February Seventeen...

Meharry Medical College - Instagram

Topics: African Americans, Civil Rights, Education, Human Rights, Women's Rights

Livingstone College

Livingstone College is a private, historically black Christian college in Salisbury, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Livingstone College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Fine Arts, and Bachelor of Social Work degrees.

Livingstone College along with Hood Theological Seminary began as Zion Wesley Institute in Concord, North Carolina in 1879. After fundraising by Dr. Joseph C. Price and Bishop J. W. Hood, the school was closed in Concord and re-opened in 1882 a few miles north in Salisbury.

Zion Wesley Institute was founded by the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Zion Church. The institute changed its name to Livingstone College in 1887 to honor African missionary David Livingstone. That same year, the school granted its first degree. The first group of students to graduate included eight men and two women, the first black women to earn bachelor's degrees in North Carolina. Source: Wikipedia

University of Maryland Eastern Shore

The University of Maryland Eastern Shore opened its doors Sept. 13, 1886, when it was known initially as the Delaware Conference Academy under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Greeting the nine students who showed up that Monday were two educators, Benjamin O. Bird and his wife, Portia Lovett Bird.

Records indicate by the following spring some three dozen students, likely from farming families in the surrounding area, were enrolled.

The prep school-style institution was founded as a branch of Baltimore’s Centenary Bible Institute, which in 1890 became known as Morgan College – the same year federal legislation passed to support historically black institutions that offered instruction in agriculture and related fields.

With the adoption of the 2nd Morrill Act, the “Industrial Branch” of Morgan in rural Somerset County started receiving funding through the state of Maryland – and eventually was rechristened Princess Anne Academy.

This federal source of money also created a relationship with the Maryland Agricultural College, now the University of Maryland, College Park, although the campus in Princess Anne remained a part of Morgan College – at the time a private institution.

The joint-management arrangement enabled the state to continue offering a land-grant education to white students attending College Park while offering African-Americans that type of instruction at what was referred to in some documents as the Eastern Shore Branch of the Maryland Agricultural College.

Meharry Medical College

Meharry Medical College was founded in 1876 by Samuel Meharry and his four brothers in response to an Act of Kindness he had received on a Kentucky road one rainy night—a chance meeting now known as The Salt Wagon Story. In 1886, Dr. George Whipple Hubbard founded a department that would “provide the Colored people of the South with an opportunity for thoroughly preparing themselves for the practice of dentistry,” and Meharry’s dental program opened its doors to nine students, three of whom were physicians. The School of Graduate Studies and Research at Meharry Medical College began in 1938 as a series of short courses in the basic and clinical sciences; in 1947, a Master of Science Degree program was implemented as the first graduate degree, a Ph.D. program was established in 1972, and an M.D./Ph.D. program in 1982.

Today, Meharry receives over 5,000 applications for admission to the M.D., D.D.S., M.S.P.H., and Ph.D. programs, providing opportunities for people of color, individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, and others, regardless of race or ethnicity, to receive excellent education and training in the health sciences and conduct research that fosters the elimination of health disparities.

Miles College

Miles College, founded in 1898, is a premier liberal arts institution located in metropolitan Birmingham within the corporate limits of the City of Fairfield. The noble founders of the institution saw educated leadership as the paramount need in the black community. Miles, which is fully accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and accredited by Commission on Colleges for the awarding of Baccalaureate Degrees, is the only four-year institution in historic Birmingham, Alabama designated as a member of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). Miles College is a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) higher learning institution. The College is one of only 39 HBCUs to have the designation of a United Negro College Fund (UNCF) institution.

Miles College has as its brand civic engagement and activism. As a matter of fact, during the planning stages of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), when members were deciding what test city to implement the Civil Rights Movement, it was proposed to go to Birmingham, Alabama because the students at Miles College were already engaging in civic protests and boycotts against segregated public facilities. In essence, the Civil Rights Movement, in-part came to Birmingham Alabama, because of the activism of students at Miles College, helping to make Birmingham, Alabama the Civil Rights Capital of the world.

The College offers baccalaureate programs with majors such as Accounting, Biology, Business Administration, Chemistry, Communications, Computer and Information Sciences, History, Language Arts, Criminal Justice, Early Childhood/Elementary Education, English, Mathematics, Political Science and Social Work. In sum, Miles offers 28 Bachelor Degree programs in six academic divisions to an enrollment of approximately 1,700 students.