The following are short descriptions of the major institutions which have contributed to the shaping of African American history. These encyclopedia entries serve as a starting point for much more inclusive descriptions and discussions that appear in other sources. For additional information please consult the print or website sources cited in the entry.
In the following article by Alton Hornsby, Jr., the Fuller E. Callaway Professor of History at Morehouse College and former editor of the Journal of Negro History, briefly describes the founding of Atlanta University, Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University), Morehouse College, Spelman College, Morris … Read MoreHistorically Black Colleges and Universities of Atlanta
In 1902, Charlotte Brown Hawkins opened an institute for African American teenagers in North Carolina. She established the institute in a converted blacksmith shop and named it for her mentor, Alice Freeman Palmer. Hawkins credited Palmer, the first woman president of Wellesley College, with much … Read MorePalmer Memorial Institute (1902-1971)
Berea College, located in east central Kentucky at the base of the Cumberland Mountains, was founded in 1855 by abolitionist John G. Fee. Berea was one of the first fully integrated colleges in the South, enrolling an essentially equal number of blacks and whites from … Read MoreBerea College
Hampton University, located on the shore of Chesapeake Bay in Hampton, Virginia, was founded in 1868 by Samuel Chapman Armstrong, the son of a prominent missionary family that settled in Hawaii in the early 1800s. Armstrong was enrolled at Williams College in Massachusetts when the … Read MoreHampton University (1868- )
Tullahassee Manual Labor School was a boarding school for Creek freedmen funded by the Creek Nation in the Indian Territory. The Tullahassee school was originally founded in 1850 as the first of three boarding schools for the education of Creek children by the Creek Nation. … Read MoreTullahassee Manual Labor School (1850-1924)
Home to the largest African American congregation in the state of Washington, Mount Zion Baptist Church was organized in Seattle on February 18, 1894. Led by Reverend Hesekiah C. Rice, eight founding members initially met in a rented hall on the campus of the University of … Read MoreMount Zion Baptist Church, Seattle, Washington (1890- )
Established in 1886 when Washington was still a territory, the First African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Seattle, Washington is the state’s oldest black church. Initially, members began by meeting in each other’s homes. These meetings eventually led to the opening of a home based … Read MoreFirst African Methodist Episcopal Church, Seattle, Washington (1886- )
Early in 1890, in Spokane, Washington, a small group of African American citizens gathered “to consider the propriety of organizing a church.” The name Calvary Baptist Church was adopted, and thus was founded the city’s first historically black church. Its founding transcended race and gender, … Read MoreCalvary Baptist Church, Spokane, Washington (1890- )
Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, the first African American Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, was organized in January 1866 by formerly enslaved people. These individuals were assisted by white missionaries from the First Baptist Church and the German Baptist Church. Antioch’s members worshiped at the two … Read MoreAntioch Missionary Baptist Church, Houston, Texas (1866- )
The first black Baptist congregation in South Carolina was formed in 1773 on the Galphin Plantation near Silver Bluff, 14 miles northwest of Savannah, Georgia. The church was founded jointly by Rev. Wait Palmer, a white Connecticut minister, and African American pastor, George Liele. The … Read MoreSilver Bluff Baptist Church, Silver Bluff, South Carolina (1773- )
