To study at Howard
University is choosing an institution that is
experienced, dynamic, and diverse -- with a tradition of
quality education since 1867 provided by the constant
engagement of its faculty toward the students and their
needs, and by its rich campus social and cultural life.
With such a diverse student body, it comes as little
surprise that life thrives on the Howard University
Campus. Whatever your particular interest -- culture,
religion, sports, art, music, theater, politics -- you
will be assured of linking up with others who share it.
Coming to Howard is about connecting -- with the life of
the mind, the heart of a tradition, and the soul of a
people. In addition, coming to Howard means connecting
with the future -- with success in your education and
your chosen careers.
HISTORY AND TRADITION
In November 1866, shortly after the end of the Civil
War, members of the First Congregational Society of
Washington considered establishing a theological
seminary for the education of African-American
clergymen. Within a few weeks, the concept expanded to
include a provision for establishing a University.
Within two years, the University consisted of the
colleges of Liberal Arts and Medicine. The new
institution was named for General Oliver O. Howard, a
Civil War hero who was both a founder of the University
and, at the same time, commissioner of the Freedman’s
Bureau.
The University charter as enacted by Congress and
subsequently approved by President Andrew Johnson on
March 2, 1867, designated Howard University as “a
University for the education of youth in the liberal
arts and sciences.” The Freedmen’s Bureau provided most
of the early financial support of the University. In
1879, Congress approved a special appropriation for the
University. The charter was amended in 1928 to authorize
an annual federal appropriation for construction,
development, improvement and maintenance of the
University.
In 1926, when Dr. Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, Howard’s first
black president, assumed the presidency of Howard, the
University was comprised of eight schools and colleges,
none of which held national accreditation. The
institution’s enrollment during this year stood at 1,700
and its budget at $700,000. By the time Johnson retired
34 years later, the University boasted of 10 schools and
colleges, all fully accredited; 6,000 students; a budget
of $8 million, the addition of 20 new buildings
including an expanded physical plant; and a greatly
enlarged faculty that included some of the most
prominent black scholars of the day. Another key
indicator of the University’s enhanced academic status
was the 1955 inauguration of graduate programs that had
the authority to grant the Ph.D degree.
Dr. Johnson’s successor was Dr. James M. Nabrit, Jr. who
was previously Secretary of the University and Dean of
the Law School. A leading constitutional lawyer and
educator, Dr. Nabrit established at Howard in 1938, what
is generally considered the first systematic course in
civil rights in an American law school.
In 1969, Dr. Nabrit was succeeded by Dr. James E. Cheek,
who had previously served as President of Shaw
University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Dr. Cheek retired
in June 1989. He was followed by an Interim President,
Dr. Carlton P. Alexis, a physician/administrator who had
been the University’s Executive Vice President and
before that, its Vice President for Health Affairs.
On December 16, 1989, the Board of Trustees announced
the appointment of Dr. Franklyn G. Jenifer to head the
University. Upon his inauguration, Dr. Jenifer became
the first Howard alumnus to head the University in its
123-year history. Dr. Jenifer served through May 15,
1994, when the Board of Trustees appointed Dr. Joyce A.
Ladner as interim President. Dr. Ladner was the former
Vice President for Academic Affairs and had also served
as a professor in the School of Social Work.
On April 22, 1995, the Howard University Board of
Trustees appointed H. Patrick Swygert to be its 15th
president. Mr. Swygert is also the fifth
African-American to serve as the University’s chief
executive officer. H. Patrick Swygert received his
undergraduate degree in history from Howard in 1965 and
his law degree, cum laude, from the University’s law
school in 1968.
Today, Howard University is one of only 48 U.S. private,
Doctoral/Research-Extensive universities, comprising 12
schools and colleges with 10,500 students enjoying
academic pursuits in more than 120 areas of study
leading to undergraduate, graduate, and professional
degrees. The University continues to attract the
nation’s top students and produces more on-campus
African-American Ph.D.s than any other university in the
world. Since 1998, the University has produced a Rhodes
Scholar, A Truman Scholar, six Fulbright Scholars and
nine Pickering Fellows.
In addition to President H. Patrick Swygert, Howard’s
notable alumni include: the late U.S. Supreme Court
Justice Thurgood Marshall; the first African-American
governor L. Douglas Wilder; Nobel Laureate and Pulitzer
Prize-winning author Toni Morrison; Savage Holdings LLC
CEO and Howard Board of Trustees Chairman Frank Savage;
Emmy Award-winning actress Phylicia Rashad; opera singer
Jessye Norman; actress, producer and director Debbie
Allen; the first African-American president of the
American College of Surgeons, Dr. LaSalle Leffall, Jr.;
attorney, civil rights leader and Wall St. executive
Vernon Jordan; former mayor and United Nations
Ambassador Andrew Young; and the first female mayor of
Atlanta, Shirley Franklin. A list of Howard
distinguished faculty members through the years reads
like a “Who’s Who in Black America.” Among them: Ralph
J. Bunche, Political Science; Charles R. Drew, Medicine;
E. Franklin Frazier, Sociology; Alain J. Locke,
Literature; Carter G. Woodson, History; and Lois Mailou
Jones, Art.
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