Howard University is a university located in Washington, D.C., USA. A historically black university, Howard was established in 1867 by
congressional order and named for Oliver O. Howard. Howard University is the number one
producer of African American Ph.D.s in the United States.[1]
Background
Howard was established by a charter in 1867, and much of its early funding came from endowment, private benefaction, and
tuition. An annual congressional appropriation administered by the Secretary of the Interior funded the school.[2] Today, it is a
member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund[3] and is partially
funded by the US Government, which gives approximately $235 million annually.[4] The college was named
after General Oliver O. Howard who was commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau and the college's third president.[5] From its
outset, it was nonsectarian and open to people of both sexes and all races.[6] Howard has graduate schools of
law, medicine, dentistry and divinity, in addition to the undergraduate program. The current enrollment (as of 2003) is approximately 11,000, including 7,000 undergraduates. The university's football homecoming activities
serve as one of the premier annual events in Washington.[7]
History
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 helped to usher in the Harlem Renaissance.[8] Ralph Bunche, the first Nobel Peace Prize winner of African
descent, served as chair of the Department of Political Science.[9]
Stokely Carmichael, also known as Kwame
Toure, a student in the Department of Philosophy coined the term Black Power and worked in Lowndes County, Alabama as a voting rights activist.[10] Historian
Rayford Logan served as chair of the Department of History.[11] E. Franklin Frazier served as chair of
the Department of Sociology.[12]
Sterling Allen Brown served as chair of the Department of English.
Main Hall and Miner Hall in 1868. Miner Hall is located to the right.
After being refused admission to the then-white-only University of
Maryland School of Law, a young Lincoln University graduate
Thurgood Marshall enrolled at Howard University School of Law instead. There he studied under Charles Hamilton Houston, a Harvard Law School
graduate and leading civil rights lawyer who at the time was the dean of Howard's law school. Houston took Marshall under his
wing, and the two forged a friendship that would last for the remainder of Houston's life. Howard University was the site where
Marshall and his team of legal scholars from around the nation prepared to argue the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case.[13]
Howard was the site of the organization of the first black Greek letter organization among black colleges when it approved the charter of Alpha Phi Alpha's second chapter in 1907. Howard was also the site for the founding of the Alpha
(first) chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma
Theta, Omega Psi Phi, Phi Beta Sigma and
Zeta Phi Beta.[14]
Major improvements, additions, and changes occurred at the school in the aftermath of World War
I. New buildings were built under the direction of architect Albert Cassell.
[15] In 1918, all the secondary schools of the
university were abolished and the whole plan of undergraduate work changed. The four-year college course was divided into two
periods of two years each, the Junior College, and the Senior Schools. The semester system was abolished in 1919 and the quarter system substituted. Twenty-three new members were added to the faculty between the
reorganization of 1918 and 1923. A dining hall building with class
rooms for the department of home economics was built in 1921 at a cost of $301,000. A
greenhouse was erected in 1919. Howard Hall was
renovated and made a dormitory for girls; many improvements were made on campus; J. Stanley Durkee, Howard's last white
president, was appointed in 1918. [16]
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered a speech to the graduating class at Howard, where he outlined his plans
for civil rights legislation.[17]
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 disrupted Howard's 122nd anniversary celebrations, and
eventually occupied the university's Administration building.[18] Within
days, both Atwater and Howard's President, James E. Cheek, resigned. The Board of Trustees accepted many of the students' other
demands, including promised improvements to campus housing and academic credit for community work .[19]
In April 2007 the head of the faculty senate called for the ouster of Howard University President H. Patrick Swygert, saying that the school is in a state of crisis and it was time to end “an
intolerable condition of incompetence and dysfunction at the highest level.” This came on the heels of several criticisms of
Howard University and its management. A National Science Foundation audit
condemned Howard’s management of several federal research grants.[20] The Division of Nursing faced losing its accreditation and being placed on probation for a second time because
of the program's deficiencies.[21] In addition, the residency programs at Howard University Hospital received a
much-publicized unfavorable assessment by the Accrediting Council of Graduate Medical Education
(ACGME).[22] Swygert announced in May 2007 he will retire from Howard in June 2008. [23]
In 2007, media mogul Oprah Winfrey was conferred the honorary doctorate of Humanities
at the university's 139th commencement. She gave a highly publicized oration before a crowd of over 27,000 people, one of the
most heavily attended in academic history. [24]
Schools and colleges
- College of Arts and Sciences [25]
- School of Business [26]
- John H. Johnson School of Communications [27]
- College of Dentistry [28]
- School of Divinity [29]
- School of Education [30]
- College of Engineering, Architecture & Computer Sciences [31]
- Howard University Graduate School [32]
- School of Law [33]
- College of Medicine [34]
- College of Pharmacy, Nursing & Allied Health Sciences [35]
- School of Social Work [36]
- (MS)2 Middle School of Mathematics and Science [37]
Research Centers
Moorland-Spingarn Research Center
-
The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (MSRC) is recognized as one of the world's largest and most comprehensive repositories
for the documentation of the history and culture of people of African descent in Africa, the
Americas, and other parts of the world. As one of the university's major research facilities,
the MSRC collects, preserves, and makes available for research a wide range of
resources chronicling the Black experience.[38]
Presidents of Howard University
Alumni
Howard University has conferred over 99,318 degrees and certificates in its 140-year history. Noteworthy alumni include
Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, actor Ossie
Davis, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Claude Brown, Stokeley Carmichael, Roberta Flack, Shaka Hislop, Phylicia Rashad, Richard Smallwood. and many other educators,
politicians, United States ambassadors, writers,
prominent international figures, and corporate executives. The 1990s R&B group Shai was
formed on the campus of Howard University. Their hit song "If I Ever Fall In Love" was recorded there as well. The
Hollywood Reporter reported that when Howard alumna Debbie Allen became the producer-director of the popular television series A Different World, she "drew from her college experiences in an effort to accurately
reflect in the show the social and political life on black campuses.
-
Greek organizations originated at Howard University
A number of Greek organizations were founded at Howard University, including:
Howard University is also host to other Greek letter fraternal organizations, including Iota
Phi Theta, Phi Mu Alpha, Sigma Alpha
Iota, Delta Sigma Pi, Phi Sigma Pi,
Alpha Phi Omega, Gamma Sigma Sigma,
Kappa Kappa Psi, and Tau Beta Sigma.
See also
Footnotes
External links
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