which historically black college and university is the oldest in the nation?

Answer 1

Oldest HBCUs
(4-year public and private)
1837 Cheyney University of Pennsylvania (Cheyney, PA)
1854 Lincoln University of Pennsylvania (Lincoln University, PA)
1856 Wilberforce University (Wilberforce, OH)
1857 Harris-Stowe State College (St. Louis, MO)
1862 LeMoyne-Owen College (Memphis, TN)

The history of Black colleges and universities dates back to 1837 when Richard Humphreys, a Quaker philanthropist from Philadelphia, started the Institute for Colored Youth to counter the prevailing practice of limiting or prohibiting the education of Blacks. Today that school is known as Cheyney University. Although the institute started out as a high school, it began offering its first degrees in the 1930's.

Other major HBCU related founding dates:

1854 - Ashmun Institute in Lincoln, Pennsylvania, an all-male college and the first institution in the world to provide higher education in the arts and sciences for Blacks (now called Lincoln University)

1856 - Wilberforce University in Ohio, affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, became the first co-educational college for Blacks

1867 - North Carolina's Barber-Scotia College in Concord, Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, and St. Augustine's College in Raleigh were all founded

1867 - MeHarry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, has trained more than one-third of the Black physicians and dentists practicing in the U.S. today

1887 - Spelman College in Atlanta, is the nation's oldest liberal arts college for Black women

1881 - Tuskegee University was founded by Booker T. Washington in Tuskegee, Alabama


Howard University is a historically black university in Washington, D.C. Howard was established in 1867 by congressional order and named after Oliver O. Howard. Notable alumni include Toni Morrison, Thurgood Marshall, Ossie Davis, Debbie Allen, Claude Brown and Phylicia Rashad.

Answer 2

Brown University is probably on that list.

Answer 3

Texas Southern.... cant get blacker than that