It was 1865, and the Civil War had recently
ended. General Oliver O. Howard, a White Civil War hero, had been made a
commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau, whose mission was to integrate freed
slaves into Southern society and politics. Gen. Howard established a labor
policy that required free slaves to work on former plantation land, under pay scales
fixed by the Bureau, and on terms negotiated by the Bureau with White land
owners. The Bureau was primarily responsible
for the legal affairs of the freed men. Gen. Howard attempted to protect the Negros from
hostile conditions, but lacked adequate power, and was repeatedly frustrated by
President Andrew Johnson, who vetoed many of the Bureau’s plans. Gen. Howard's
allies, the Radical Republicans, won control of Congress in the 1866 elections
and imposed Radical Reconstruction, with the result that freed men were given
the vote.
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General Oliver Howard |
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Political cartoon of Pres. Johnson Vetoing Freedmen's Bureau policies |
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Anti-Freedman's Bureau advertisement |
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Radical Republicans of South Carolina |
In addition to the vote, General Howard believed that Black people should
be educated. He, along with members of the First Congregation Society of
Washington DC, considered establishing a
theological seminary for the education of African-American clergymen. Within a
few weeks, the concept expanded to include a provision for establishing a
University, primarily for African-Americans; but open to all races. In March1867, Howard University’s charter was
enacted by Congress; and was somewhat surprisingly, subsequently approved by
President Andrew Johnson. Charles B. Boynton served as the first President at
Howard, followed by General Howard from 1869 – 1874.
By the time Gen. Howard
assumed the Presidency, the University consisted of the Colleges of Liberal
Arts and Medicine. In the early days,
The Freedmen’s Bureau provided most of the early financial support of the
University. In 1879, Congress approved a special appropriation for the
University; and the charter was amended in 1928 to authorize an annual federal
appropriation for construction, development, improvement and maintenance of the
University.
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Howard University Faculty, 1900 |
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J. Stanley Durkee |
J. Stanley Durkee, Howard's last White President,
was appointed in 1918; and in 1926, when Dr.
Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, Howard’s first Black president, assumed the Presidency,
the University was comprised of eight schools and colleges, none of which held
national accreditation. The institution’s enrollment during this year stood at
1,700; and its budget at $700,000. By the time President Johnson retired 34
years later, the University boasted 10 schools and colleges, all fully accredited;
6,000 students; a budget of $8 million, the addition of 20 new buildings; and a
greatly enlarged faculty that included some of the most prominent Black
scholars of the day, including Dr. Charles Drew, who
pioneered better ways of transfusing and storing blood, as the Department of
Surgery Chair at Howard University College of Medicine.
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Dr. Mordecai Johnson with African-American opera singer, Marian Anderson, and others |
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Dr. Charles Drew (2nd left) with other Howard University Faculty |
Today, Howard University
has many graduate programs as well, including a School of Business, a School of Law, a College of Medicine, a School of
Communications, a College of Engineering, Architecture, and Computer Sciences,
as College of Dentistry and School of Divinity.
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Howard
University has played an important role in American
history and the Civil Rights
Movement on a number of occasions. Alain
Locke, Chair of the Department of Philosophy and
first African-American Rhodes Scholar,
authored The New Negro, which precluded the dawn of the Harlem
Renaissance.
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Alain Locke |
Beginning
in 1942, Howard University students pioneered the "stool-sitting"
technique, which was to play a prominent role in the later Civil Rights Movement. By January, 1943, students had begun to organize regular sit-ins and
pickets at cigar stores and cafeterias around Washington, D.C. which refused to
serve them because of their race. These protests continued until the
administration asked the students to stop in the Fall of 1944. Stokely Carmichael, a student in the
Department of Philosophy and the
Howard University School of Divinity coined the term "Black Power" and worked as a voting rights activist.
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Stokely Carmichael on the cover of EBONY magazine |
In 1960,
Senator John F. Kennedy spoke at Howard during his Presidential campaign,
highlighting the future of African-Americans under his (hopeful) Presidency. In
1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered a speech to the graduating class at Howard, where
he outlined his plans for Civil Rights legislation and endorsed aggressive affirmative
action to combat the effects of years of
segregation of African-Americans from economic progress.
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John F. Kennedy speaking at Howard University |
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Thank you telegram from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to President Lyndon B. Johnson |
In 1989,
Howard gained national attention when students rose up in protest against the
appointment of then-Republican National Committee Chairman, Lee Atwater, as a new member of the University's
Board of Trustees. Student activists staged a protest and occupied the University's
Administration building. Within days, both Atwater and Howard's
President, James E. Cheek, had resigned.
One of
the more recent Howard University Presidents was H. Patrick Swygert, from 1995
to 2008. He was a 1965 Howard
University, and well as a Howard University Law School graduate; and for most
of his tenure, he was extremely popular. However, in April 2007, it seemed time
to inject new life into the University, as it had been suffering administrative
and financial problems. So, President Swygert retired in 2008.
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President Swygert with President Obama |
His successor
was Dr. Sidney A. Ribeau, who remains as the 16th President, today.
He has made some changes; but all for the good, as Howard continues to
thrive.
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Dr. Sidney Ribeau |
Of course, it’s not all about the academics. To name a few extra-curricular activities on
offer, there are several sororities and fraternities, NCAA sports programs, The Howard University "Showtime" Marching
Band and The Hilltop, founded in
1924 by Howard University student and celebrated, Harlem Renaissance author,
Zora Neale Hurston, is the nation's only HBCU
daily newspaper, and still going strong.
The most
recent US News & World Report’s College and University Ranking places
Howard as the #2 HBCU in the country. Between1998
and 2009, Howard University produced a Marshall Scholar, two Rhodes Scholars,
two Truman Scholars, twenty-two Fulbright Scholars and ten Pickering
Fellows. Howard also produces more
on-campus African-American Ph.D. degrees than any other university in the
world.
In
addition to aforementioned alumni, Howard boasts a very long list of esteemed
alumni – so long, that I have only chosen a few to name: choreographer, actress and
singer, Debbie Allen; the
first Nigerian President, Nnamdi Azikiwe; attorney, Vernon
Jordan; Dr. LaSalle LeFall, the first Black President
of the American Cancer Society; Thurgood Marshall, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice; Nobel Prize and Pulitzer
Prize-winning author, Toni Morrison; and American
actress and singer, Phylicia Rashad.
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Nigerian President, Nnamdi Azikiwe |
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Toni Morrison |
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Phylicia Rashad |
There is
always something happening on Howard’s beautiful 254-acre campus (click here to
see a 3-minute tour).
Rest
assured that its graduates will continue to make a huge impact in Washington
DC, across the country and across the globe.
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Howard University graduation, 2012 |
Sources: US News & World Report, Wikipedia, Howard
University, Google Images
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