North Carolina's Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Barber-Scotia Seminary, A Source Of 19th Century Learning.

On Tuesday, 11.22.1870 Barber-Scotia Seminary was chartered by the State of North Carolina. This was a learning institution for Black girls.

Bennett College , in Greensboro, was founded August 1, 1873 as a normal school for teacher training. It opened with seventy African-American men and women (freedmen, or former slaves). The school's founder, Albion W. Tourgee, was an activist from Ohio who worked in North Carolina during Reconstruction and championed the cause of racial justice.

Photograph: The Bennett College choir poses together in front of Steele Hall in the 1930s.

Source: Photograph part of the Art Shop Collection house at the Greensboro History Museum.

The Bennett College May Queen and her court stand outdoors and pose for a photograph on the campus,
circa 1941.

A group of college students posing on the steps of Jones Hall at Bennett College hold up banners and pennants from Shaw University, Bennett College for Women, Palmer, Livingstone and A&T College in 1941.

1941, Five students pose on stage for a show at Bennett College For Women, in Greensboro, NC.

Sourced from: The Art Shop (Greensboro, N.C.) (Photographer) - Greensboro History Museum.

From Brian McRae - “My mom Marjorie Cox (born & raised in Dunn, NC), and my dad Ivan McRae Jr (from NYC) standing outside a Bennett College building, likely her dorm, dated March 1944.

1914, Postcard with Six young women members of the baseball team posing with mitts and baseball bats outdoors.
Bennett College for women. Greensboro, NC.
President James E. Wallace (1913–1915)

Bennett College For Women, 1945 Women's Athletic Association.

Shared with us by Brian McRae whose mom Marjorie Cox is in this photograph, rear, far right.

The Night the Sports World Revolved Around Two Black Women’s Basketball Teams in Greensboro

“We were ladies, too,” Bennett forward Ruth Glover Mullen said many years later. “We just played basketball like boys.”

Photo: Bennett Belles from Bennett College For Women-1937-Students protesting Jim/Jane Crow laws enforced by the Carolina Movie Theater in Greensboro, NC-photographer unknown.
--

The Power of Black Women’s Political Labor Remembered Bennett College and the Civil Rights Movement

March 22, 1945, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt accepts flowers from two girl scouts during her visit to Bennett College for Women.
She was on a tour of Black education institutions.

Photograph © Carol W. Martin/Greensboro History Museum Collection.

Cropped- Male and female students at Bennett Seminary , (which changed it’s name to Bennett College for Women, and is now Bennett College) pose outside their school building in the 1880s.

Male and female students at Bennett Seminary , (which changed it’s name to Bennett College for Women, and is now Bennett College) pose outside their school building in the 1880s.

31 years ago on On December 27, 1892 these two North Carolina Black colleges, (HBCU’s) played the first Black College Intercollegiate football game. The game was the Cricket Celebration Bowl and the trophy commemorates the inaugural game the players.

Left Image: Biddle College football team. The college is now named Johnson C. Smith University. Year unknown.

Right image: Livingstone College football team. Year unknown.

ECSU's Century-Old Rosenwald School to Take on New Role

By Melissa Stuckey, an Assistant Professor of History at Elizabeth City State University and member of the board of the Friends of the Museum of the Albemarle.

Nestled within the modern campus of Elizabeth City State University is a 100-year-old Rosenwald school building.
This modest schoolhouse, formerly located on Parkview Drive, was once bursting with activity.

The Student body of Elizabeth City Colored Normal School 1913-1914

Sourced from: ESCU archives/ nc digital

Photo: ECSU,
Early graduating class, Elizabeth City State Colored Normal School (circa 1900).

Photo courtesy of North Carolina Digital Heritage Center.

Note: There are different historical writings about Mr. Cale's life in which some say he was born enslaved, others say he was born free because his parents were free.
We are adding in both types of historical accounts to this post.

