Black History: Special Delivery!!

Lincoln University
Lincoln University

Lincoln University is the first degree awarding historically black college and university in the United States. Located in Pennsylvania, it was founded in 1854, by John Miller Dickey and his wife Sarah Emlen Cresson. It was originally founded as Ashmun Institute; named after religious leader and social reformer, Jehudi Ashmun to provide education to young men of African descent. It is

John Dickey served as the first president of the university. The name was changed from Ashmun Institute to Lincoln University in 1866 after the assassination of President Lincoln. Lincoln University’s first African American president, Dr. Horace Mann Bond was appointed in 1945. The university began accepting female students in 1952. It is affiliated with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and is considered a state run coeducational accredited university. Famous alumni include poet, Langston Hughes, Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall, and microbiologist Hildrus A. Poindexter know for his work and research of tropical diseases. Nigeria’s first president, Nnamdi Aikiwe and the first Prime Minister of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah are also graduates.

In 1946, Nobel Prize winning physicist, Albert Einstein visited Lincoln University and gave a speech in which he called racism, “a disease of white people” and further added that he, “did not intend to be quiet about it”. Einstein was given an honorary degree by the University. Lincoln University current has about 2,000 students.

Albert Einstein lecturing on the theory of relativity at Lincoln University in 1946
Albert Einstein lecturing on the theory of relativity at Lincoln University in 1946

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