution.

Elizabeth City State University

Founding

On March 3, 1891, Hugh Cale, an African-American representative in the N.C. General Assembly from Pasquotank County, sponsored House Bill 383, which established a normal (teaching) school for “teaching and training teachers of the colored race to teach in the common schools of North Carolina.” The bill passed, and the origin of Elizabeth City State University was born. The institution's first name was Elizabeth City State Colored Normal School (1891-1939).

Early Leadership

The first leader, Peter W. Moore, was called a Principal (subsequent leaders would be called President, then Chancellor). Moore served as Principal and then President until his retirement as President, Emeritus, on July 1, 1928. During his tenure, enrollment increased from 23 to 355 and the faculty from two to 15 members. During the tenure of the second president, John Henry Bias, the institution was elevated from a two-year normal school to a four-year teachers college (1937). Two years later, the institution’s name was officially changed to Elizabeth City State Teachers College (1939-1963). The growth and elevation to teachers college changed the mission to include training elementary school principals for rural and city schools. The first Bachelor of Science degrees in elementary education were awarded in May of 1939.

Continued Growth

Between 1959 and 1963, the institution became more than a teaching college, adding 11 academic majors to the original elementary education major. In 1961, the college joined the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accrediting group (SACS) and maintains its accreditation with that body to the present. In 1963, the N.C. General Assembly changed the institution’s name from Elizabeth City State Teachers College to Elizabeth City State College (1963-1969) and on, July 1, 1969, the college became Elizabeth City State University. In 1971, the General Assembly redefined the University of North Carolina system with 16 public institutions, including ECSU. Together, those institutions became constituents of The University of North Carolina (July 1972).

Today

Academics. Currently ECSU offers 27 baccalaureate, professional, and 4 master's degrees for a diverse student body. We achieve our commitment to the highest quality education by maintaining a rigorous focus on academic excellence through liberal arts programs and using innovative and flexible technology-based instruction models to enhance our signature areas: integrating technology with education, improving human health and wellness, and advancing the natural and aviation sciences. As of May 2018, undergraduate and/or graduate degrees have been conferred upon more than 20,000 students.

February Eight...

Posted by Reginald L. Goodwin on February 8, 2019 at 7:30am

Delaware State University

Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Education, Human Rights, Women's Rights

Concordia College, Alabama (closed 2018)

SELMA, Ala. — Following three days of celebration and remembrance, students, families, faculty and regents gathered on the campus of Concordia College Alabama (CCA) on April 28 for the school’s 92nd and final commencement.

Founded in 1922, the historically black Lutheran college closed its doors for good following the ceremony after a multi-year effort to stay open.

“When it was started, there were 30-plus Lutheran schools teaching the black population across this area of Alabama at a time when a black child had no opportunity to learn to read and write,” said Roderick Olson, a member of the CCA Board of Regents, recalling how The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) stepped in at the request of the unstoppable black education pioneer, Dr. Rosa J. Young.

Founded as a preparatory school to train teachers for the elementary schools established by Young, the school frequently adapted to the changing times and needs of the church.

What began as Alabama Junior Academy ultimately became a four-year institution for African-American students in the Deep South who would go on to become teachers or Lutheran pastors. Reporter: Official Newspaper of the Lutheran Church

Coppin State University

Coppin State University is a model urban, residential liberal arts university located in the northwest section of the City of Baltimore that provides academic programs in the arts and sciences, teacher education, nursing, graduate studies, and continuing education. An HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), Coppin has a culturally rich history as an institution providing quality educational programs and community outreach services. Coppin offers 53 majors and nine graduate-degree programs. A fully accredited institution, Coppin serves Baltimore residents as well as students from around the world, with flexible course schedules that include convenient day, evening, and weekend classes and distance learning courses.

Coppin was founded in 1900 at what was then called Colored High School (later named Douglass High School) on Pennsylvania Avenue by the Baltimore City School Board who initiated a one-year training course for the preparation of African-American elementary school teachers. By 1902, the training program was expanded to a two-year Normal Department within the high school, and seven years later it was separated from the high school and given its own principal.