Elizabeth City State University- HISTORICAL TIMELINE
1891 January 26: Legislation to establish institution introduced by the Honorable Hugh Cale (1835 - 1910), a black Pasquotank County Representative in the North Carolina General Assembly.
March 3: Cale's Bill enacted into law; State Board of Education directed to establish school

Photograph: ECSU Principal Peter W. Moore and students, 1899.

Photo courtesy of North Carolina Digital Heritage Center.

Photograph: ECSU,
ECSU Principal Peter W. Moore and students seated around wood-burning stove (circa 1899).

Photo courtesy of North Carolina Digital Heritage Center.

Photograph: Amy Littlejohn Roberts (1878-1935)-was able to attend, complete her course of study and graduate from Elizabeth City Colored Normal School in 1895.

The college is now Elizabeth City State University. One of North Carolina's Public HBCU's, Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Cheerleaders, Elizabeth City State Teachers College, 1949.
From the 1949 edition of the Viking, Elizabeth City State University's yearbook, (p. 87).

Image courtesy of the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center.

ECSU State Colored Normal Class, 1912.

Photo courtesy of North Carolina Digital Heritage Center

Title with photograph: Gathering of Female Students on State Colored Normal School Campus, circa 1924 - Elizabeth City State Colored Normal School. Elizabeth City, Pasquotank County. N.C.

Photograph: Elizabeth City State Colored Normal School women’s basketball team with coach Dr. Donald G. Brandon, 1937.
Sourced from: ncdhc

1892 January 4 “Elizabeth City Colored Normal School” began operations on Roanoke Avenue with 2 teachers and 23 students, $900. appropriation, and Peter Weddick Moore as Principal.. Hattie A. Newby is the first person to graduate, completing her post graduate program.

Elizabeth City Teachers College Baseball Team-1909 *contributing researcher Stan Best*

Fayetteville State University (FSU) is a historically black public regional university in Fayetteville, North Carolina. FSU is part of the University of North Carolina System and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

Fayetteville State University Broncoettes-1947.
*Researcher Stan Best*

Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU) is a private, historically Black university in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), and Council on Social Work Accreditation (CSWE). The school awards Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Social Work, and Master of Social Work degrees.

Sam Martin Bruce Jr. was born on December 7, 1915, in Houston, Texas. Bruce’s father, Samuel Martin Bruce Sr. (1858–1927) died when he was a young boy. His mother, Barbara Brenda Bruce Sellars (1943–1988) remarried and the family relocated to Seattle, Washington.

On Sun, 08.31.1879, Livingstone College was founded in Salisbury, North Carolina.

The founding of Livingstone College is celebrated on this date in 1879.

One of over 100 Historical Black Colleges and Universities in America, Livingstone College, in Salisbury, North Carolina, began as an educational institution for clergy in the African Methodist Church (A.M.E.). It was located in a small house on seven acres of land donated by the Reverend Thurber, and was called Zion Wesley Institute.

A Group of Officers and Teachers.

COLLECTION
Sketch book of Livingstone College and East Tennessee Industrial School, Salisbury, N.C.

Main Building- Livingstone College, Salisbury, NC. 1888.

Source: Image courtesy of DocSouth, UNC Libraries. Charles Lee Smith, 1865-1951 The History of Education in North Carolina. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1888.

Maggie Bryant, N.C. Central University's Oldest Living Graduate, Turns 106 Next Month

By Thomasi McDonald /The Indy June 23, 2021 6:00 A.M.

There was a touch of revelry in the air Friday on the campus of N.C. Central University.

Longtime A&T photographer Charles Watkins remembered for stories told with his camera and his courage in facing adversity
By Nancy McLaughlin -News/Record-December 14, 2019

Photograph: In this 2018 portrait, former NC A & T photographer, Charles Watkins, poses with some of his paintings. He continued to work on his art through a series of life threatening illnesses during his life.-Credit: H. Scott Hoffman-News/Record Greensboro, NC

A&T-North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University was founded as a land grant institution for African Americans.

The school was originally named the Agricultural and Mechanical College, and was established as a result of the Second Morrill Act, enacted by Congress in 1890.

