The First Students at Howard University WERE WHITE!

There are over 100 historically black colleges and universities in the United States.

According to the Higher Education Act of 1965, an HBCU is defined as an institution established and accredited before 1964, whose principal mission was to educate black Americans.

HBCUs were established in response to the increase in the number of escaped slaves, who were considered a contraband of war during the Civil War if they managed to reach union lines, followed by the eventual passing of The Emancipation Proclamation. Public universities in the South were not integrated at the time.

These schools are rich in history. For example, many of the colleges and universities are known to have been at the forefront of civil rights activism. But, there are a few little nuggets of history that are not as well known (like most of them are named after white men, with a few exceptions).

We pulled a few of the most interesting little known facts about HBCU’s in the list below:

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  This is the founder of Howard University
  Image may be NSFW.
  Clik here to view.Associated Press
  General Oliver O. Howard, a noted Civil War hero, is the founder of the universityand was at the time the president of the “Freedman’s Bureau.” He along with the First Congregational Society banded together to create an institution to teach theology to African-American clergymen and it expanded into Liberal Arts and Medicine.Although the intent was to “uplift African-Americans, especially those recently freed from slavery” the school was open to all races and both sexes. On May 1st, 1867, Howard University opened with five white female students, daughters of two of the founders.

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