IDKMYDE: 1st and Last HBCUs - podcast episode cover

IDKMYDE: 1st and Last HBCUs

Feb 27, 20254 minSeason 4Ep. 27
--:--
--:--
Listen in podcast apps:

Episode description

Today’s episode of IDKMYDE takes you on a journey from Cheyney University, the first HBCU born in 1837 to help Black folks get an education, to American Baptist College, the newest HBCU, stepping up in the ’90s to continue the legacy. It’s a whirlwind tour of how Black education evolved from fighting for access to making sure every future leader gets a seat at the table.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FM

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Speaker 1

On today's episode of I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either. I have a question, what was the first HBCU. I didn't know.

Speaker 2

Maybe you didn't. No, I didn't know.

Speaker 1

Maybe I did. No, I didn't know.

Speaker 2

Maybe you didn't.

Speaker 1

No, I didn't know.

Speaker 2

I didn't know. I didn't know.

Speaker 1

If you said Cheney University in eighteen thirty seven, of course you're correct. It was the Institute for Colored Youth, the absolute first institution in the United States to provide higher education specifically for African Americans her perspective. The University of North Carolina that yat Will Hill was founded in seventeen eighty nine, almost fifty years and although they didn't start enrolling students until seventeen ninety five, forty two years, is a mighty large head start.

Speaker 2

See.

Speaker 1

Cheney was founded by a Quaker, a white man, Richard Humphreys, because he had the bread to do so, which is why Wilberforce is very significant now, although it was founded nineteen years after Cheney in eighteen fifty six.

Speaker 2

Here's something that I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either.

Speaker 1

Wilberforce University is in Wilberforest, Ohio, a town of about twenty four hundred folks.

Speaker 2

Area code there is four five three eight.

Speaker 1

Four, and it was named after a white Englishman named William Wilberforce, who was a notable leader of the movement to abolished slavery over there in Britain. However, even though Wilberforce was named after a white man, what makes Wilberforce special is it was the first HBCU owned and operated by black folks. The African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Speaker 2

AMEME to be exact.

Speaker 1

So Shangey was founded earlier and began as a vocational and teacher training institute, whereas Wilberforce was the first HBCU controlled by black folks with an emphasis on liberal arts education. Both were very pivotal to the history of HBCUs. Now, when you ask what's the last HBCU built, if you said American Baptist College, you'd be correct. Here's something else

that I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either. It was founded in nineteen twenty four as American Baptist Theological Seminary, and it wasn't recognized as an HBCU by the US Department of.

Speaker 2

Education until twenty thirteen.

Speaker 1

ABC is known as Holy Hell and was founded by an unprecedented collaboration between the all black National Baptist Convention USA and the all white Southern Baptist Convention. The goal was to educate rural black clergy for leadership in their communities.

Speaker 2

See ABC was pommited in the sixties. You'reing the civil rights movement.

Speaker 1

Stop See look, black boys wasn't growing up trying to go to Yale or Stanford or No.

Speaker 2

Look, black boys wanted to go to ABC and learn how to preach.

Speaker 1

How yes t They wanted to be like doctor King Shabauta. And ABC got some very notable along too, for nol Lafayette, who was Dan. You're the founder of the civil rights movement, Congressman John Lewis active as ct Vivian and.

Speaker 2

Civil rights leader James Belvil.

Speaker 1

But when I asked you what was the last HBCU built, you might have said UVI And that.

Speaker 2

Would have been correct too, because it was.

Speaker 1

Founded in nineteen sixty two, the University of the Virgin Islands.

Speaker 2

I see it serves a.

Speaker 1

Dual role of a land grant university and an HBCU over in the Virgin Islands. Now, whereas all LGUs land grant universities and HBCUs are both types.

Speaker 2

Of land grant universities.

Speaker 1

HBCUs are extremely underfunded compared to PWILGUS. But that's a whole other conversation for a whole other episode.

Speaker 2

This was just a little something that I didn't know.

Speaker 1

Maybe you didn't either, about Cheney wilwerd Force, ABC and UVI I didn't know. Listen up, man, if you love this series, you can now listen to us every single week starting in March for all types of things that I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either. Make sure you're following the show on the I Heart app so that you can hear more.

Speaker 2

Okay, Bye,

Transcript source: Provided by creator in RSS feed: download file