In 1926, this facility for teacher training was named Fanny Jackson Coppin Normal School in honor of the outstanding African-American woman who was a pioneer in teacher education. Fanny Jackson Coppin was born a slave in Washington, D.C. She gained her freedom, graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio, and founded the Philadelphia Institute that was the forerunner of Cheyney State University.

By 1938 the curriculum of the normal school was lengthened to four years, authority was given for the granting of the Bachelor of Science degree, and the name of the Normal School was changed to Coppin Teachers College. In 1950, Coppin became part of the higher education system of Maryland under the State Department of Education, and renamed Coppin State Teachers College. Two years later Coppin moved to its present 38-acre site on West North Avenue.

Delaware State University

The Delaware College for Colored Students, now known as Delaware State University, was established May 15, 1891, by the Delaware General Assembly under the provisions of the Morrill Act of 1890 by which land-grant colleges for Blacks came into existence in states maintaining separate educational facilities. With the appointment of an inaugural six-member Board of Trustees, that governing body used part of the initial $8,000 state appropriation to purchase a 95-acre property north of the state capital of Dover to establish the new college.

Because there was already a private Delaware College (now the University of Delaware) located in Newark, Del., to avoid confusion new state legislation was passed and enacted in early 1893 to change the black school’s name to the State College for Colored Students. That would be the institution’s name for the next 54 years.

Through the conservative and practical planning of the Board of Trustees appointed by Delaware Gov. Robert J. Reynolds, the College was launched upon its mission of education and public service on February 2, 1892. Five courses of study leading to a baccalaureate degree were offered: Agricultural, Chemical, Classical, Engineering and Scientific. A Preparatory Department was established in 1893 for students who were not qualified to pursue a major course of study upon entrance. A three-year normal course leading to a teacher’s certificate was initiated in 1897. The College graduated its first class of degree candidates in May 1898. The normal course of study (teacher education) was extended to four years in 1911 and the Bachelor of Pedagogy degree was awarded to students upon satisfactory completion of the curriculum.

Denmark Technical College

Mission Statement

Denmark Technical College is a public, comprehensive, Historically Black, two-year technical college located in rural Bamberg County in South Carolina. The college annually serves approximately 2,000 credit and continuing education students, a mix of traditional, nontraditional, full-time and part-time. Denmark Technical College is the only technical college in the State of South Carolina with on-campus housing. As a member of the South Carolina Technical College System, Denmark Technical College’s mission is related to the educational mission of the State of South Carolina and the Technical College System. The College's primary service area is comprised of Bamberg, Barnwell, and Allendale Counties with a legislated mandate to serve students throughout the state. As an open-door institution, the College provides affordable, post-secondary education culminating in associate degrees, diplomas, and certificates, to citizens from diverse educational and socioeconomic backgrounds and reaches out to its service area high schools with opportunities for the students. The college provides training needed by business and industry through collaborative partnerships and resource allocation.

Denmark Technical College: 1) Provides Student Learning Outcome based educational opportunities for its students with embedded continuous improvement plan that will afford the necessary skills and knowledge for the emerging job market. 2) Develops and implements processes for seamless transition of students from high school through Denmark Technical College to four year institutions. 3) Provides the graduates with the intellectual and practical skills to include but not limited to inquiry and analysis, critical and creative thinking, written and oral communications, quantitative literacy, information literacy, teamwork and problem solving. 4) Provides the graduates with the personal and social responsibility skills to include but not limited to civic knowledge and engagement—local and global, intercultural knowledge and competence, ethical reasoning and action, foundations and skills for lifelong learning. 5) Engages in efforts to form extensive partnerships/consortia leading to branding the college as a leader in training for the business and industry that will enhance the economic development and growth of the service area and the state. 6) Provides a competency based program for the students to attain and maintain certifications for the job market.

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