An early image of N.C. A&T students working in the Biological laboratory ca 1800.

This was one of the photographs that W. B. DuBois used in his exhibition at the 1900 Paris Exposition.

Source: African American photographs assembled for 1900 Paris Exposition, Library of Congress.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2001705867/

On Monday, 03.09.1891,North Carolina A&T University was founded.

*On this date in 1891, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University was founded. They are one of over 100 historically Black colleges and unversities in America.

Image: Cover page of The Colored American working man of the new time an address delivered by Rev. A. D. (Amory Dwight) Mayo, 1823-1907 before the State Agricultural and Mechanical College for the Colored Race, at Greensboro, N. C., May 26, 1898.
There are 37 pages in this report.

A team of A&T University cheerleaders practice out on the lawn on campus in 1938.

Source: Photograph part of the Art Shop Collection housed at the Greensboro History Museum.

The A&T University marching band leads the way for the members of the graduation class as they march through campus in the 1930s.

On July.5, 1910, North Carolina Central University opened.

*On this date in 1910, we celebrate to opening of North Carolina Central University. This is one of the many Historical Black Colleges and Universities in America.

Students Hold Voting Pamphlets Aloft01 January, 1970 - DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA: Students including Christine Gaither, Jaye Mizelle, Gerelyn Jierguson, Sonja Jierguson, Edith Auery, Diana Boney, Lavern Williams and Mavine Foyner hold up voting pamphlets on the campus of North Carolina Central University at the Alfonso Elder Student Union in Durham, North Carolina.

On the left is NCCU Founder Dr. James E. Shepard standing with civil rights leader, the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. outside B.N. Duke Auditorium in 1938.

Powell was also co-founder of the National Negro Congress and the first African American to represent Harlem, N.Y., in the U.S. House of Representatives.

North Carolina College 1941 CIAA Basketball Champions

"A photograph of the North Carolina College 1941 CIAA Champion Basketball Team. The team was coached by John B. McLendon.

01 January, 1960 - Durham, NC -
NCC MAJORETTE Grace Pegues, a North Carolina College Junior from Norwood, North Carolina, shows some of the gracefulness which led to her selection as one of eight majorettes fronting the college’s 120-piece marching band this year.

19 October, 1965 - Three band corps majorettes at North Carolina College-Durham, NC, photographed during a football game.
Left to right: Fern Matthewson, Tarboro, N.C.; Patricia Tanner, Greensboro, N.C.; and Hellena Huntley, Greensboro, N.C.

Rev. Grover Cleveland Hawley’s (G.C. Hawley) Master of Arts degree from North Carolina College for Negroes, May 29, 1944.
Durham, NC.

Rev. Hawley was from Granville county, NC., and by the time he obtained his master's degree, he had been principal at Hawley High School, in Creedmoor, NC. for a number of years.

Image: Zora Neale Hurston (standing), African American novelist, playwright, folklorist and anthropologist at a North Carolina College for Negroes football game. (Durham, NC.)

Zora Hurston was a professor in the Drama Department at North Carolina College for Negroes From 1939 to 1940.

Ca. 1955 NCC band portrait. Later renamed, NCCU, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC.

Source: NCCU Archives.

01 January, 1960 - Four North Carolina College (Durham, NC) cheerleaders strike an elaborate pose to urge the university’s basketball team, the Eagles on to victory.

22 September, 1964 - North Carolina College’s HIGH-STEPPERS-- Durham, NC.

James D. Wilson, center, North Carolina College’s drum major, is surrounded by majorettes who will join him in front of the college’s 120-piece marching band.

19 October, 1965 - Three of North Carolina College’s high-stepping majorettes photographed during a practice session on the college’s campus in Durham, North Carolina.

Roger Arliner Young, born in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania in 1889, was the first black woman to earn a Ph.D. in zoology and to conduct research at the prestigious Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Young conducted research on the anatomy of paramecium and the effects of radiation on sea urchin eggs.

