All colorful peacocks like the one pictured are male. Female peacocks are a brownish color and are pretty boring.

I'd like to second Harris-Stowe? I was under the impression that Harris merged with Stowe thus merging the white and black teachers colleges. Am I wrong here?

Virginia Union

I thought Virginia Union University was Private and religiously affiliated?

I know this is kind of off the subject, but does anyone else feel kinda...uncomfortable....with the idea of HBCUs? I mean, everyone would through a huge civil rights fit if there were HWCUs. The whole idea just seems a little old-timey, and I think people and colleges shouldn't really be classified by their race. That's just me...please don't get angry!

Historically Black Colleges and Universities were founded to educate black people during a time when their access to higher education was extremely limited.

They continue to exist as a destination for many high achieving students. Some HBCUs have a mission of educating all students who want an education (open admissions) while others maintain rigorous admissions standards. I believe that Howard University, for example, attractes the greatest amount of African American National Merit Scholars. (Or used to at some not too distant point in the past.)

All of them serve as centers of black culture and traditions,some of them quite literally with their archives and Africana studies departments.

The good thing about your discomfort is that you don't have to attend an HBCU or ever send your children there, yet they can still exist to serve the thousands of students (black, white, and other) who choose to attend them.

Although I didn't attend an HBCU, I respect that they are mostly fine institutions that provide quality educations to those who might not feel comfortable in a mainstream academic setting, who might not have that door open to them for economic or social reasons, or who simply want an experience that is tailored to African American experiences.

Not uncomfortable at all with the idea and existence of HBCUs.

There are non Black students who attend HBCUs as well. At the time HBCUs were born, they were needed because Blacks were not allowed to attend majority schools, i.e OHio State, Wittenberg (;)), etc. HBCUs are still needed and serve a purpose in the Black community, educationally and culturally among many other purposes.

I concur @ paragraph #1.
Ditto @ paragraph #2. :D

You're probably right. Is that Douglas Wilder's old school?

Everything that Senusret said was right on. Also, please don't assume that just b/c this term (HWCU) isn't used, the concept still doesn't exist.

That's where they filmed College Hill 3

Interesting you bring these up. They are my Parents-In-Laws Alma Maters. I was not aware that they didn't allow blacks anytime in the past -- but am not disputing your comment.

I found it interesting that, according to university history, the fourth black man to be awarded a college degree in the United States received his degree from my Alma Mater, Ohio University. His name was John Newton Templeton.

The following is from a history of O.U.

"So from this association came John Newton Templeton, the first African American in Ohio to earn a college degree. He was born on the plantation in South Carolina owned by Colonel John Means. Means freed Templeton's family in 1813, and they moved to Adams County, Ohio with Colonel Means. With the aid and encouragement of Rev. Robert G. Wilson, president of Ohio University (1824-1839), Templeton enrolled at the University in 1824. It is noteworthy that Ohio University, unlike many institutions of higher education at this time, had no restrictive clauses pertaining to race; any male youth who qualified for acceptance was admitted. While working his way trough college, Templeton maintained a superior academic record and was an especially active member of the Athenian Literary Society.

Ohio University can indeed be proud of John Newton Templeton, the first Black American to receive a college degree in the State of Ohio and in the entire area encompassing the old Northwest Territory. On a national scale, Templeton is the fourth Black college graduate, preceded by Edward A. Jones (Amherst College, 1826), John B. Russwurm (Bowdoin College, 1826), and Edward A. Mitchell (Dartmouth College, 1828). In Ohio, Oberlin College began to admit Afro-Americans in 1835."

The main auditorium on the campus is now named after he, and the first black woman, Martha Jane Hunley Blackburn, to graduate from O.U. -- The Templeton-Blackburn Memorial Auditorium.

When I was in school, it was just Memorial Auditorium -- or Mem Aud.

Athens, home of Ohio University, was a main "stop" on the Underground Railroad. It is campus legend that a sorority house (ZTA, when I was there, I think) is haunted by the ghost of a runaway slave who died there.

I used Wittenberg as it is my alma mater and Ohio State because I attended grad school there. My primary point was that a lot of these schools were not admitting Black students which facilitated the birth of HBCUs.

Taken from http://www.coe.ohio-state.edu/beverl.../pioneers.html

Wittenberg was founded in 1842 by the English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio. It is small, liberal arts university that focuses on preparing the student as a "whole person," emphasizing the student’s intellectual, spiritual, physical, and aesthetic self. Wittenberg’s first Black graduate was a man by the name of Broadwell Chin who graduated in 1879.

Thanks so much for the link -- that is really interesting.

A question...Did Wilburforce University become Central State? I've been away from Ohio for too long to remember.

ETA:

"Central State University's history begins with our parent institution, Wilberforce University, named in honor of the great abolitionist William Wilberforce. Established at Tawawa Springs, Ohio, in 1856, it is affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church and is one of the oldest Black-administered institutions of higher education in the nation."

Wilberforce and Central State are two different HBCUs in Wilberforce, OH.