A 250th anniversary is incomplete without honoring the pioneers who shaped the nation – or the institutions that paved the way.
The founding of the first historically Black college or university (HBCU) in 1836 set a precedent of an education system where opportunity and inclusivity are the standard for all. From the inaugural Cheyney University of Pennsylvania to the University of the District of Columbia (UDC), that vision now scales across more than 100 existing HBCUs nationwide – all driven by a collective promise to uphold a more equitable future.
“In a very specific time in this country, where Black stories are being oppressed, suppressed, and ignored, it’s really important that we invest in ourselves,” actress Lauren E. Banks told The Informer during the 2025 HBCU Film Festival. “I am here to champion institutions that champion our stories. As an alumna [of Howard University], [I’m thankful] to preserve these cultural institutions in D.C. or around the world.”
HBCUs carry a threshold for pivotal changemaking in American history.
In D.C., institutions like Howard University served as an incubator for the minds developing the landmark Brown v. Board of Education. Student activism shone through stories like Priscilla and Patricia Stephens – two students at Florida A&M University who led the unsung jail sit-ins of the Civil Rights Movement – along with the resilient “Greensboro Four” of North Carolina A&T University.
Among a bevy of notable alumni trailblazers include: late faith activists, the Rev. Jesse Jackson (North Carolina A&T University) and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Morehouse College); culture icons, Langston Hughes (Lincoln University), Nikki Giovanni (Fisk University) and Spike Lee (Morehouse College); as well as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (Hampton University) and former Vice President Kamala Harris, both of whom also hold degrees from Howard University.
“People are not aware of the full extent of good work that goes on, on our campuses…not just UDC, but all HBCUs,” UDC President Maurice Edington told The Informer earlier this year. “Every single day, we’re doing good work to change our lives, impact our lives and communities. We have to continue to do a good job at our core mission, and then we have to tell our story.”
Dive into the history of the nation’s historically Black institutions.
From D.C. to Virginia
- Howard University is the No. 1 HBCU in the nation, per the LinkedIn and Forbes’ 2025-26 list, and produces the most Black bachelor’s degree graduates in communications and journalism nationwide.
- Founded in 1851 as the Normal School for Colored Girls, the since-renamed University of the District of Columbia is an exclusively urban public land grant university, and the second-oldest HBCU in the nation.
- Chartered in 1974, the University of the District of Columbia is the only fully accredited public institution of higher education in the nation’s capital.
- Virginia’s Norfolk State University was the only HBCU founded during the Great Depression.
- Virginia State University in Richmond created the first HBCU history course.
- Ranked No. 11 among U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Historically Black Colleges & Universities” in 2026, Bowie State University in Prince George’s County— the oldest HBCU in Maryland— generates 2,524 jobs for its local and regional economies.
HBCU Impact Across the Nation
- Established in 1954, Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania, was the first degree-granting HBCU.
- The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was founded at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1960.
- Morehouse College is the largest men’s college in the U.S.
- Tuskegee University in Alabama was the first HBCU to be registered as a national historic landmark and the only HBCU to be a national historic site.
- Half of Black public school teachers in the U.S. attended an HBCU.
- Ohio’s Wilberforce University was the first Black-owned and operated HBCU, founded in 1856.
- Alabama is home to 14 HBCUs, more than any state in the country.
- HBCUs make up 3% of colleges in the United States, yet produce nearly 20% of all Black college graduates, and 25% of Black STEM degree holders.