Photograph: Scotia Seminary in Concord, ca. 1891. Image courtesy of the Historic Cabarrus Association

One of Scotia Seminary's most famous alumna was Mary McCleod Bethune (1963-1955), who entered the school in 1887 on a scholarship, and graduated in 1894. It's difficult to do justice to Bethune's life and career in just a few sentences. But in a pattern often seen in graduates of women's schools, Bethune developed a passionate commitment to the advancement of women, education, civil rights, and social justice. As the National Women's Hall of Fame has said of Bethune,

Graduates from missionary training school, Shaw University, Raleigh, N.C. (1906 ?)

COLLECTION
Twenty-nine year's work among Negroes

On December 1, 1865, SHAW was Founded by Dr. Henry Martin Tupper.
Shaw University, located in Raleigh, North Carolina is the first historically Black institution of higher education in the South and among the oldest in the nation. The University was founded in 1865 by Henry Martin Tupper, a native of Monson, Massachusetts, a soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War, and a graduate of Amherst College and Newton Theological Seminary.

Shaw University in Raleigh, NC has the first building ever established for the higher education of African American women in the United States.

In 1874, Shaw University, having already made progress as the one of the nation's first Historically Black Universities, opened Estey Hall for the higher education of African American women.

Shaw University Cheerleaders-1961
*Researcher Stan Best*

alftone photograph mounted on thin cardboard depicting W. C. Strudwick (1884-1932) in Shaw University football uniform.
Bottom of photograph is inscribed, W. C. Strudwick R. G. (presumably, Right Guard).

On February 10, 1960 students from Shaw University and St. Augustine’s College walked Fayetteville Street and sat down at lunch counters in Raleigh with the sole request to be served.

The sit-in protests began in Greensboro ten days earlier and other college towns soon followed. The simple act of sitting at a lunch counter and reading proved to be an effective and non-violent tactic to challenge de facto segregation.

"Dr. King is seen pictured here, on the campus of Shaw University on April 15, 1960 where he was part of a SCLC conference with local sit-in leaders. He encouraged more than 200 students to continue with the use of nonviolent methods.

Louise Celia "Lulu" Fleming MD
Public Domain Image

Louise Cecelia Fleming was a graduate of Shaw University in
Raleigh, NC, and she was the first Black woman to graduate from the Women’s Medical College at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to Raleigh, NC to meet with Shaw U. students and faculty, specifically Ella Baker to meet and talk about ways of resisting Jim and Jane Crow laws of segregation.
Ella Baker and students were the foundation of the founding of the Students Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at Shaw University.

Shaw University’s Leonard Medical School graduating class of 1909.

*Contributing researcher-Stan Best*

On Mon, 10.14.1867 St Augustine’s College was founded in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The founding of St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, N.C., in 1867 is celebrated on this date. It is One of over 100 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) in America.

Science lab at St. Augustine’s College
c. 1949.

Now St. Augustine's University, the institution was founded in 1867 as Saint Augustine's Normal School.

In 1928, after the introduction of college-level curriculum for students to obtain a four-year degree, it became St. Augustine's College.
In 2012 the school became St. Augustine's University.

Photo: Lyman Bldg. at St Augustines 1890
Lyman Building, St. Augustine’s University (Built 1886).

St. Augustine’s University erected this large, four-story brick building in the center of its campus in 1886.

William Day - Black abolitionist, educator, minister and editor of A weekly newspaper,

In 1879, Day also opened Livingstone College with J.C. Price, William H. Goler, and Solomon Porter Hood. It ws established in Salisbury, NC, for Black students, which remains a predominantly black college.

In 1925, Slater Academy became Winston-Salem Teachers College, the first Black institution in the nation authorized to offer a bachelor’s degree in education.

Delores “Dee” Todd , WSSU Class of ‘72 - Winston Salem State University, Winston Salem, NC.

Todd broke barriers throughout her career. In 1980, she became the first African American to appear on a box of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes. In 1983, she was named Big 10 Coach of the Year for Cross Country.

Winston-Salem State University (WSSU) was founded in 1892 as Slater Industrial School.
It is a historically black public university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina.